Fashion Challenge Week 2: Wrap It Up! -- What They Made!
Week two is wrapped up (no pun intended) and the contestants have their dresses submitted! Boy, we are going to have some tough judging, again! These ladies keep blowing me away and are so creative! If you missed what this week's challenge is all about, check it out HERE. This week's guest judges are Meg Carter from McCall Pattern Co. and Linda Lee from The Sewing Workshop! Click the link above to read about them as well as the judging requirements for the challenge.
This week's winner will win 3 free patterns of your choice from the McCall, Butterick, Vogue or Kwik-Sew lines AND 3 of the newest patterns released from the Sewing Workshop: Tremont Jacket, Florence Shirt and Bristol Top and Dress.
Reader Participation! Sew along with the challenges! You have until Thursday at midnight to post a photo of your wrap dress. Use #fabricistafashionchallengereader to share a photo of your finished project on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter. You can also email me a photo of your finished project - fabricmartblog@gmail.com. We will choose one winner at random each week to win a prize. This week's prize pack will be a copy of Successful Serging by Beth Baumgartel, a pack of 400 quilting pins (which are also suitable for garment sewing!), and two Kwik Sew patterns - #3766 and 4081.
Let's see what they made...
Dawn from Two On, Two Off
I used Burda WOF 09/2006 #115. I made this pattern several years ago when I first got into sewing. This time, I made several modifications because I know how to fit my body better. Because I have a very long torso, I added an inch to the length between the shoulder and bust. I made sure this did not change the armhole or the slant of the wrap.
The waist seam hits me exactly where it should hit, at the waist where the fabric ties sit.
I'm very happy with the bodice and how there are no wrinkles and no gaping. I added the collar because I really like that look and many of DVF wrap dresses had this. I love the collar on this wrap dress.
I tried to make my creation be as much like the original as possible. Because of the collar, I could not use a self-facing like many of her dresses. Instead, I opted for a solid black one-piece facing that I drafted from the pattern pieces. It really helps give it support on the edges and makes for a beautiful finish on the inside.
The facing is clipped, graded, and understitched.
All seams are french seams to keep the inside as pretty as the outside.
The hem edge is serged and then hand sewn to the skirt. The sleeves hems are done the same way.
This dress most closely resembles the Irina DVF wrap dress. The slight a-line shape and collar are what drew me to this silhouette.
Because of the facing, the wrap attachment stitches are concealed and the inside is as nice as the outside. The fabric is an interesting knit. The base is a black polyester/Spandex knit. Then there is a a crinkled silver/black leopard print on top of that. I think it's perfect for this dress.
Diane Von Furstenberg has a thing for animal prints and so do I. These are the dresses that inspired me to make my version. I even created my own Diane Von Furstenburg-esque photo inspired by all her leggy photos.
This was a great challenge and I really liked the opportunity to go back and make this pattern fit me exactly. Over the years, I've really figured out how to modify patterns to fit me. I absolutely LOVE this dress.
Donna from Curvy Girls are Chic
The DVF Dress like Chanel’s Little Black Dress at this time needs no inspiration! Both of these classic dresses create an attraction to just about any body size and shape! The DVF wrap dresses slenderizes where it needs to and brings a positive attention to the upper part of the body. The crossover bodice also gives a nice waistline especially when using the same fabric as the bodice for the waistband. Both fabrics are a silk jersey – the top print obtained from Metro Textiles and the bottom from one of Mood Fabrics specials.
Craftsmanship – While there is not much “creation” to the wrap dress there are some certain processes so there are no accidental spillages! I used McCalls 7185 the top of view D and extended it to long sleeves. I cut a 14 on the top using the cup D pattern pieces. I did not care for the full gathered bottom skirt so I used the bottom of Butterick 6030, which had no darts in the waist, just a bias cut skirt. I cut a 14 on this as well but it did turn out to be too big although I did create a self-facing for the front wrap. I wind up cutting it down two inches on each side and I think that is only because it’s a silk jersey cut on the bias. I created a small self-folded facing for the front wrap piece just to give it a neater look and I had stitched it down as well as hand stitched the hem which equaled to about 78 inches around!
