Wednesday, August 4, 2021

Wrap Dress

My favourite dress this summer! I sewed it three weeks ago and it's been in active rotation ever since, i just love it! It's my first wrap dress and now i get why these got so popular - they are so comfy and adjustable to your figure, especially a knit wrap dress like this one.

The fabric is a piece of ITY I bought last year from my favourite fabric shop for discounted pieces (usually the last pieces of a roll). When I bought it, I didn't have any idea what the fabric was, nor did I have a serger and I am so glad I didn't cut into it then, as I would have wasted it. 

The piece of fabric was very small, unevenly cut, probably less than 80 cm, with a long narrow strap of the same fabric attached to it (it seems that's how most fabric rolls end). It was definitely not enough for a dress and I was looking at blouses and tops, when I came upon this wrap dress pattern, made out of small upper body pieces and straps and it clicked - with some pattern tetris I could definitely make a wrap dress out of my small fabric piece!

Size: 34, modified
Fabric: ITY, 100% polyester
Time to make: 3 days

My modifications: 

  • I know I have a narrow back, so I made a narrow back adjustment to the back piece before cutting the fabric - and it was the right choice for me.
  • The original pattern includes some fancy straps, that I did not appreciate much, so I added simple semiwide straps, enough to cover my bra straps underneath
  • I omitted the waist band and attached the bodice directly to the skirt. Because I'm short, instead of making my usual 2 cm shortening of the bodice, thus I got the waist of the skirt to lie at my actual waist without modifying of the bodice.
  • For lack of fabric I omitted the second layer of the skirt and simply elongated the first layer by 20 cm - the maximum I could squeeze out of my fabric piece. I know, the dress is a bit on the short side, but it's OK for the summer, especially the unprecedented hot summer we are having this year.


I reinforced all the edges of the pattern pieces with fusible, but next time I would use the narrow fusible strap with a stabilizing thread, especially for the armholes, as they stretched a bit after I hemmed them with a double needle. I finished all hems and edges on the overlocker and then folded them and stitched them with a double needle with a matching thread.


The wrap of the skirt almost entirely doubles the front and nothing flashes in the breeze, even if the first layer of the wrap gets opened.

I have a piece of navy ITY and I might try to make another wrap dress out of it, this pattern is a keeper!


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