First I made the dress into a sleeveless dress with bubble skirt, and moved the opening to the back. 

Making the closure at the back was easy with this pattern, as it has the centre front line marked on it!! So no guesswork… I just cut the front outer piece on the fold. I added enough for a button placket and some seam allowance to the centre of the back pieces. I then constructed the bodice as I would any bodice for a dress. 

For the bubble skirt effect, I cut the outer dress using the pattern pieces then cut another skirt front and back, from my lining fabric, but made them approximately 1″ shorter at the hem. I then attached the outer skirt and lining to each other at the hem wrong sides facing and attached some elastic to the seam allowance. I kept the pockets because Eloise LOVES pockets. For the top part of the skirt that formed the under arms, I turned the seam allowances under and stitched them together (though an easier way would have been to use bias tape). 

The bolero was very quick to make. I used the sleeve pieces and added a cuff to give a bit more length. The front and back pieces I made by using the bodice pattern and redrafting the shape into a cute cropped bolero shape. 

I was keen to make it largely black and white to coordinate with Eloise’s panda shoes, and Eloise was keen to have pink included so we reached a compromise.

And Voila, a sweet sleeveless bubble dress and cropped bolero

It was quite warm on the day we took the pics so she didn’t wear the bolero for long.