We are LOVING the new Alice and Women’s Alice dress; every tester looked so stunning in the versions they sewed up for us. It was so fun to see their personalities come out in the styling, too.

Alice features:

• separates or dress option
• boatneck or mock turtleneck necklines
• sleeveless, short, half, 3/4, or long sleeves
• flattering 1/4 circle skirt in dress, midi, or maxi lengths

As much as we dig Alice as is, you know we never let you down in the hack department. We have four easy hacks/mashes, PLUS some styling tips to help you get the most use out of your pattern. We can’t wait to see the different versions you sew up, and hope you love Alice as much as we have.

Crop Hack

The Alice makes the cutest crop top! I’ve made two, and paired them with both the Alice separates skirt, and my favorite pair of Bailey Bellbottoms! This is such an easy hack, too. First, you’ll take your Alice bodice and cut it at the line you also use for the dress version.

Choose what neckline and sleeve option you want, and cut all of your pieces. I chose the mock turtleneck and long sleeves for this one.

Construct your top per the tutorial, finishing your neckline, sleeves, and side seams. Now, you are going to press your top’s hem 1/2 inch toward the wrong side.

Topstitch your hem in place and you’re finished!

Now you have the most perfect crop top to pair with all the things! -Stephanie 

Binding Hack

The tank top version of Alice is perfect for Spring and Summer,. It has a great clear elastic finish for the armholes of the tank top, and the boat neck version; but, what if you are out of clear elastic? I use clear elastic quite frequently, and often run out. The good news is, you can still finish off your Alice tank with this quick binding hack! Binding is another very professional finish, and all it requires is fabric to match your top.  I used the same fabric as the main body of the top.

First, measure your armhole or the boat neckline. Do a quick calculation to determine how long you need to cut your binding.  For this tutorial, I am binding just the arms, and not the neckline. I measured the whole armscye; my measurement came to 11.5 inches. Next, calculate 90% of the total armscye measurement; for my version, I used 11.5 X 90% = 10.35, which I rounded up to the nearest .25 at 10.5.  Then,  we need to add 1 inch for our seam allowance, making our total length. 11.5.  Now that we know the length, we will cut 2 strips of fabric (one for each armscye). My strips were cut at 1.5″ x 11.5″. The greatest amount of stretch needs to be running along the length.

Time to prepare our binding! First, we want to press our strip in half wrong sides and long edges together and then fold the raw edges in towards the center crease and press again. With right sides together, sew your short ends together to create a loop.

Now its time to attach our binding. We are going to match the right side of the binding to the wrong side of our top, and clip or pin in place.  Sew right on the fold line that we created earlier.

Once we have sewn all the way around, we are going to fold our raw edge in, to meet the raw edge of our seam allowance. We already pressed along this line earlier, so we are just folding on that line again. Then, fold again, so that the binding covers the hole seam. Clip or pin all the way around. The folded edge should come just over the seam line.

To finish, sew all the way around right at the fold, as close to the edge as you can get.  I use my coverstitch for this step, but you can use your sewing machine as well. Just remember to use a stretch stitch.

For more tips on binding check out our knit binding post found here! Enjoy! – Angela 

Pocket Hack

If you thought that Alice couldn’t get any sweeter, get ready to be delighted! How do pockets sound? Every dress is made exponentially better with pockets! And adding them to this design is so simple!

Start by borrowing the pocket piece from one of several of our other patterns: Cora, Jade, Adeline, Nina, etc 😉 You’ll need to cut four mirror images out of your fabric. Note: Cora is a free pattern, if you don’t have any of our other pocketed patterns. 

Pro tip! If you’re using a fabric with a lot of body or weight, consider cutting your pockets out of a lighter weight material to reduce bulk.

Measure down four inches from the top of each dress panel. This is where you’ll place the top of the pocket.

Stitch each pocket piece to your skirt panels, right sides together, with a 3/8” seam.

Press pockets out.

Optional, but recommended! Understitch the pocket seam allowance to the skirt seam allowance. This will help your pocket to lay nicely.

Place both skirt pieces, with pockets attached, right sides together and pin or clip with raw edges together. I recommend stitching a small line of stitches at each juncture, where indicted on the photo below, to keep your pockets perfectly aligned.

At this point, you can stitch together, per the pattern instructions, and go show off your gorgeous dress… with pockets!! – Rachel 

Ivy + Alice Mash Up

I have fallen in love with the faux separates look with Alice. You can get so many more looks when you pair Alice with Ivy! The easiest way to narrow down all the options, let your opinionated eight-year-old design her own dress.

Her first choice was an Alice boatneck bodice with short sleeves and Ivy dress length skirt. The second choice was an Ivy bodice with cap sleeves and the Alice midi length skirt. I kept the waistband option for each of these since I wanted the separates look. If you prefer more of a traditional dress, you can eliminate the waistband. Keep in mind, the Alice skirt may end up shorter than intended by eliminating the waistband piece. Additionally, the Ivy skirt ended up a little longer with the addition of the waistband.

All you do is follow the instructions for the bodice construction, either Alice or Ivy. Then, follow the Alice instructions for the skirt starting at Step 8. It’s really that simple.

Here’s her Alice bodice and Ivy skirt. It’s so much fun for twirling.

She wore her Ivy/Alice mashup for the rest of the day. That’s got to be a sewing endorsement, right?

-Alexandria

Styling Tips

Our testers had so much fun creating cute and trendy looks with their Alice pieces, especially the Alice separates. Lindsay has some great styling inspiration for you, in all the different skirt lengths! Be sure to let us know what your favorite look is over in our Facebook group, and don’t forget to check out our tester album as well for even MORE inspo.

 

Happy sewing!