If you're anything like me, making a pattern once is never enough. I am not satisfied until I have tried the pattern in a number of fabrics and attempted a hack. Can you relate?
It's Louise here, the Sales and Communications Manager at Tilly and the Buttons, sharing a Nora dress hack I made recently with added cuffs (fabric bought from Stoff and Stil). I am a serial hacker who just loves working with perfectly constructed simple designs so that I can have some fun putting my own spin on it. I'm not a pattern cutter, so find using my favourite patterns like the Freya pattern from Stretch! and the Stevie tunic make experimenting easy.
When Nora was being developed, I had loads of fun looking for design inspo and dreaming up all the ways this wonderful pattern could be made. As a result I have a wardrobe full of Nora tops (see just a few in this team blog post). I have tried it in sweater knits, viscose jersey, interlock, sweat shirting... but found myself wanting a dress version of this wonderful pattern.
So I got my thinking cap on and considered all the details I really love about Nora. It turned out I wanted to keep pretty much all of the design features! So my Nora dress hack involves mostly adding to the existing pattern, so it is really easy to do.
I started off lengthening the front and back bodices to become a dress, taking my measurement from my shoulders down to the point I wanted my dress to sit. If you have already made Nora, you can measure from the point your top ends to where you want it to finish up. I added about 50cm (19 7/8 in) to the length.
I wanted the dress to have a gently flare. To determine how much, I held a tape measure in a ring shape around my hips, then used that measurement to work out how much I needed to add to the hem of my dress. For me it was 120 cm (47 2/8 inches) in total, so 30 cm (11 7/8 inches) for the back and front pieces (as your pattern is cut on the fold). Don't forget to add your 1.5cm (5/8 in) seam allowance.
I then joined the wider hem up to the side seam notch on the original pattern, which gave the dress a gentle flare.
I wanted to have the option to create a waist rather than have it completely boxy, so I added some belt loops at my natural waist. As these were pretty narrow loops on a relatively thick fabric, I pressed the raw edges into the centre, then folded the folds to the centre and edgestitched them closed.
I bought my fabric and cuffs at the same time (I'm very proud of the match!) when I visited Stoff and Stil in Copenhagen last year, ready for my Nora hack. To insert the cuffs, I shortened the sleeve pattern piece and stretched the cuffs to fit the wide sleeve hem as I stitched. To get the width of my cuffing right, I just tried in on my wrist making sure it was snug enough that if it stretched a little with wear it would still fit nicely.
For the belt, I drafted a long rectangle, sewed that up and turned it out. I finished it with topstitching along both edges so it was nice and clean. Et voila!
I am already planning a summery Nora dress in stripes with ruffle sleeves and a ruffle hem... told you I can't stop making Noras :)
PS. If you liked this, you might also wanna check out Tilly's Nora Cardigan Hack, Nutty About Nora - Team Makes and my post on Inspiration and Fabrics for Making Nora.
