I made another Patterns for Pirates pattern up a few weeks ago, it's the Sunshine Dress. (Feel free to order yours with my affiliate link, no pressure.) I love the crossover bodice so I decided to do a bunch of alterations to make it work for me. It did not come with sleeves so I had to add those. I bought the Boundless Knit Dress, too, just so I could use the sleeves from it. That was dumb because the armscye was different and the sleeve still required some drafting that I could have done all on my own without the pattern if I hadn't been afraid to cut into my pretty pattern without a TNT sized sleeve pattern. So I really wish they had produced the pattern with a sleeve option - but I had looked around and couldn't find what I wanted elsewhere so I decided to perform a 'mash up' as they say it, to the Sunshine Dress.
I did a 1/2" small bust adjustment and cut out a small up top and graded out to a large in the waist. I also added a modesty panel behind the bodice.
I used a lightweight poly/lycra knit that I bought off a destash FB page a couple months ago. The pattern was not completely on-grain. This drove me a bit crazy as I couldn't decide how to cut the pattern out. The lovely FB ladies in the P4P group said to cut the pattern on-print (and subsequently a little off-grain) so my print would line up pretty (for the most part).
I thought my fabric had 50% stretch, but I might have been stretching it a little bit... ha ha - get it? I'm thinking it probably has 40-45% stretch. I adjusted the seam allowances to about 3/8" so I'd have a little more room to play with and it worked beautifully. I was too lazy to unpick the neckband and attach a longer one because I think it looks fine and only I can tell it's too short. I'm still debating on if I should cut out a larger size for my next dress (Art Gallery Knit) or leave it the same. There is some pulling at the side seams where the gathers attach and it ends up looking a bit stretched there. I may try putting elastic there next time to help with that.
I used the strapless bodice from the Boundless to fashion my own modesty panel. It was way to low for my liking, so I added like 1 1/2" inches to the height. The black jersey I used was an ever-so-stretchy bamboo/rayon/lycra. I took out a bunch of width in the center but it still gapes if I move. :(
I'm satisfied with this dress. The fabric was inexpensive and it was a good experiment. I'm not loving the polyester content yet - today's high was 92 degrees - but I'm sure once fall rolls around I will be wearing it more. One nice plus, is it is super comfy and I've even worn it to bed!