Day to night drape dress.

Isn't it great to discover sewing patterns that are very multi-use.  Such a pattern for me is the Day-to-night drape top by Maria Denmark.  It is such a quick and easy make and has been a very good style for me.  It is basically a cowl neck top which I first made as a long sleeve top in a light weight cream jersey.

The sleeve pattern piece from the Birgitte pattern fits the day-to-night top perfectly, which is great.

My recent addition has been to use the day-to-night top as a dress, simply by lengthening the pattern pieces.  The pattern calls for fold-over elastic which I got from Kleins.  They have 10 colours and it is so useful and easy to work with. I used the beige for the top which almost had a gold sheen to it and the fuchsia for the dress which is a great deep pink.

Here's a closer look at the elastic stitched at the armhole.  As you can see, I just used a zig-zag stitch on my machine, which worked fine.  The elastic is stitched around the armholes and around the back neckline.

So for the dress version I used this stretch jersey from +Minerva crafts which is a lovely mix of navy, black, jade green and pink.  It is perhaps a little bit light weight, but luckily the weather is exceptionally mild at the minute, so I can get away with it.

So I just thought I would show you how versatile this dress is.  Here it is with a fine long-sleeved top underneath, worn with my flat boots.

Then worn just as it is, feeling christmasy, all ready for christmas parties with higher heels.

So there it is, overall a very versatile pattern, one that I will definitely be returning to again and again, like a lot of Maria Denmark patterns.  Think I would use a slightly heavier jersey or even a knit fabric the next time.