Monday, April 6, 2009

Easy wrap dress


If I have a TNT (tried 'n true) pattern, this would be it. And it's not even from my favorite pattern company! It's McCall 4304, which is now out of print.


I used this pattern to make my geisha costume for Halloween a couple years ago, and I've made two tops. Both knits and wovens work great with this pattern. I've always wanted to lengthen it to wear as a dress. This is the first time I've made the short sleeve version (the green top above), and I'm totally digging it.

The fabric is an Anne Klein poly/lycra jersey from the Pacific Fabric Outlet. Last year I bought an AK jersey from the same grouping for my Vogue 1027/DKNY dress; this is one of the few prints they still have left.

With her gorgeous jersey tunic, Diana inspired me to try the stretchy and decorative lightning stitch at the hem. No need to change to a twin needle and search for a 3rd spool of matching thread! I'm down with that.


More of these dresses are definitely in my future.

30 comments:

Carolyn (Diary of a Sewing Fanatic) said...

This is sooooo cute on you! Love the TNT!!!

Christy said...

great work as always, and now that we FINALLY have nice weather, you can wear it with pride! =)

janet lee said...

that dress looks so adorable on you! wow, what a great job!

Johanna Lu said...

You've got such a knack for picking out great dress patterns and sewing them up in the perfect fabric. I love this dress, so adorable.

senaSews said...

Your new dress is absolutely adorable. Love the fabric!

poplin said...

You look great as always!

Sewingadicta said...

A change very fun on pattern! I love your look!

Kim Hood said...

Great dress - we really ought to look more at 'top' patterns that can be lengthened into dresses.

I didnt comment on your hubbys shirt but it seems to be coming along very nicely! I hope he will be very happy with it.

Little Hunting Creek said...

That is super cute! I even have that pattern but never thought to make it into a dress - bad me. Thanks for the inspiration!

gwensews said...

Cute dress. You wear it well.

Adrienne said...

Very, very cute!

Jada said...

Very cute on you!I am loving the fabric.

flanthrower said...

Wow! That is really cute! I have about 5 yards of Anne Klein jersey I bought last year at Pacific Fabrics (back when I still lived out there :( )that I'm still too scared to cut into! For some reason I have the WORST luck with jersey/stretchy fabrics.

Pam Erny said...

Totally fabulous!

AllisonC said...

Looks great, what a surprisingly versatile pattern!

Amanda S. said...

Very cute and summery dress!

Meg said...

Perfect! Gotta love a good wrap dress, right?!

Erica Bunker said...

Very cute! It looks great on you.

Unknown said...

You can't go wrong with a wrap! :-)

loopylulu said...

Really cute dress. Wrap dresses really are the best.

Gretchen the Household Deity said...

I have that pattern but haven't sewn it up. I didn't realize it would be so cute!

Vicki said...

Oh yes, very very cute!!

bbitce said...

Very nice indeed! I just made McCall's 5450 and had the bright idea to make that wrap top into a wrap dress. Thanks for putting this up, it gives me a cursory view of how mine may turn out!

Cindy May said...

so friggin fierce! love it when a total wow factor can be had with relatively simple sewing. Those moments are so rare....(at least for me!)

Dawn said...

I'm glad there are more of these in your future because this one is great. What kind of stitch is that again?

Christina said...

Hi Dawn - It is called a "lightning stitch" because it looks like little lightning bolts, and it's appropriate for knit fabrics. It's a little dense so I think it would be great for seams that will be under a lot of stress, like tight exercise pants. On this dress, I just used a narrow zig-zag for the seams and the lightning stitch at the hem. Just an alternative to top-stitching with the twin needle (for those of us who don't have coverstitch machines).

Tany said...

What a cute little dress!! You look awesome in it!

Leslie said...

I'm so jealous of your fabric! I hesitated too long when they were available online, it's really nice stuff. Great pattern too.

Colette said...

Love it, the print, the style, everything.

The Feed Dog.com said...

I've had that pattern on my to-do list forever--now that I know how cute it is, I'll be making it soon!

Thanks!
Nancy