Pattern Hacking a 2444

In case some of you are scratching your heads wondering what on earth the title of this post means, let me give you a clue…  It involves sewing and the Simplicity 2444.  Those of you who do sew, or obsessively use Pinterest, may already know all about the term ‘pattern hack’.  (No offense to any obsessive Pinterest-ers.) It is when you take a sewing pattern and mix it up with elements from other patterns.  This bodice with that skirt, or whatever the case may be.  For me, it was a little bit of this front bodice, with that bodice back, and the original skirt.  Confused yet?  I’ll explain.

Last time I was taking about what I had made, it was the lovely Simplicity 2444.  I had finally taken the scissors to some nice material and went at it.  I was a little disappointed with the gaping neck, but a few darts later, it was wonderful again.  After that make, I knew I needed to do some alterations to the pattern to get the next one to come out neck-dart free.  I bought a tablet of newsprint paper from my local Walmart and set my iphone flashlight up under the glass coffee table.  I was ready to trace, cut, and try again.  But I didn’t really wanna cut here and then have to try and figure out how to make up for it somewhere over there, so what I did instead was get a couple of my favorite patterns with necklines that had already been made, worn, and loved, and traced them – the Monique dress front bodice and the Butterick 5748 back bodice.  I lined them up on top of what I had just traced and made some new necklines.  I did not want to get rid of the S2444‘s front darts, those were my favorite part of the dress, but after researching about how to fix the gaping neck issue, I am happy with how I decided to do it.  Plus, I have recently come to find out that I don’t really like high necklines.

The shoulders of both of these lined up pretty well with the original, which made me happy enough to cut into my fabric and see how it would go.  I did drag my feet for a few days and contemplated making a trial top, but then threw caution to the wind, and here is what I ended up with:

I am very happy with the results.

You might remember when I last made this dress, I told you all how I messed up the skirt pleats and that I should make them correctly on my next attempt, well, not so this time around either.  It was a big fat dumb mistake, really.  I didn’t follow the directions this time, just made it from how I remembered the last time – it is a pretty easy make and that wasn’t the problem –  but the one thing I did differently with this, was to cut each piece out and sew it before cutting the next piece.  I knew I had enough material, 3 whole yards, and I didn’t want to spend the whole evening just cutting out the fabric.  It was a cut, sew, and repeat kind of project.  Okay, so long story short, I was so excited about getting a new bodice out of this that I neglected to read the pattern piece to know which skirt part I had, so I cut and sewed the SKIRT BACK twice.  One of which was now fully pleated and serged onto the front of the dress.  A very big head to desk moment for me!  It looked fine and unpicking the whole front side of the dress was not gonna be worth having the front center pleats touching each other.  I will have to get it right next time, and therefore, there will be a next time.

One other thing that I changed about the dress was the zipper placement.  The Butterick 5748 bodice has a side zipper and I have come to really like side zippers.  Personally, I think it is much easier to make adjustments to the fit since the back seam is always what ends up being too big for me.  I was really happy about this change as well.  It does kind of roll here a little, but only when I am standing weirdly to the side like this.

I think my love for the Simplicity 1803 has now been transferred to the Simplicity 2444.  Especially with this hacked neckline.  I can’t wait to make another!  What do you think?  Although, now that I am getting to see the dress in photos, I am kind of wondering if the print of this fabric was a bit much for the darts.  I hope the slant of them isn’t making the pattern seem somewhat off.

Now to you, have you ever successfully hacked a pattern?  I see posts on Instagram all the time with some wonderful results!  Any favorite pattern hacks?  Let me know.

Extra details:  The fabric is from fabric.com, and the shoes are my recent favorite pair of Doc Martens.  Also, I did end up making this dress with a slightly less full skirt than called for.  I used 2.5 yards of fabric instead of the called for 3 by just leaving out a few inches from the fullness of the skirt.

Linking up with:  Snickerdoodle Sunday, Craftastic Monday, Creative Mondays, Do Tell Tuesday, Tuesday’s With a Twist, Simple Sequins and Passion for Fashion.