Turn the Ellie & Mac Jennifer Dolman Tie-Front Top into a Dress - An Easy Little Hack!

Turn the Dolman Tie Top into a Dress – An Easy Little Hack!

Hello my name is Ashley from London and I wanted to share a super simple hack for turning the Dolman Tie Top into a dress, and I love how easy this modification is.

Check out the Jennifer Dolman pattern here:
https://www.ellieandmac.com/products/jennifer-tie-front-dolman-top-sewing-pattern... #AD

To start, I copied the Dolman Tie Top pattern. Then I measured on my body to decide how long I wanted my dress to be. Once I had my desired length, I simply followed the side seam lines from the original top and extended both the front and back pattern pieces by 40 cm.

I didn't add any extra shaping at all, just continued the lines straight down from the original hem and drew in a new hemline. That's it! Such a quick and easy pattern hack.

And here is how my Dolman Tie Dress turned out!

After trying it on, I noticed I had a little extra fabric in the back. To see how it would look with a more fitted shape, I pinned out the excess using two darts. I really liked the result, so I measured how much fabric I'd pinned out and added the darts to my pattern.

My darts ended up being 18 cm long. I marked my waistline, then measured 7 cm above and 11 cm below that point to create the full dart length. Once I marked and stitched the darts, the back had a much more fitted look.

After adding the darts, this is how the dress looks.

You can see that's it's brought the back on and removed the extra fabric.

So now you have two ways to wear your Dolman Tie Dress:

Leave it as is for a relaxed, boxy fit.

Add two back darts for a more fitted silhouette.

I hope you enjoy this simple but effective little hack! If you give it a try, I'd love to see your version of the Dolman Tie Dress. Be sure to share your makes, I can't wait to see them!