Rhythm and Wrap
Hello! Look I’ve sewn something!
Actually, I’ve finished a whole other dress before this one, but it is so completely inappropriate for the current sub-freezing weather that I’m holding off on posting about it (hearsay!).
This dress took no time at all to sew, but I also have no adult obligations on the weekends besides cleaning up after myself, so it’s pretty easy to spend hours at a time in the sewing cave. I bought the fabric during my last trip to Seattle at Nancy’s Sewing Basket with this exact project in mind. Most of the time when I buy fabric I have a general idea of what I want to make with it (“oh this will be a skirt of some sort”), but this fabric was set to be V8379 from the very beginning. I even bought yardage according to the envelope recommendations so now I only have about a 1 ft square scrap left!

Mid hair flip, also the light is making my legs look really weird!
I’ve made this dress before and it’s pretty much my favorite dress ever because it’s comfortable but looks super good (if I do say so myself, and I do), plus so few dress patterns come with long sleeves and it’s freakin cold right now. The first dress is pilling, but I still wear it because I doubt the dudes I work with will notice/care, but it’s great to have a second one, someday there may even be a third.
Pattern: V8379
Fabric: Geometric, double layered poly knit. The top layer feels more like a cotton poly blend, but the bottom layer is more slick feeling like swimsuit fabric so I think it is all poly (and made my machine skip some stitches on it’s slick surface). I’m hoping that slick surface keeps it from sticking to tights ’cause you know I didn’t line this thing #lazy. I love the awesome print though, and it’s black and white so I can wear colorful necklaces and tank tops with it.
Design Likes/Dislikes: The half circle skirt is very flattering and I love that it has sleeve variations. The pleats I could take or leave, being small busted it doesn’t matter too much on me. I don’t particularly like the facings around the neckline, but that can be fixed (I already had them cut out though and was too lazy to make a binding, they do stay in place well though).
Sizing and Fit: Fits me perfectly right out of the envelope, but like I said, I have a small bust and frame. But it’s a wrap dress so you can always pull it tighter or loser, and knits are more forgiving of course.
Changes: I left off the weird collar and cuffs. To hem the sleeves I made a quick binding that was a little shorter than the sleeve width, then stretched to fit.
For Next Time: If I’m not too lazy, I’ll do the same binding style for the neckline too.
MORE WRAP DRESSES FOR EVERYONE! Seriously though, I’m convinced there is a wrap dress for everyone. Try it, you’ll like it.
Coincidentally, McCall’s is doing a wrap dress sew-along (and seriously missed a great opportunity to call it a Wrap Along. “What are you wrapping?” “Oh, you know, just myself in an awesome dress of awesomeness.”), and the Curvy Sewing Collective finished another sew-along last year (oh looks like the CSC sew-along was called a Wrap Along. Good naming job, I like those women. What else could you call a wrap dress sew-along? Wrap Til You Drop, Wrap-a-polooza, Wrap Up It’s Cold Outside? Tangent, sorry).
~Molly
Looks great!
Question for you – I once made a wrap dress but that dress always flies open in the wind and reveals everything. How does this dress hold up to wind? Does the skirt overlap enough?
Wind is still a concern, for me the skirt overlaps about 1 ft at the waist (more as it goes down) and that’s usually enough. But I also don’t spend a ton of time outdoors in dresses. Adding a safety button part way down the skirt might help?
Awesomely cute.
This is really cool. I like that hem length on you and the geometric pattern on the fabric kinda matches the geometric structure of your hairstyle. I need to make me some wool knit wraps for winter =P
Also-wrap it up? XD
Love that geometric fabric. And I’m always a fan of black and white.
What about “wrapper’s delight?”