Sunshine Dress- Hacks

You know we love to show you how to take your P4P patterns that are filled with options and stretch them even further!

Here are a few easy hacks to the newest P4P pattern the Sunshine Dress!

Hello there! For those who don’t know me, my name is Erinn and I have a confession to share with you… I love dresses! Ok, truth: I love them September through June when I have to wear “real clothes” for my job as a teacher and not live in my comfy summertime clothes! So when the Sunshine Dress came out, the first thing I thought of was, “How can I make this work for a teacher?”. I absolutely love the cross-over bodice, but knew I would need to wear a cami under it for work, which would just mean more laundry (another confession: I hate laundry!). So, I give to you my friends- the modesty panel! It provides you with the extra coverage of a cami, minus the bulk of layering (again, not to mention the extra laundry of one more shirt- isn’t that reason enough to make one?).

What You’ll Need:

• Partially finished cross-over bodice (Complete through attaching the neckband)
• Pattern piece for Strapless liner (front only)
• Coordinating fabric

Creating Modesty Panel

First up, you will need to create your modesty panel. To do this, you will need to make a few quick changes to the strapless liner piece. Cut along the armscye line that would have be used for the halter version. Next, remove 1” from the bottom of the pattern- there is already a lot of layers once the skirt is attached, so this will allow you to reduce some of “extra bulk”- nobody wants that!

Cut out your modesty panel using your new pattern piece as well as the binding for the top of panel. For the binding, you will want to cut a strip that is 2” wide and long enough to go across the top of panel.

Fold binding in half and iron, then attach to the top of the panel- make sure to stretch slightly as you attach. Trim the excess binding to align with your armscye.  Press seam down.

Attaching Modesty Panel

You should have your cross-over bodice finished through attaching the neckband. Layer pieces in order according to pattern, then place the modesty panel as the top layer. Pin in place (no one will judge how many you use- that’s a lot of layers to keep in place!). Run a basting stitch down both sides- be careful on armscye, making sure to not baste all three layers together. Check the fit/placement of your panel and once everything looks good, sew your side seams together.

Voila! You have now created your modesty panel. All that’s left to do is attach the armbands and skirt, then enjoy your Sunshine dress… with a little added coverage.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bodice with No Ruching:

 

This is a SUPER simple hack! All you need is your Sunshine pattern, no measurements, no guessing and just one quick change! For halter and strapless instead of cutting 1 main fabric bodice (front and back) simply cut out 2 lining pieces front and back.

Assemble exactly the same skipping the ruching steps in the tutorial. Done! For cross over bodice just cut out 2 under/not gathered front pieces, making sure to make them mirror image. Skip ruching steps and assemble normally. 🙂 Was that the easiest hack or what?!?! Now you have 3 more bodice choices with this already option packed pattern!

 

Making a separate skirt from the Sunshine pattern: 

Maxi skirts are all the rage right now and with this simple hack, you can use the Sunshine Dress Skirt portion to create your own.  (of course it works great for the other lengths too!)

 

 

Cut 1 waistband and 2 skirt panels. Construct the skirt in the same manner as the tutorial.  Instead of attaching to a bodice, you will attach to the waistband.  To create your waistband, sew short ends together, creating a circle then fold in half with wrong sides together.  Find the 1/4 points of both the waistband and skirt and match skirt side seams to the waistband.   I like to gather my skirt while it is pinned to the waistband to help ensure even gathers along each of the 1/4 points.   Your skirt will be gathered to the same width as the waistband.  Stitch with 1/2″ seam allowance.  Pull basting threads.  All finished!