Contemplating a Knock-off

Yesterday I received the Stage sales flier in the mail. It featured this adorable dress:

It's a simple A-line dress with bust darts, cap sleeves, a stand-up collar cut on the bias, and patch pockets with buttons. I actually stopped by Stage last night and saw this dress. It appeared to be made of ponte knit.

Today when I went online to try and find a picture of it, I came across this dress which appears to be the same fabric, but in the opposite colorway:

Same basic A-line shape with bust darts and cap sleeves, but this one has a scooped neck with a pleated collar.

I love both of these dresses. Unfortunately they're both much too short for me. But I suddenly remembered that I have a pink and brown plaid in my stash that might look really good made up into a similar dress. So I dove into my pattern stash trying to find something that I could use to make a dress with a similar vibe.

I came up with New Look 6779 View B:

It has the right shape- basic A-line with bust darts and cap sleeves. I'd have to eliminate the yoke seam. And unlike the inspiration dress, this dress has no vertical darts in the back for shaping. Yes, I know, I could add some myself, but I'd rather find a pattern that already has them in the right place. Also, these cap sleeves are true caps. I think I'd prefer a "whole sleeve." And this pattern has no collar, which is really the best feature of the inspiration dress.

So I looked at New Look 6909. It has a similar collar and pleated cap sleeves. The back has vertical darts, too. I don't want to try to match plaid on the princess seams in front, though. But I could frankenpattern the collar and sleeves, and maybe the back, with the front of NL6779.

Simplicity 2473 also has a stand-up collar and cap sleeves, plain ones, which I like even better:

And then there's NL 6000:

I love the collar and it has plain cap sleeves. View D (the print one in the middle) has front bust darts and vertical darts in front and back. Hmmm. Maybe I could use this pattern and just not sew the front vertical darts. The only thing left to add would be some patch pockets, which would be easy.

These are all from my stash, but I'm open to suggestions if anyone knows of a pattern that would work even better.

In the meantime, I cut out the flap dress the other night. I'm using a hot pink stretch crepe:

I plan to spend the rest of the afternoon working on it. Unfortunately I don't have an invisible zipper for it. Crud. Maybe I can get to the fabric store sometime next week. Unless anyone has a good online source for zippers? Please share!