Reversible Dress

The low down on the dress!

I've had quite a few emails about the reversible dress I made for Maddy earlier in the week, asking for the pattern number. It's a vintage pattern, Butterick 6875.

I've googled it and it's not an easy one to find. It would be fairly easy to copy if you had a pinafore dress pattern already or even a pinafore dress that fits your child that you could draw around to make a pattern. I hope I'm not breaching copyright laws by posting this but the pattern is out of print and must be over 30 years old so I think I will be okay! If you believe otherwise, please do let me know!! Here's a picture of the pattern pieces:

Piece 3 is the back (cut it on the fold). Piece 2 is the front piece. Cut 1 back piece on the fold and 2 front pieces from each of your 2 fabrics. To make your own pattern, I would suggest tracing out the front and back pieces of an existing pinafore pattern. Use the back as is and then adjust the front by drawing a curved line from one shoulder down to the armhole on the opposite side. I haven't tried making a pattern this way myself so I'd recommend trying it out on some cheap fabric first. 

To make the dress up you do the following:

1. Sew the side seams of both dresses. The shoulder piece of each front piece laps over the chest to the opposite shoulder.

2. Do the same with both dresses. Place one dress on top of the other, right sides together and stitch all around the sides, armholes, shoulders and neck edges (everything but the bottom hemline).

3.Clip curves, turn the dress right way out and press. Put button holes at each shoulder. Try the dress on your child and mark where to put the buttonholes and buttons (just above waist level). Make button holes and sew 4 buttons on each side of the dress (2 on either side of each back shoulder and 2 on each side of the dress at the waist level placement).

4. Make a separate hem for each dress and tack the hems together at the seams.

I've used this tutorial from Polkadotbug to turn a normal pinafore dress into a reversible dress before as well. It's a really good one and I would highly recommend it. I didn't do the ribbon ties, I made button holes instead. My one hot tip for these reversible dresses is to use as lightweight fabric as you can manage as otherwise they get really heavy and your child just won't wear it (she says from experience!). Do let me know if you make a reversible dress from these or any other methods. I'd love to see them!