Sew a variety of dresses – with a single pattern

I have told the story of when I was a young girl, my mom decided to sew me a variety of dresses with a single pattern.

All the dresses were exactly the same pattern, and the variety was in the different fabrics.

Well, I tried that out this summer for my daughter. I bought one pattern and sewed 4 dresses with that one pattern.

I didn’t have the time to find a bunch of new patterns and test each one and then sew several dresses for real.

I had to keep it simple. I’ll show you what I did.

Variety of dresses-dress one

This is the pattern in it’s original form. From there I changed the pattern a little here and a little there to get a variety of dresses.

There is a midriff, an eleven piece skirt, gathers on the bodice at the neck and at the waist, a little stand up collar and fitted sleeves. One thing I added was belt loops on the midriff so that she could wear a belt with it for something different. The fabric is dark enough and busy enough that it doesn’t matter if she decides not to wear a belt with it.

variety of dresses, Dress two

This was the second dress I did. This time I did a neckband cut on the bias, instead of the collar.

I eliminated the gathers at the waist, and made a front and back skirt instead of all the pieces.

When I ordered this fabric I wasn’t thinking of closures so I did not order a zipper to go with it. But I happened to have just the right buttons for down the back! She needs a bit of help to button and unbutton but is still happy with the dress. 😊

Since this fabric had such a beautiful border, I decided to make that into a ruffle.

Dress three

This dress was really fun! Once again I did the bias neckband. On the sleeves I added a little keyhole with ties. The gathers are back in the waist but the skirt is still plain. All those pieces was just too many seams!

On the midriff I added a couple belt loops and put in a spaghetti belt, attaching it at the zipper seam in the back.

And since my daughter really likes pockets I decided to add a patch pocket! (she was really searching for her lost pocket knife when she wore this dress for the first time 😃)

And the first time this lovely daughter of mine wore this dress, she ripped a big chunk out of the skirt! (sigh) I added the ruffle on the bottom with the extra fabric that was left over. I was so thankful I had bought lots of fabric!

Dress four

Last but not least! This one is out of rayon I think. Not very fun to work with! 🤦‍♀️

Again this one has the bias neckband. Instead of the gathers at the neckline I did pleats. And instead of the gathers at the waist, I did darts. And for something different, a gathered skirt.

It was rather difficult to get the bottom of the skirt straight for some reason. 🤔

And the funny thing was that I thought I needed to sew one more dress so that she would have enough, I counted again and realized this one wouldn’t have needed to be sewn right now! O well. I had already started on it, so I finished.

So there is a selection of dresses using one pattern. Are you ready for a challenge like this? Sew a variety of dresses with a single pattern! It’s quite fun!

What kind of pattern do you use when you are limited on time? Let me know in the comments below!