Have you read my latest book, “Sewing  the Curve“? Although I wrote it with beginners in mind, it comes with six patterns which are great for anyone of any sewing  level to make. As I was designing them, I consciously tried to stay away from the “typical” beginner patterns and do styles that I’d want to wear myself – and the Montvale Dress & Tunic, the very first and simplest pattern in the book, is one I love wearing.

Not only that, but it’s also fantastic for pattern hacking – and a great first hacking project. Today I’m sharing my V neck Montvale Dress hack – and I’ll show you how to do it yourself. To see the tutorial, just jump down to the bottom of this blog post.

The original Montvale Dress & Tunic has a rounded neckline with a deep facing, and the option of grown-on sleeves (where there’s no sleeve seam, but rather the small sleeve extends past the shoulder) or a sleeveless version. As with all patterns you can make it as short or long as you like!

Here’s the “from the book” version of the dress:

And here’s the tunic with the grown-on short sleeves:

So as it happens, when I was developing the Montvale I began with a plan to make it a V neck, because I just LOVE a V-neck! However, I realized quickly that a V neck with a facing is ever so slightly more complicated a thing to sew than a round neck, and as this was going to be the simplest pattern in a “learn to sew” book, I’d probably better not include it as the base option.

However, I never shook the idea that it would be a fun alteration, so this summer I took 5 minutes to hack my Montvale pattern and voila! My newest summer dress.

Apart from the V neck and the new facing, the only other change was adding a center front seam, which makes it extra-easy to insert the V neck crisply. Simply sew the two front pieces together first at the center front, and then continue with all the other instructions as they’re written.

For this Montvale hack I used a fabric I’ve been hoarding in my Deep Stash for literally years – at this point I don’t entirely remember what the fabric is, but I think it’s similar to a tencel twill, and I think (?) I bought it from Blackbird Fabrics back in the day. It’s a light-midweight and lovely and drapey, which is a great match for the Montvale. And I love the bold animal-ish print!

If you’re wondering if I accidentally fell into a children’s picture book in these photos well… almost! It’s a very pretty village in the Cotswolds in England, which I visit often – and if you figure out which village it is and look at a map you’ll see a bunch of place names you may recognize. That’s because I wrote my first book “Ahead of the Curve” while living here and I named all the patterns after local villages. A few other Cashmerette patterns have Cotswolds names too if you keep an eye out 🙂

How to hack the Montvale Dress to have a V neck

So here’s how I made my dress – it’s a very easy hack, even for a beginner sewist!

1. To create your new V neckline, take your front bodice piece (1 A, B or C for the sleeveless version, or 2 A, B or C for the sleeved) and draw a straight line from the top of the neckline to the bottom of the neckline at the center front, as show with the red line below. This creates a modest neckline that’s the same depth as the original rounded one. In my case, I wanted it a little lower, so I drew the bottom about 1.5″ (3.8cm) lower than the center front – I’ve shown that with a green line. You can really do anything you want here! Although I recommend keeping the top of it at the same place as the original pattern piece, so that you don’t need to alter the back.

2. As the front will now be sewn in two pieces, we need to add a new 1/2″ seam allowance along the center front from the neckline to the hem.

3.  Next, we need to create a new front neckline facing. Place a piece of tracing paper over your altered front piece (I’m using the red line neckline here). Trace your new neckline first, and then use a ruler to draw another line, parallel to the first one, but 2″ (5cm) away from it. End the second line at the shoulder seam and center front. Join up the lines at the shoulder and center front to create the full facing, and then add 1/2″ seam allowance to the center front edge.

Cut this traced piece out and label it and mark the grainline as parallel to the center front edge : this is your new front facing.

3. Cut your pattern pieces. For this hacked version, you will cut the front and front facings slightly differently:

• For the front piece (1 A/B/C or 2 A/B/C) instead of cutting one piece on the fold (as in the original instructions), you will cut two pieces which are mirrored (either cut them on a double-layer of folded fabric, or cut one and then flip the pattern piece over and cut the other side).
• For the new neckline facing you created, again cut two pieces which are mirrored.

4. Take the following steps BEFORE you begin the instructions from the book:

• Finish the center front edges of the two front pieces (1 A/B/C or 2 A/B/C) using a serger or zigzag stitch (or any other finishing method mentioned in Sewing  the Curve).
• Place the two front pieces (1 A/B/C or 2 A/B/C) right sides together, and sew them together down the center front edge. Press the seam allowances apart. Trim the top of the seam allowances so they’re flush with the V neckline.
• From now on, you treat this as your regular front Montvale piece.

• Finish the center front edges of your new V neck front facing pieces.
• Place the two front facing pieces right sides together, and sew them together down the center front edge. Press the seam allowances apart. Trim the seam allowance extending past the bottom of the center “V”.

5. The remaining steps are exactly the same as the original Montvale instructions! You will attach the front facing to the back facing, finish the outside edges of the facing, sew the front and back dress at the shoulders, and  sew the facing to the neckline.

When pinning your new facing to the dress, make sure the seamline of the “V” on the facing perfectly matches the “V” on the dress neckline. And once you’ve sewn the facing to the dress right sides together, make a little snip into the seam allowance just above the V to make sure that it flips over nicely and gives you a sharp V point when pressed.

I hope you enjoyed this hack – if you don’t already have Sewing the Curve, you can pick up a copy signed by moi at cashmerette.com/STC if you’re in the US. If you’re outside the US, pick it up at a local retailer (we’re happy to mail it to you but the shipping is $$$$!), or at a big online retailer like Amazon (affiliate link). Are there any other hacks of Sewing the Curve patterns you’d like to see? Let me know!