Sunshine Dress Archives - Patterns for Pirates

Sunshine Dress- A Mash made in heaven

July 28, 2016

Some patterns are a mash made in heaven 😉

Here are some of our favorite mashes with the new Sunshine Dress pattern!

Adding sleeves is an easy hack! You will need your Sunshine Dress bodice pieces and a bodice and sleeve from another pattern you like. Here I used the Layer Me Up Shirt, because I thought the tight fit sleeve would look great with this bodice.

You will trace the shoulder and armsyce of the sleeved shirt (Layer Me Up here) onto the bodice of the Sunshine Dress. Aline your shoulders and trace your new armsyce (in yellow).

Cut out the sleeves from the Layer Me Up Pattern in whatever length you’d like and attach in the flat after attaching neckband on Sunshine.

Sew down side seams and along sleeves layering the Sunshine the same as the original tutorial.

Now you just need to finish your sleeves. You can hem or band according to the Layer Me Up tutorial.

Wah-lah… now you can take your Sunshine Dress into the colder seasons easily!

Here is a super simple mash! Nothing but taking the skirt of the Sweetheart Dress and attaching it to the Sunshine bodice! Easy, peasy, lemon squeezey!

Did you see the SUNSHINE dress that just released? The dress not only featured 3 bodices but the skirt is perfect for a mash up with other P4P patterns. In the blog today I’ll show you how I made myself a Boundless dress with a Sunshine skirt.

Start by printing and cutting the Boundless top according to your measurements. Use the waist cut line and not the empire one. If you use the empire cut line your sunshine skirt pockets will be too high on your torso. If you like the sleeveless look be sure to add lining too. For my dress I preferred to add short sleeves and not line the bodice. My dress is 100% cotton lycra (95%/5%) so it’s pretty thick. Plus this 100 degrees weather we’ve been having would not work well with a lined top. Am I right? ☺

For the Sunshine skirt I used the above knee cut chart. The length is very similar to the Boundless knee length so the look would not change. I don’t know about you but I am a big fan of pockets…inseam pockets, outside pockets, welt pockets….you name it…I love it! So when it came time to make the Sunshine skirt the choice was obvious, I cut my pockets with a coordinating fabric so they pop.

Sew your bodice according to the pattern and your choice of style (sleeveless, short sleeve, long sleeve etc). Since I did not line my bodice I just hemmed my neckline with ½ inch fold. Remember the tips I gave you in my last blog? Pin,pin, pin and iron your fabric and you will have a perfectly looking neckline for your unlined bodice.

When making your Sunshine skirt, be sure to follow the instruction in the Sunshine pattern. I like to use the elastic gathering method shown in the Boundless pattern but if you add pockets to the Sunshine skirt then that would not work well. You want to avoid gathering your pockets so just use gathering stitches.

If you did not add pockets to the skirt then the elastic gathering method will work great for this skirt too. Once you gathered the skirt to fit the width of your bodice you can go ahead and attached the two.

Tadah! You now have your very own Boundless/Sunshine dress perfect for year round wear. I hope to many, many Sunshine dresses and Sunshine mash-up dresses in the group (insert link) so be sure to show them off. Sew like a Pirate!

Sunshine Dress- Hacks

July 28, 2016

You know we love to show you how to take your P4P patterns that are filled with options and stretch them even further!

Here are a few easy hacks to the newest P4P pattern the Sunshine Dress!

Hello there! For those who don’t know me, my name is Erinn and I have a confession to share with you… I love dresses! Ok, truth: I love them September through June when I have to wear “real clothes” for my job as a teacher and not live in my comfy summertime clothes! So when the Sunshine Dress came out, the first thing I thought of was, “How can I make this work for a teacher?”. I absolutely love the cross-over bodice, but knew I would need to wear a cami under it for work, which would just mean more laundry (another confession: I hate laundry!). So, I give to you my friends- the modesty panel! It provides you with the extra coverage of a cami, minus the bulk of layering (again, not to mention the extra laundry of one more shirt- isn’t that reason enough to make one?).

What You’ll Need:

Partially finished cross-over bodice (Complete through attaching the neckband)
Pattern piece for Strapless liner (front only)
Coordinating fabric

Creating Modesty Panel

First up, you will need to create your modesty panel. To do this, you will need to make a few quick changes to the strapless liner piece. Cut along the armscye line that would have be used for the halter version. Next, remove 1” from the bottom of the pattern- there is already a lot of layers once the skirt is attached, so this will allow you to reduce some of “extra bulk”- nobody wants that!

Cut out your modesty panel using your new pattern piece as well as the binding for the top of panel. For the binding, you will want to cut a strip that is 2” wide and long enough to go across the top of panel.

Fold binding in half and iron, then attach to the top of the panel- make sure to stretch slightly as you attach. Trim the excess binding to align with your armscye. Press seam down.

Attaching Modesty Panel

You should have your cross-over bodice finished through attaching the neckband. Layer pieces in order according to pattern, then place the modesty panel as the top layer. Pin in place (no one will judge how many you use- that’s a lot of layers to keep in place!). Run a basting stitch down both sides- be careful on armscye, making sure to not baste all three layers together. Check the fit/placement of your panel and once everything looks good, sew your side seams together.

Voila! You have now created your modesty panel. All that’s left to do is attach the armbands and skirt, then enjoy your Sunshine dress… with a little added coverage.

Bodice with No Ruching:

This is a SUPER simple hack! All you need is your Sunshine pattern, no measurements, no guessing and just one quick change! For halter and strapless instead of cutting 1 main fabric bodice (front and back) simply cut out 2 lining pieces front and back.

Assemble exactly the same skipping the ruching steps in the tutorial. Done! For cross over bodice just cut out 2 under/not gathered front pieces, making sure to make them mirror image. Skip ruching steps and assemble normally. 🙂 Was that the easiest hack or what?!?! Now you have 3 more bodice choices with this already option packed pattern!

Making a separate skirt from the Sunshine pattern:

Maxi skirts are all the rage right now and with this simple hack, you can use the Sunshine Dress Skirt portion to create your own. (of course it works great for the other lengths too!)

Cut 1 waistband and 2 skirt panels. Construct the skirt in the same manner as the tutorial. Instead of attaching to a bodice, you will attach to the waistband. To create your waistband, sew short ends together, creating a circle then fold in half with wrong sides together. Find the 1/4 points of both the waistband and skirt and match skirt side seams to the waistband. I like to gather my skirt while it is pinned to the waistband to help ensure even gathers along each of the 1/4 points. Your skirt will be gathered to the same width as the waistband. Stitch with 1/2″ seam allowance. Pull basting threads. All finished!

Sunshine Dress | New Pattern Release!

July 28, 2016

Happy Release Day! After teasing you relentlessly with sneaks of the Sunshine Dress, it’s finally here! (Insert happy pirate dance here.)

Don’t worry, the Patterns for Pirates crew would never leave you short on options. The Sunshine Dress is an endless amount of style options, neatly packaged in one pdf pattern download.

The pattern is drafted for sizes XXS – Plus 3X. There are THREE hem lengths (above knee, below knee, and maxi), THREE bodice types (halter, cross-over tank, and strapless), and optional pockets! On top of all of that, we have also included a PDF layers feature for printing. Want to learn more about how to measure yourself for this pattern? We’ve got you covered with an in-depth blog HERE.

Are you sold on the Sunshine Dress pattern’s versatility yet? Here are some ideas, showing that you can truly make this pattern fit so many different style needs: