Sewing pattern help

[StripyHorse]

DD is making costumes for 2 of her classmates for drama GCSE. 1960s themed so she is making simple shift dresses. To cut a long story short, one of the dresses now has to be made from stretch fabric as the teacher ordered based on the fabric pattern rather than fabric type. She has been given the fabric very last minute so can't really find an alternative pattern.
My dressmaking is a bit basic so I can help her follow a pattern but I am a bit baffled by this one.

My questions are....

• would you try and size the pattern down (for the stretch pattern) so it has less ease / negative ease?
• would you replace the zip? I was maybe thinking of a button and loop closure at the top to give a bit more flexibility to take on and off.
• would you still include darts?

Thank you very much for any suggestions!

Personally I wouldn’t try and size down. 1960s dresses never clung to the body.
If you are not used to dress patterns, an important tip is that they are not vanity sized. Check the measurements of the size on the back of the envelope against the measurements of the person you are making for.

Sorry, I wouldn’t replace the zip and I would keep the darts.

Thanks. DD has selected sizes based on measurements. We have already had to change pattern because the one she initially hoped to use didn't go big enough.

I'll try and get her to make both dresses exactly the same then (zip included).
I have a basic knowledge of dressmaking, but always stick to the fabric suggestions - this has just thrown me because the drama teacher went rogue and went purely by the look of the fabric.

Do not use buttons with a stretch fabric. Keep the the zip. If you do the buttons must close but the rest of the fabric might pull away like when someone wears a shirt that is too small.

is it a stretch weave? Or a knit?

It's a knit.

What my thought had been for a button is to sew most of the seam where the zip would go, but just have a split at the top held together with a button and loop like this.

How stretchy is the knit? If it's fairly stable then she can just treat it like the woven the pattern is intended for. Even if not, unless it's super stretchy, at which point it won't fit in with the era at all, she can carry on the same but stabilise any long, weight bearing seams with seam tape or strips of interfacing, same for where the zip is inserted, taking care not to stretch it when attaching the zip. There are online tutorials for inserting zips into knits which should help her to get a good result.

Agree, I would try to stabilise the fabric with interfacing where the zip is going.

Is it very, very stretchy like t-shirt jersey of stiffer ponte? As it’s only going to be worn for a production you could possibly stiffen the finished garment a bit with spray starch (test on a small sample first to see how it works). I probably wouldn’t spray starch before sewing as it could gum up your machine.

Also (forgive me if I am teaching my grandmother to suck eggs here), you need a ballpoint needle in your machine for knit fabrics. And it’s often best to sew in a tiny zig zag when working with stretch fabric.