The Summer Blouse pattern might just be my favorite pattern in your book. I've made two blouses so far, and I knew that I'd want to modify it just a bit more to make a cute little bathing suit cover up. For the fabrics, I picked this great larger-scale print from Anna Maria Horner's Garden Party line, and found a coordinating mustard colored Kona cotton.
I traced the pattern pieces, but extended the length to just above the knee. The finished measurement is 34" from the top of the shoulder - you can adjust this measurement for your desired length. I used the pattern piece for the sleeve, but cut it to 3/4 length, and I also grabbed the pocket pattern piece from the Trapeze dress (follow the dress instructions for attaching the pockets).
I modified the neckline, creating a wider v-neck. After cutting out the front pattern piece, I cut my desired neckline. To create a placket for the v-neck, I flipped the front dress piece face down on top of a blank piece of paper. I traced the neckline, then used a ruler to add about 2" in width along this "v". I used this new pattern piece to cut a piece out of my dress fabric and I followed the Summer Blouse instructions to sew the placket to the v-neck.
The hem on this particular dress was created out of a necessity to make the dress long enough to be acceptable to wear in public (I was a bit shy on fabric!). If you have enough fabric, you could simply hem the dress following the instructions for the blouse.
For my variation of the hem, I cut a 1" strip of the solid yellow fabric long enough to attach to the bottom edge of the dress. I ironed this in half, wrong sides together, then sewed this to the bottom edge of the dress, aligning the raw edges of the fabrics and using a 1/4" seam allowance. Then I cut a 2.5" wide strip of the dress fabric, again long enough to go around the base of the dress. I ironed this in half wrong sides together and then ironed the raw edges in 1/4", resulting in a 1" wide strip. I top stitched this to the yellow fabric, leaving about a 1/4" of the yellow showing as trim.
I love the resulting casual and comfy dress, and I already have a second one in the works - perhaps with short sleeves this time!
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