This fabric was very temperamental and a bit difficult to handle as it slid all over the place constantly! The top had a self-facing as well, under stitched and I slipstitched it to secure it down.
Fit – YES! I love this fit! I swayed away from wrap dresses for a
while because they would “flap” open! Why because I was not too familiar with a
FBA (Full-Bust adjustment) and I would always cut it bigger to “fit” Now that I
found a D cup pattern there is no longer this issue! The fit is perfect, the
bodice grades down to the waist and the front and back darts assist with
slimming the waist to a perfect closure! I did make my skirt about two inches
long in cocktail/midi length as that is the length I prefer for mostly all my
skirts. I have one more wrap planned but
the next will be a print bottom and a solid top and a maxi length.
Elizabeth from I Sew, You Sew
Inspiration:
There is so much inspiration to be drawn from the DVF
website, I especially loved looking at her runway looks. My inspiration for this dress was drawn from
three of my favorite DVF dresses. The
first one being her Wool
and Lace Wrap Dress. The back on
this dress is stunning. Although I love
this look it would be impractical for me to try to wear an open back lace
dress- I'm thinking along the lines of what is work appropriate. So I decided to line mine with swimwear
lining. I love the way this bodice
highlights the small of the waist. The
second dress that caught my eye was the Linda Wool Wrap dress. The DVF version is cashmere- swoon- and I
love the cozy look of it, perfect for fall, not to mention the beautiful shade
of gray. Although I don't have cashmere
knit factored into my sewing budget I can get a similar look with a gray
heavier weight knit. The last dress that
inspired my look was the China
Short Wool Wrap dress, I loved the cuff treatment on this dress and just
had to have cuffs like this on my version.
A lot of the inspiration I wanted to mimic was in the small details of
the dresses.
Fit and
Construction:
I made quite a few of pattern changes to get my
look. I started with the Style
Arc Kate Dress and used the front panel with no gathers for both sides of
the front eliminating the gathered look.
I also slashed the pattern at the waist where the side tie would come
through the dress so as to align the split back with the finished ties. After slashing the dress I simply added seam
allowances at both slashed edges. For
the sleeves I folded the sleeve up to be a 3/4 length sleeve and drafted a cuff
with curved edges. I also added a lot of
length to the ties pinning and cutting them as I sewed the dress. And lastly took about three inches off the
bottom of the dress.
As far as construction goes, I really want to encourage
anyone out there wondering if they can make a dress like this on their regular
machine that indeed it can be done! As I
went along I basted and zig-zag stitched everything together before serging so
as to check the fit and to make sure everything would lay down nicely, but I've
made a knit wrap dress entirely with a zig-zag stitch in the past. The trick is in knowing how to stabilize your
seams. I used 3/8 wide clear elastic
around the neckline of this dress- which worked perfectly since this pattern
has 3/8 inch seam allowances. I did not
draft facings for this pattern since I've found that facings sometimes backfire
and want to flip all over the place- poo on that, who wants a flippin' facing
lol! I used 1 inch wide strips of
fusible tricot interfacing around the hem, front hems of the front panels and
at the back waist where I joined the black lace bodice to the skirt. In sewing the back contrast bodice I used
swimwear lining not only to line the lace but it also served to stabilize the
lace. I basted the two together before
attaching them to the back skirt portion.
Final thoughts:
This dress is a great place to start if anyone is interested in knocking off designer looks. Knit wrap dresses are incredibly forgiving and extremely easy to construct. And knocking off some of the small details is very doable. I know I will get a ton of wear out of this dress and am so glad I've been able to participate in this round of the Fabricista challenge.
This dress is a great place to start if anyone is interested in knocking off designer looks. Knit wrap dresses are incredibly forgiving and extremely easy to construct. And knocking off some of the small details is very doable. I know I will get a ton of wear out of this dress and am so glad I've been able to participate in this round of the Fabricista challenge.
Kristen from Sunny Sewing
For my pattern, I chose Vogue 8379 and made some minor adjustments for my body type.
