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Vogue 8379 Knit Wrap Dress

I’ve worn this dress lots! As with my other versions of this pattern, this is a very practical yet fun addition to my wardrobe. It’s great for work or for special occasions, depending on how it’s styled or what kind of fabric you use. I’ve also worn this particular dress in the colder months by pairing it with tights and a cardigan.

This dress has received some nice compliments, perhaps the best one being “That looks expensive!” from the cheery cashier at Pret A Manger. I’ll take it! I want to make a dozen more versions of this pattern…

Nicola Dress by Victory Patterns

I wish I could say that I wore this dress more, but I didn’t! I did manage to bring it out a couple of times, including a sewing meetup happy hour a few months ago.

My biggest challenge with wearing this dress was the way the front overlaps would slip off in either direction (all the way up) as I sat down. I also noticed you could see my entire leg as I stepped forward! I just can’t pull that off without being super self-conscious. To make it wearable, I sewed in some snaps at the skirt and that helped a lot.

The armholes are also a little tight so I would lower them if I made another version. Even with its issues I do love the pattern. I wonder if going for a wider waist size (or adding an interior waist tie) would help overlap the pieces even more. I could even use V8379 above as a guide.

Sorbetto Top by Colette Patterns

I definitely wore this last summer, though it’s a little more loose fitting/boxy than I’m used to wearing (even tucked in). I didn’t like the white bias tape trim along the edges so I turned it to the inside and top-stitched it down. This lets the Liberty fabric shine, I think. If I made this top again I’d go down in size to make it slightly less boxy.

If you’ve made these patterns up, do you find yourself wearing them a lot? Do you have any questions about these makes?

I’ve been trying to take photos of myself wearing my handmade outfits out and about so I can use them in these posts, so I’ll try to incorporate those moving forward if possible! Have a great Fourth of July for those here in the U.S. :)

It’s June! How’d that happen?

Anyway, this fabric reminded me of Oreo cookies when I first bought it, so that’s what I’m calling this dress. I based this one on a Diane von Furstenberg dress I saw in the display window of her store in the Meatpacking District.

PATTERN. After the Colette Chantilly dress, I wanted a quick and easy project. Enter Vogue 8379, my go-to wrap dress pattern. I’ve made two other version so far – the “October Issue” and the “Purplue” – but this time decided to go with a more fitted skirt. The knit wrap dress may be my favorite. It’s not only easy to make, but it’s even easier to wear!

I love how the collar looks on one of the DVF dresses so I added the collar piece that comes with the pattern. Wouldn’t it look great in a solid-colored version of this dress?! I also twin-needled the collar to keep the fabric from rolling over, and I think it gives a finished look. I’m not crazy about how I attached it to the dress so I’ll probably add binding next time (the pattern comes with facing pieces, which I omitted. Just not a fan of facings.).

SIZE. Straight size 10. Nice and easy – thank you, knit!

FABRIC. I used about 2 1/2 yards (60″ wide) of this poly blend knit that I bought at Gizmo Sewing Supply** in the East Village. Good ol’ Gizmo. Actually, that’s not the store owner’s name, but I know a cat named Gizmo and, alas, Gizmo it is!

The fabric feels super soft. I don’t know about you, but I never get the press I want with polyester when I use the synthetic setting on my iron (in fact, it ends up not looking pressed at all). To get around this, I’ve been turning the iron up to the cotton setting and then using a cotton press cloth folded over twice. From what I’ve seen this higher heat setting doesn’t damage the polyester and the result is so much nicer. Just don’t make the mistake of pressing without the cotton press cloth. Ask me how I know. Yep, the soft feel of the fabric went hard real fast.

**Gizmo is a small mom-and-pop store and the fabric selection is pretty minimal, but he also sells lots of handy things you need at the last minute – zippers, buttons, snaps, twin needles, the works. Every New York neighborhood should have a Gizmo, if you ask me. Especially for those times when you go to the Garment District to buy a zipper, and then end up coming home with tons of fabric!! No, I am not guilty of that. ;)

NOTIONS. Being the simple project that it is, I only needed twill tape for the shoulders and fusible knit interfacing for the under collar. Yes! The twill tape was basted on first and then serged when I attached the front and back bodices.

I also added a snap tie to keep the inner part of the left wrap in place, both when I sit down and for particularly blustery days (or wind gusts from incoming subway trains!). The snaps are attached to the dress with embroidery thread. I’m actually thinking of adding these to my other wrap dresses too.

MODIFICATIONS. 

