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:

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

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

    ReplyDelete
  3. 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.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Your new dress is absolutely adorable. Love the fabric!

    ReplyDelete
  5. A change very fun on pattern! I love your look!

    ReplyDelete
  6. 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.

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

    ReplyDelete
  8. Cute dress. You wear it well.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Very cute on you!I am loving the fabric.

    ReplyDelete
  10. 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.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Looks great, what a surprisingly versatile pattern!

    ReplyDelete
  12. Perfect! Gotta love a good wrap dress, right?!

    ReplyDelete
  13. Very cute! It looks great on you.

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

    ReplyDelete
  15. Really cute dress. Wrap dresses really are the best.

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

    ReplyDelete
  17. 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!

    ReplyDelete
  18. 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!)

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

    ReplyDelete
  20. 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).

    ReplyDelete
  21. What a cute little dress!! You look awesome in it!

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

    ReplyDelete
  23. Love it, the print, the style, everything.

    ReplyDelete
  24. 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

    ReplyDelete

I love hearing from you! (Comments that include advertising will be deleted.)