Fabric Mart Fabricista Challenge #2

 
I've completed my second entry for the Fabric Mart Fashionista Challenge  and I need your support!
If you are a fan of my look would you please click over and VOTE FOR ME!  The competition is stiff so I appreciate all the support I can get! 

The details of my entry are below and I have to say if you like wrap dresses they are one of the easiest projects you could complete.  I am especially a fan of the Style Arc Kate dress that I used here since it gives great coverage and I never worry that it will be too revealing. 

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.

I've made this dress before so I knew the fit would be pretty forgiving and close to perfect.  I added a smidge of width to the back hip area to make a little room for my bum.  I really wanted the ties and edge of the black back lace contrast to hit at the smallest point of my waist so positioning the ties and slash of the dress back were important to get right.  I also pinned down the ties and the cuffs to the sleeves to get the positioning of those right as well.  I ended up shaving 3/8 inch off the length of my sleeves. 

 

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. 

Simple Shift (Simplicity 4927) and Simple Wrap (Style Arc Kate)

Little sister is busy catching rolly pollies.  That tidbit loves bugs.

 Little girl really loves this fabric found at Joann's a while back.  It has pink poodles on it and I think is a twill- its a little stiff but I'm hoping with a few washes it will soften.  Its Simplcity 4927, an "Its so Easy" pattern.  The pockets are from a vintage pattern and look adorable when made with stripes but I knew she'd prefer the pink with polka dots.   

 I love the A-Line shape of this little dress, its just sweet.  The fit is really good, I used a size 6 (for reference she is almost 7 years old and I can't be bothered to go in the other room and check her chest circumference) with size 7 length.  Turned out a little long but that's better than too short.  The button at the back neckline is a pink cat.  The construction was simple and I think that this is the kind of dress I wish I could get her to wear more often- just so darn sweet. 

Now for the Style Arc Kate dress.  I have needed a basic, simple, knit wrap dress pattern in my pattern stash for a long time but I have completely avoided most of the knit patterns out there because the necklines all look crazy low cut. 
So enter the Style Arc Kate wrap dress.  It comes in three sizes when you order the PDF on Etsy and that sounded good to my ears but the only draw back is the sizes aren't nested so if you have to make size grading changes then you have to tape together a few sizes and lay them on top of each other, arggg.  So needless to say I made a straight up size 8 when technically I should've used a size 10 in the hips.  But it worked fine and I love the result!  The neckline does not plunge and everything stayed in place with the skirt today when I wore it to work.    

 As far as construction, I made the ties longer so I could tie them in the front.  I used a zig zag stitch (just in case I had to pick out stitches) for the entire construction and stabilized the neckline with 3/8 inch clear elastic.  I stabilized the hemline on the skirt and front hems with fusible tricot cut into strips.  The neckline stays in place really nicely and I don't have to pin it together with a safety pin like I do with my store bought wrap dress.   I read a lot of reviews of this pattern on Pattern Review and they all said the pattern was really long so I took about 3 inches off the bottom before I cut out the dress.  I am 5'5" and the length was just right, in fact I probably could've taken only 2 1/2 inches off and that would've been a little better.

 The fabric is from Hancock's fabrics and I think I bought it at 90% off so it was perfect to do a trial run on this pattern.  I don't think this fabric has any spandex or lycra content.  I can see one or two more of these in my future, especially a black one- oh yes that has to happen!  So, if you are looking for a simple to construct, higher neckline wrap dress, this might be the one for you! 

My husband really loves this style on me and I love it too, but I find it intriguing the style dresses that he loves me in versus the ones that I love.  Always a little of a conundrum to me!  But this is the same man who called my palazzo pants, "Hammer time" pants so I take it with a grain of salt!  That man, he keeps me smiling.