• STRAIGHT SKIRT. Since this pattern only comes with the full skirt option I used the skirt pieces from McCall’s 5179, a wrap dress pattern my sister gave me when her friend’s mom was giving away sewing patterns. Passing the baton! I once tried to remove width from V8379’s skirt pieces to create a more fitted skirt, but that landed in Disaster City. Clearly need to work on my drafting skills. In any case, M5179’s side seams are pretty straight and in the future I’m going to add some width to the lower half of the skirt so it hangs a bit better. Also, I accidentally chopped off too much length from the paper pattern and I wasn’t able to go with the just-above-the-knee length I originally intended. Oh well, guess that’s just how the cookie crumbles.

• SLEEVE LENGTH. I fiddled with the sleeve length and I think it looks okay, but I’m wondering if short sleeves would look better. Thoughts? I could even lengthen it slightly by adding bands…

• IN THE FLAT. Andrea of Four Square Wall’s post on sewing in the round vs. in the flat had me thinking. I’ve only sewn sleeves in the flat on the Sewaholic Renfrew since the pattern instructions say to, but Andrea made me realize that I should be doing this on other projects too! And I have to say, it was great. I’ll still be hemming the sleeves in the round since I like the finished look better, but for inserting the sleeves? In the flat all the way!

• TWIN NEEDLE. This is the first version of this dress where I’ve used a twin needle (another Gizmo purchase – Gizmo power!) instead of a single straight stitch to hem the skirt, sleeves, and wrap edges. I really like the look of it. If you’re curious the single straight stitch that I used for the other dresses has still held up, and those dresses get a lot of wear let me tell you!

And that’s a wrap! (sorry) Feels great to have another creation done and done. Not sure how much wear this poly creation will get in the coming months considering our humid New York summers, but I’m never opposed to having something ready for the next season.

Until next time!

Let’s take a look back at the world of sewing in October 2012 on today’s Wearing Yesteryear!

The October Issue Dress

Blog Debut: October 27, 2012
Pattern: Vogue 8397 Dress
Worn In: Fall, Winter, Spring
Wearability Meter: Ding, ding, ding – we have a winner!
Lessons Learned: Knits are the best

Okay, so I just LOVE this dress! It’s right up there as one of my favorite sewing creations ever. It’s easy to wear, it feels very much like me, and it’s something I’d definitely buy in the store. Ever make something and think that you wouldn’t necessarily have bought it had you seen it in the store? Is that just me?

I also like that, as a knit, the fabric stretches to fit my shape, which means I can do away with going one size up at the waist like I have to do with wovens. This fabric doesn’t wrinkle either – from sitting at my desk at work to traveling here or there, this dress keeps it together! The other kicker is that it’s easy to wash; I put it in the washer/dryer and go on my merry way.

The other nice thing about this dress is that it’s versatile. I’ve worn this to birthday parties, work events, regular days at the office, and so on and so forth. It can be dressed up or dressed down. Gotta love it, yes?

I’d like to make this pattern with a more slim-fitted skirt, especially for some thicker winter fabrics I have planned. But for now I have the Charlotte skirt to finish up so until then – trick or treat!

Okay, so “toodle-oo winter” because it’s back to my newest spring creation, even if it was on my fall sewing list hehe. This is my second version (with a few changes) of the ever-so-popular Vogue 8379 wrap dress.

This fabric has a bit of an interesting story, so let’s chat. You see, this is yet another purchase from Gorgeous Fabrics that I made about a year and a half ago, which means it was an online buy. It’s an Italian crepe jersey listed as “royal blue” in color. When I read the description – “the color of Kate Middleton’s engagement dress” – I was sold! I just loved that electric blue color she wore when she and Prince William announced their engagement at St. James’s Palace in London.

And then the fabric arrived. It was…purple. Or so it seemed. Was I crazy? Color blind? Ann from Gorgeous Fabrics is a reliable source so I figured I was nuts. I looked up images of the engagement dress and noticed something: certain websites showed the dress as looking more purple in color. Hmmm, getting closer, Sherlock. I then whipped out my camera and took a photo of the dress, which magically transformed to royal blue. Aha! Well, I’ll be.

And that’s how it appears in all these photos. Can’t seem to show you what it looks like in real life. I did ask friends and they felt it was purple too so at least I’m not the only one. :)

Ann isn’t kidding in her description when she says it skims over curves; I originally took out a lot of fullness in the skirt and it was way too form-fitting for my liking (admittedly, a lot of the fault goes to my sad attempt at altering the pattern pieces). I’ll leave that design for a thicker fabric. Luckily, I had enough fabric left to cut out this very full skirt. I really love this fabric’s soft drape.

Some changes were made this time around: I raised the hem 4 1/2″ so that it’s above-the-knee length and I also used the short sleeve length of view A that I shortened another 2″. Between the thinner fabric being more suitable for warmer weather and feeling that the extra length in a solid just didn’t feel right to me, I’m happy with these changes. Bring on that humid New York summer!

