Hi all! I’m Gwen from Crafty Curly Couture. I’m so excited to be here on the G+G blog sharing this hack/mash up with you. Today I’m going to be hacking the Crimson Dress to a non-peplum shirt by mashing it with the Groove Tank. I also made it with just one flounce (the smaller one) instead of two.
I have seen this style in ready to wear stores multiple times and have been itching to recreate it myself. I love how the flounce dresses up an otherwise basic tee! The flounce also feels so elegant to me.
For this hack, I used the Crimson Dress and Groove Tank patterns as mentioned above. You can find those here and here. You will need the same supplies as mentioned in the Crimson Dress tutorial, which is knit fabric with at least 50% stretch and good recovery. I used single brushed poly for mine.
You will need to print the bodices for both the Crimson Dress and Groove Tank. First assemble the bodice pieces from the Crimson and Groove patterns. I only assembled up to the armscye on my Groove Tank pattern because that is the point we will be mashing the patterns at.
Once the pieces are assembled, tape together the back center panel piece and back side panel piece from the Crimson Dress, overlapping the ¼ inch seam allowance. Repeat with front pieces.
Then tape the combined back piece to the back piece of the Groove Tank, lining up the armscye. Repeat with front piece. Note- make sure to trim off a 1/4 inch seam allowance from thelong straight side edge of the Groove Tank’s back piece because the pattern is originally made with a seam down the back.
Draw a line on the combined Groove and Crimson back pattern piece from the bottom of the Crimson piece to the bottom of the Groove piece. This will be your cut line for the princess seams. Separate the back center piece and side panel piece from the Crimson you taped together in the beginning. Cut along the line you drew to create two separate pieces. Repeat with front pattern pieces.
Cut out fabric as directed in Crimson tutorial and assemble as done in Crimson tutorial. When attaching the flounce and assembling the side pieces to the center pieces, make sure to sew all the way from the bottom of the shirt, not just sewing the flounce section. This will create princess seams in your shirt.
The Crimson pattern features a lined bodice, but since we are making a shirt and not a peplum or dress that is not as practical. I added a neckband to mine. To add the neckband, measure around the neck of the back pattern piece. Since the pattern is cut on the fold, double the number you measure. Repeat with front pattern piece, then add the number you got for the back and front pattern pieces together. Multiply this combined front/back number by .85 and that is your neckband length. I used a width of two inches but you can use 1.75 inches if you prefer.
If you don’t know how to sew a neckband, here is how. Sew the short ends of the band together, with fabric right sides together, creating a loop.
Then fold the wrong sides of the neckband together all the way around. Quarter the neckband and neckline of the shirt with pins, then pin the neckband to the shirt matching up the pins right sides together.
Sew around the neckline of the shirt attaching the neckband. You will stretch the neckband slightly but do NOT stretch the shirt. Once you come back around to where you began sewing, your neckband is complete.
Hem the bottom of your shirt with the hem instructions from the Groove Tank.
After hemming, you’re done! I hope you enjoyed this tutorial.
-Gwen
