DIY Designer Inspired Top – Hacking the Essex Dress

After receiving this gorgeous fabric from Minerva I set off to find the perfect pattern. As soon as I saw Catherine (bringing sewing back – Instagram) designer inspired top – I knew I needed one. Here is how I hacked the Essex Dress from Sewing and the City to create the look.

Fabric Details

This gorgeous cotton Broderie Anglaise (affiliate link) in rose pink is perfect for this top. The fabric color in the photos is more vibrant than in person, look at the construction pictures below for a better look at the soft color. It requires a lining if you do not want the fabric to be see-through (like the ruffle sleeve area). I used a soft pink cotton fabric from my stash when lining and I am happy with the result. This fabric is 53 inches wide and I used about 1.5 yards to complete my top. The fabric is an embroidered cotton with a beautiful design. It was easy to sew and work with and pressed really well. You do have to work with the open design and make modifications to the pattern as I will go over below.

Sewing Pattern and Modifications

I chose to use the Essex Dress Pattern from Sewing and the City for my base. It has so many similar features to the designer top. (Ruffled sleeve, v neck front, gathered waist) Making a few modifications to it was easy to do to create the look I wanted. I did have to add a couple additional modifications to account for the embroidered fabric (you can skip these if working with a solid fabric).

1. First, I cut the front bodice out slightly differently. The pattern normally is cut on the fold, which allows the fabric to be folded over itself. This creates a lining…however, I did not want my embroidered fabric to also be the lining. So, instead of cutting on the fold, I added a 1/2 inch seam allowance and cut one piece from cotton lining and a mirrored image in the embroidered cotton. Then sewed them together with a 1/2 inch seam. I then treated the piece just like the pattern calls for, making sure the lining fabric was on the backside during construction. I also used french seams throughout.

2. I used the lining fabric on the back bodice piece to finish the neckline rather than a piece of bias tape trim. I just sewed the back lining to the back bodice with the 5/8 inch seam allowance, turned right side out, and basted all the edges together. Then, I sewed the pattern together using this as my back bodice.

3. The Essex waistband is taller than the one I used. The original has enough room for two pieces of elastic, but because I knew I needed to thread ties, I only wanted one casing. I decided to shorten the waistband to fit my 1.25 inch elastic.

4. While constructing the waistband, I needed to leave an opening on the outside of both side seams to slide the ties through. I simply followed the inner waistband instructions on the pattern for the outer waistband and vice versa. This created a waistband that had an opening on each side seam to put the elastic and ties through.

5. The Essex is a dress pattern. To alter the length, I simply cut the dress piece at 8 inches long instead and omitted the pockets.

6. After sewing together the top and adding the elastic in the casing, I created ties. I used the selvage edge of the fabric so I wasn’t working with the embroidered piece on the ties. I cut off the selvage, folded it in half, and stitched it to create two ties. After turning right side out, I threaded the two ties through the casing, on top of the elastic. I do wish my ties were slightly longer, but it was the amount of uncut selvage I had to work with.

The Finished Look

I absolutely love the way this turned out. The v neck front was a tad too low for me, so I ladder stitched it closed to cover my bra. I plan to size down on my next one, to a size 2. The pattern places me in a 4 bodice, 6 waist and hip and this is a straight size 4. I will be sizing down to a 2 on future bodice pieces because I think it is slightly roomier than I prefer.

Overall, I am very happy with the end result and can’t wait to wear this all summer long.