[scgoble]

I was browsing the interwebs today for fall/winter wardrobe ideas and came across this little number at Gap:

http://www.gap.com/browse/product.do?cid=67004&vid=1&pid=292704002

When altering a pattern to make a drop waist, such as with the Jump Rope Dress, would you literally just ‘drop’ the waistline with a longer bodice?

[Liesl Gibson]

I think you could! My only concern might be that, if you’re dropping the waist by very much, it might be a bit narrow near the hips and might restrict movement. Check the pattern beforehand to be sure it’s roomy enough. This dress doesn’t have tons of ease, so if you want to drop the waist by more than a couple of inches you could also add ruffles to the bottom of View B.

Ruffles are basically just rectangles, so it would be easy to make your own ruffles. As a general rule of thumb, you’d probably want your ruffles to be at least 1.5 times the width of the bottom edge of the dress, wherever you’re attaching them. That will give you some fullness to the ruffle.

Should be cute! And drop me a note if you’d like to write about it for the blog. I’m always looking for new posts for the customizing series! liesl@lieslandco.com

[with love Heidi]

What about using the top of the juprope bodice for the details and morphing it into the bottom of the croquet bodice for the dropped waist, I thought of this as it looks as though ther might be a little elastic in the dropped waist, or use view B as Liesl suggested and add a little elastic or not.

[Jennifer1568]

It looks similar to the Apple Picking dress.

[scgoble]

Thanks everyone! I like the idea to use View B – maybe I will do that and just shorten the hem a little before adding a ruffle.

[Nicole]

Camille,just size up.

The top sits well even when a bit big.

So,say Turtle wears a 4 make her a 6 or 7 in the bodice,it won’t swamp her.

I made Liddy’s school dresses in the biggest size(8) and she has been wearing them since she was 6 and is still wearing them at 8 and I should think we will get another 2 years from them.