So I thought I’d try and explain how I adapted the Wrap Skirt pattern by Ellie and Mac (https://www.ellieandmac.com/collections/juniors-womens-patterns/products/womens-wrap-skirt-pattern) to become a dress. Hopefully you will understand my instructions.
When I ordered this stunning fabric a Double Brushed Poly from Lush Fabrics Australia (https://lushfabrics.com.au/ ) I had planned on making a wrap skirt but when it arrived I just knew it had to be a dress.
My first step was finding a bodice to use. I really couldn’t go past my all time favourite pattern The Miss Ruby Tuesday dress by 1 Puddle Lane. I chose the cross over bodice (http://www.1puddlelane.com.au/product/miss-ruby-tuesday-add-on-pattern-bodices/) as it would make the dress look like it’s a wrap when in fact it’s not. When you’re working with children it’s not a good idea to wear wrap skirts or dresses!! So a Faux wrap dress is the perfect alternative.
Now it was time to cut out my skirt pieces. As I was planning on sewing the skirt to the bodice I had to narrow the tops of the skirt pieces otherwise the skirt would be too large to fit the bodice. But I also didn’t want to reduce any of the length in the skirt.
Many times I’ve added a Pattern Emporium Starlight Hilo skirt (https://patternemporium.com/collections/ladies-patterns/products/pdf-pattern-ladies-starlight-hilo-knit-skirt ) to a MRT bodice and I know from experience if I overlap the pattern pieces to get the right shape and size for the top of the skirt, I need to add about 6cms to the top of the skirt pattern. (I hope I haven’t lost you yet)
So I used the same method for this. I’m so sorry I don’t have any measurements that I can share with you, as I tend to just go for it when I’m pattern mashing.
For the back skirt panel I overlapped the MRT skirt pattern with the Ellie and Mac one and made sure the waist of the skirt was the same as the MRT
Overlapping just like this 
The front pieces were a little trickier. For the larger piece I added the same length to the top of the pattern as I had with the back panel (so around 16cm) I knew I needed to make the top narrower so I curved the top following the shape of the pattern.. Hopefully the picture below will explain it better.
As you can see by the following photos.
The smaller of the two front panels didn’t wrap all the way around to the side seam, as it’s covered by the larger panel it doesn’t need to wrap right around. On my second dress I actually sewed the edge of the frill into the waistband as well, so that it sat smoother when worn.
The larger front panel didn’t stop at the side seam but continued to wrap around. I quite like this look and for the next dress I actually made this panel wider so that the frill ended at the side seam as you can see in this picture the frill ends just before the seam.
Now for the easy part:
I made the bodice as per instructions.
Then to make the skirt I sewed the front panels to the back panel as per instructions . At this point I decided it would be a good idea to make sure it actually worked, Thankfully it did!
Next I added the skirt frill. I chose not to add any length to this as I prefer not to add as many gathers as per the pattern and I always have left over length. The length was perfect for this dress.
As the back panel was the right size for the bodice I knew the side seams would line up with the bodice side seams. So now all I had to do was wrap the skirt, pin it and try it on and make sure that the fit was perfect
All I needed to do then was add the bodice to the skirt and my dress would be finished
I have also used this method to make some faux wrap skirts. (I didn’t need to alter the waist for the skirts) Instead of adding the ties I sewed the skirt just like I did above and then I added a waistband to it. You can use your own measurements to work out how to make the waistband, but I knew that the Pattern Emporium Starlight Skirt waistband fitted me perfectly so I used that for my waistband.
Below are two pictures of skirts I’ve also made. The first I used gorgeous bamboo spandex and the second was one I had a little fun with. I patchworked together a heap of scrap fabric and I love the result. If anyone is interested I can write a blog post of how I did this. Just leave a comment below if you’re interested in a scrappy skirt or dress how to blog post.
I think my next project will be to recreate this dress that I found in a google search 