*1/2” swayback
*1/4” forward shoulder adjustment
*1/2” square shoulder adjustment
*Size 14 for shoulder, 16 for bust/waist, and 20 for hip (all 1 size lower than my measurements for less ease)
I’ll be honest, I’ve never made a wrap dress and never worn one either. However, the pattern instructions are great and walk you through each step with helpful pictures. I made a test dress first, it fit well and only minor tweaking was needed so I moved on to the final dress. I love that there is an opening in the bottom of the bodice on the right side to allow one of the straps to go through when wrapping around. I used my serger for most of the seams, only using the regular sewing machine to baste when instructed.
Tiffany from Frougie Fashionista
I’ve got to start by saying I’m ‘sew’ excited to be here for the second challenge because I love wrap dresses. After searching through the dvf.com website and doing a Google image search for “Diane Von Furstenberg Wrap Dress” I was actually overwhelmed with inspiration. Ultimately I selected the two dresses that inspired me the most while I was searching. This gorgeous B&W mixed print A-line wrap dress from Color Me Courtney’s Fashion blog and this flirty halter wrap dress from DVF.com.
I was inspired to blend elements from these two DVF dresses, the juxtaposition of two bold prints like the first dress and the halter neckline of the second. I knew I needed a wrap dress pattern with separate bodice and skirt pieces that was also a halter dress. I have several wrap dress patterns but the only pattern in my stash that had a halter-ish neckline was M7119, which was great because it was on my summer to sew list but I never got to it. I could have left it at that but I also really liked the mix of the solid bodice and printed skirt of the halter inspiration dress. Suddenly it hit me that I could have both a mix of two prints and a solid/pattern pairing if I made the dress reversible! So that was the game plan.
My mind immediately went to black and white prints, but I didn’t want to make a replica of either dress and my entry last week was black and white. Instead I picked these two bold ITY prints, a multi colored chevron and a large scale circle pattern, which shared the same colorway of white, pinks, orange and purples.
Thankfully M7119 was not too difficult to adapt to make it fully reversible. I cut out the pattern pieces as called for but cut an extra piece (or set of pieces) for the bodice front, bodice back, skirt front and skirt back. My original plan was to use the two prints for one side and a solid bodice and printed skirt for the other side just like the halter inspiration dress. Unfortunately, I didn’t have enough of either print for the skirt of the second side. I had to change up my plan and decided to keep the same print for the bodice on both sides and add this eggplant ITY for the skirt.
I followed the pattern directions for the bodice construction though I did it twice for the inner and outer bodice. Then sewed the inner and outer bodice pieces together at the armholes so I could work with it as one fabric. I sewed the tied ends together and attached them to the front bands. I skipped the interfacing for the front and back bands but attached them to the bodice as per the pattern instructions. Slip stitching was necessary to keep the construction as clean on the inside as the outside. Next I constructed both the inner and outer skirt as instructed except I attached the skirt pieces first at the hem and then the sides with front sides facing. This gave me clean seams on both sides of the skirt. The final step was to attach to skirt to the bodice, which was a little tricky for me but I figured it out. I placed the bodice right side out inside of the skirt piece right side in and sewed around in a skirt leaving about a 2” hole so that I could turn the dress right side out. The last step was to slip stitch the hole so it was unnoticeable from the outside.
Here is it! My first fully reversible piece and my first true wrap dress. I hope you love it as much as I do.
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Posted on September 23 2015
It's a shame dawns pictures are not showing up? Is everyone having this problem?
I love them all! And how spot on was I to color block my reader sewalong version!?! Woohoo!!! haha!
Very, very nice work ladies. Going to be a bit harder to vote this week!
Nope, I can see Dawn's pics great. Love her dress and also Tifanny's!
I cannot see any of Dawn's entry/pictures either.
So, so, so cute! Great work ladies!
Everyone did a great job! I love the way all of our looks have a different vibe!
Very nice ladies. Each dress was constructed beautifullyand the color combination are pretty
Yup I saw your dress very cute!
Thank you ladies!
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