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Hello everyone! Caila from CailaMade here, and I’m so excited to be here today, sharing my flip of the Ethan Shirt pattern by Sis Boom. Ya know, when I originally received this challenge I thought I’d make a cool vest for my older son. I figured shirt dresses might be overdone. Maybe EVERYONE ELSE will make a shirt dress. And then I couldn’t find the right materials for a boy’s vest (I wanted to do leather, so yeah, there’s that) and then my daughter was just so adorable and I couldn’t help myself. So I made a shirt dress. And I love it. Judge not the shirt dress, lest you be judged!

My little Abby-girl is about to go to preschool, and since she looks so preppy in this outfit, you can see why I named it the Preschool Prep dress. Read below for more information on how I flipped the Ethan Shirt pattern (FYI, it’s for a boy’s button up shirt) plus fabric, details, etc.

Here are the major changes I made to the Ethan Shirt pattern to create this dress:

1. Extended the original collar pattern pieces to create and exaggerated collar.
2. Brought in the sides of the shirt front and back (and reduced some of the room in the arm opening) to create this sleeveless bodice. It also tapers in slightly at the waist.
3. Added a sash for the waist (it ties in the back and is not attached to the dress).
4. Added a facing to an opening in the skirt front, so the dress is easy to put on and off. You can’t see it because it overlaps by about 2″, providing total coverage.
5. Added a chiffon skirt.
6. Inserted a polka dot lining skirt for total coverage. It’s about 1.5″ shorter than the outer skirt.

I really, really love how it turned out! And although my daughter didn’t like the green and black at first (she’s a PINK girl at heart) the dress won her over. Success!

I hemmed the skirt in white thread with my serger because I love the way it looks against the black fabric, and how it coordinates with the white and black polka dot collar. It was fun to make up a dress as I went along, adding whatever features I thought would look nice!

Here’s a peak at the polka dot underskirt:

And in case you are wondering why she’s wearing silver, sparkly Puma’s for this photo shoot instead of something fancier, let me tell you that life with 4 year olds is sometimes about compromise. I got to take pictures, she got to wear her new school shoes. Win, win, and everyone is happy.

In the next picture she’s pretending to talk to her best friend Grace on the phone. Oh my, what will life be like 10 years from now?! I can see it already!

A few last detailed photos, and then we’re done:

Thanks so much for reading! I hope you enjoyed my Preschool Prep dress!

Head over to my website for more information about CailaMade, my new dress pattern for sale, and a bunch of sewing tutorials. I’d love to meet you, so pop on over to my Cailamade Inspired Sewing page on Facebook and say hi. We have a really energetic and friendly community going on over there, and I’d love for you to be a part!

Thanks again, Frances and Suzanne for inviting me to participate in Flip This Pattern! I’ve really, really enjoyed it.

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