Adding an elastic waist to an A line dress

I love to take a basic pattern and figure out how with a few changes I can jazz it up. This little striped dotted dress is the third redesign I've made from a very basic, a line dress pattern that came out of my One Yard Wonders fabric By Fabric book.

I'm sewing along with Project Run & Play this week. The challenge is mixing up stripes and dots. I had some of this quilting cotton lying around which was perfect for this week's challenge. 

Have you ever noticed how few patterns there are for little girls with elastic waistlines? Most patterns have a simple A line shape or are the classic dress with a fitted bodice with attached gathered skirt opening with a zipper or buttons.  I wanted to make a pull on dress with an elastic waist.  Just a simple everyday, comfy dress.

So I adapted a basic A line dress pattern.

I traced it and cut apart the pattern and added seam allowances to the areas I redesigned. Here is how I did it.

I started with a simple A line dress pattern. If you sew for girls you most likely have one of these lying around. It's funny how something that would look so frumpy on most grown ups can look so cute on a little kid. This type of dress is a great jumping off point for creating your own designs since it is really just a blank slate.

You have to trace the original pattern because you will be cutting it up and adding new seam allowances.

A photo above of the dress pattern,The Playday Frock, from One Yard Wonders. 

As you can see it's a simple easy to make dress with an A line shape perfect for beginners.

Here is another version I made from the same pattern. I added a double skirt and an elastic waist on this one.

This was the first version I made. I stuck close to the original pattern but added a ruffle to the front and a little hem band under the front skirt.

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