I'm not wearing a tent, something will just have to be done about it.

It's my latest refashion. A rather large tent like shift dress transformed into a fitted, waisted dress with contrast detail.

It all began back at my last clothes swap. I spied a shift dress made from lovely fabric. It's a satin baked polyester crepe and has a delightful drape and handle. It was just way way too big. It must have been at least a size 16 possibly bigger, originally from Alexon where most dresses usually start from £80+.

I wanted to change the styling completely and use the contrast cream yoke to make a peter pan collar. the fabric was already interfaced so it was ideal to cut into a collar. I was going to use the remaining yoke fabric to cut bias strips for some detailing, but the pieces left were very small and would have needed lots of piecing together.

I unpicked the dress - the back panels had darts which I unpicked and pressed out. the front princess seams had a serged edge which meant a standard bodice from would not fit. I altered my basic block to make a princess seamed block with the seams ending at the shoulder - in line with the back shoulder darts.

The detail is created by adding a front placket/ pleat - think sorbetto and you're on the right lines. I used some purchased satin bias binding in cream to edge this placket/ pleat and stitched it in place - piping would also work. I used the same bias binding at the bodice/ skirt seam.

I had just enough shell fabric to make a pencil skirt and used Gerties version from her book, making the darts into pleats instead on the skirt front.

There wasn't enough lining to fully line the dress, so I opted to line just the bodice. I slip stitched the lining in place along the waist seam and down the zipper - which i used a lapped version as I couldn't get a concealed zip in the right length.

The dress was finished with 5 small cream buttons on the front placket. I wore this to work on Monday and it felt so comfortable, the satin back of the crepe, really helps the fabric glide on and off. The fit is good, although I think I need to shorten the back of my bodice by about 1- 1.5cm. What do you think?

Cost
Original Dress - Free
Zipper £1.15
Buttons 40p
Bias binding 50p
thread from my stash
Total cost £2.05

Soundtrack - Public Service Broadcasting