Make Last Year's Dress Into This Year's Blouse
When my daughter was in grade school, I couldn't afford new school clothes every year, so I purchased an A-line (no waistline) dress pattern with the option of cap or long sleeves and three neckline options. The body consisted of a front and two back pieces and it was an easy to sew pattern with a zipper down the back. Back then material was four yards for a dollar, so I'd buy lots of different two yard lengths of material and made several dresses with various necklines and sleeves.
The following year, the top of the dresses would still fit her, but the dresses would be too short, so I cut off the hems and made new hems. Those dresses made perfect blouses. Then I added an inch or two to the length of the dress pattern, bought more material and she had new dresses for the next school year. Those dresses became blouses for the following year and she was always getting compliments on her pretty clothes.
Amuck from Fairview Heights, IL