Remake a Dress Pattern into a Button-Up Bralette | Style Revive Season 3, Episode 4

---

|Sponsored| Bralettes are an essential summer wardrobe piece, according to all the trend reports—and we love them! It’s hard to find good bralette sewing patterns, so why not remake one of your existing patterns into a bralette? Have a favorite fitting top or dress? Just crop it and add a button-up closure to easily get in and out of your new-look bralette.

Just because the hemline is cropped doesn’t mean the sleeves need to be—trending bralettes have full sleeves, ruffles, buttons and more! There can be a lot of style packed into a small garment, including embroidery!

In this episode of Style Revive, I refashion the Josie Sundress pattern by Christine Haynes to be a button-up, embroidered bralette with flutter sleeves. Watch to get inspired, and never look at your dress patterns the same way again! 

---

If you’d like to watch the whole series on YouTube (and watch Seasons 1 + 2 while you’re at it) subscribe to the Sew Daily Network YouTube channel. We’ll be releasing episodes every Tuesday into the first week of July!

About the Pattern: Josie Sundress

The original pattern is sleeveless, but you can easily draft a fitting circle to stitch onto the armhole that creates the most beautiful and flirty sleeve shape.

Yes, bralettes are back with a vengeance this year, a la 1990, and this season every style goes: fifties pinup, minimalist, embellished, and more. Whatever your aesthetic is, you can make a bralette to suit your wardrobe. As discussed on Episode 58 of Sew & Tell, the new-look bralette trend was one of my favorites. Check out the full trend report here.

Bralette Tutorial

In the video, I got as far as fitting the bralette to my body before finishing and installing the facing and buttonholes. Read on to see the last few steps and see how I complete the most epic bralette I own . . .

Once the neckline shape is confirmed, fuse interfacing to the wrong side of the front and back facing pieces. 

Pin and stitch the shoulder seams of the facing pieces, right sides together. 

Press allowances open. 

Finish the outer edges of the facing with a serger, or use a zig-zag stitch on your regular sewing machine. 

Pin the facing to the bralette’s neckline, right sides together, matching the shoulder seams. 

Make sure to peel back the front bands to stitch the facing just to the bralette. 

Starting at one of the fronts, stitch together, pivoting at the corners. 

Trim allowances and clip into the corners. 

Press facing and understitch on the facing side, 1/8” in from the seam.

Adding the Placket Bands

Now it’s time to finish the front edge with the placket bands.

First flip down the facing and clip into the band where the neckline seam is to mark the placement. 

Fold the top of the band pieces right sides together and pin at marking.  

Stitch starting at the marking to the fold. Clip and flip to the right side. 

At the front, flip the facing up and matching the top of the band to the facing seam. Fold facing back over band and stitch to close seam. 

Repeat for both front edges. 

Clip into the corner and flip to the right side. 

The two front edges will be finished with the bands now! 

Topstitch around the front bands and continue to topstitch the dart intakes.

Finishing the Bralette Hem: Adding Elastic

Also topstitch the hem band attachment seam.

If the band is slightly gaping, elastic can gather it in nicely while also making it comfortable to wear. Wrap a piece of elastic around your underbust to a comfortable circumference and cut with some allowance on either side.  

The hem band can be opened and the elastic threaded through. Alternatively, since the bralette has so much topstitching, the elastic can be stretched and sewn right to the wrong side of the hem band, creating a nice look.  

Half the elastic and pin to center front and center back for an even stretch. 

Stretch the elastic as you sew, stitching on both sides of the elastic. 

Shirring could also be added here instead of one wide piece of elastic.

View from the right side!

Adding Sleeves: Draft-Your-Own Circle Sleeves

Now it’s time for the sleeves. I’ll show you how to draft your own circular sleeves and set them in.

With the bralette laying flat on the table, measure the armhole opening from underarm point to shoulder point. Mine is about 9¼”.  

To do the circle sleeve measurement, first double the armhole measurement to get the entire front and back armhole. 

Divide your entire armhole measurement by 6.28. That is your radius for the circle. Mine equaled 2.9, so I rounded it up to 3”. 

Starting with two perpendicular lines on a piece of paper, draw a circle with your radius amount. 

From the radius, draw a parallel circle to create your desired sleeve length. I used 8”. Also add ½” seam allowance to the inner circle.  

Cut out two sleeve pieces on the fold. 

There is no sleeve seam! Just pin the inner circle to the right side of the bralette armhole. 

Stitch together at the seam line. 

Finish the outer edge of the sleeve and press to the wrong side. 

Press once more to the wrong side. 

Topstitch the sleeve hem. 

Repeat sleeve process for other side.

Finishing the Buttonband

Now it’s ready for the fun part . . . buttons! 

What I love about adding embroidery is the other colorway options it gives for notions like buttons. I was going back and fourth between matching the embroidery or the fabric; of course the green ones won. 

Mark and install about 3 buttons on the band, evenly spaced. If you use smaller buttons, you will need to place more than if you’re using larger ones.  

Since the bottom of the band on the hem has elastic, I stitched on a small square of Velcro and just stitched a button to the right side. You could also install a snap. 

Bralette complete! All that was left to do was hand tack the facings to the shoulder seam allowance and see what I could wear it with in my wardrobe. 

This bralette came out better than I ever could have imagined.  

What I love about bralettes is their ability to pair so well with high-waisted pants. Here I’m wearing it with my green linen Pomona Pants by Anna Allen Clothing. 

The sleeves provide that perfect extra coverage that I love, and all the drape is amazing to contrast the more structured bodice. For a bralette like this, a fabric with drape and two good sides works best. My version is in this lovely purple linen that is deadstock from FABSCRAP. I’m not a huge fan of purple, but I’m a big linen fan; with the addition of embroidery and buttons, it’s perfectly me. 

Make sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel to never miss an episode. This is the last episode of this season of Style Revive, but a new season will be coming sooon!

Happy Sewing! 
Meg

Thank You to our Sponsor:

This series is brought to you by our wonderful sponsor, whose products were used in the creation of Style Revive.

---

More Cute Tops + Dresses for Summer