I had wanted to take these photos outside today, but it was so blustery! So here you get to catch a glimpse of my kitchen and some Bauer pottery I picked up in Los Angeles. The little ball of yarn peeping out from the creamer is left over from my snood/cowl (that I admittedly didn’t wear this winter – whoops).

This fabric, which really is wonderful, had a bit less stretch than my other version so I went with a straight size 10 this time around (last time I cut a size 8). Size 10 is closer to my actual measurements save for the waist. One of the things I love about knits is that I can use one size; with wovens I have to go up one size at the waist. Most of my RTW dresses are made of stretch fabrics so no wonder I didn’t realize I would need to go up a waist size when I ventured into sewing with wovens!

I serged the seams together, but you can make this with your regular machine’s zig zag stitch. There’s top-stitching along the edges of the dress, the hem, the ties, and the sleeves. I’ve found that turning the edges in and top-stitching 1/4″ from the edges works just fine for me over the long run, so I didn’t add the facings. There are two pleats on each front bodice, which show a lot better here than on my other printed version.

Here’s a shot of the ties from the back. Sooooo much better with the full skirt, let me tell you! As with my last version, I used stay tape to reinforce the shoulder seams. I like to add it to the back bodice seam allowance so that when I press the seam to the back the tape is hidden.

I really like this pattern because it comes together fast. I cut out knits on a single layer rather than on the fold since I find it’s easier to keep the fabric from shifting; this is the longest part of the process. I put this together over a couple of evenings and it would’ve been done faster had it not been for the slim skirt fiasco of aught 13.

I thought I would see what it would look like belted, just for kicks! My friend picked up this pretty belt on a trip to Indonesia and it adds such nice color to solid dresses. This outfit would be good for accessorizing, which I tend not to do. :) Here I’ve paired the dress with one of my favorite necklaces that I never wear for some reason – I picked it up during a visit to the Central Park Zoo and it has little animals on it. Cute! Maybe this dress will encourage me to bring out my necklaces more.

Well, that’s it for now. I’m off to get ready to watch episode 2 of Mr. Selfridge on Masterpiece Theatre. Anyone else catch the premiere last week? I’m a fan of Henri, but, I have to say, Jeremy Piven in period costume kinda threw me off at first. Ari Gold in Edwardian London – how about that?!

It came just in time too; I hadn’t completed anything since the end of summer’s First Impressions Dress. Yikes!!

Hmm, is it just me or do I match the furniture?

This dress is called “The October Issue” because I was cutting out the pieces while watching the Vogue documentary, The September Issue. In October. Yeah, heavy stuff coming to you live from Sewin’ in the Rain Productions. I had wanted to photograph the dress outside, but tomorrow’s forecast and the next few hurricaney days sure ain’t lookin’ pretty. As such, the photo quality falls short of stellar.

I picked up this (polyester/blend?) knit fabric over the summer, the first fabric purchase of 2012 for me (I’ve been good otherwise!). Since I don’t have many knits, adding to my stash isn’t as bad as when I buy more and more cottons.

At $3 a yard and $1.99 for the pattern during one of those online super sales, this is my most cost effective outfit to date! That doesn’t happen often for me since I tend to oooo and ahhh the slightly more pricey fabrics and patterns.

Wait, I have a Peter Pan shadow? Oh, and a knit wrap dress means no swayback adjustment worries – yay!

Because the fabric is a tad more stretchy than the fabric guide recommends on the pattern envelope, I went down a size to compensate (size 8, to be exact). It worked out perfectly, and I didn’t make any adjustments.

You know what I figured? I have a $10 RTW wrap dress that I bought about 4 years ago and it fits just fine. My sister, who has different measurements than I do, also fits in it just fine. So why all the fuss for wrap dress + knit? Exactly.

I ended up making view A, except I used the view B sleeve pattern for a 1/2 length sleeve. Using my RTW wrap dress as a guide, I left off the sleeve’s band pieces and the back & front facing pieces at the bodice. The skirt front pieces come with a self-facing, but I did away with that too. My RTW dress just has the raw edges folded over once (with a serged finish) and topstitching 1/4″ from the edge, and that’s what I did here (and at the sleeve and skirt hems).

Full skirts are great for twirling!

As I mentioned in my progress report post, I’ve seen versions of V8379 online where the fullness is taken out of the skirt. I ended up keeping the fullness in, partly because I thought it would look nice and partly because I just didn’t have the energy to adjust the pattern pieces. So, here you have it – I love the fullness! It’s so fun to twirl with all that extra fabric (which, you know, I do all the time).

Earlier this year my sister asked for a wrap dress for her birthday, so that’ll finally get done. Actually, I’m going to make this dress in the looks purple in person but blue on camera fabric for both of us – we’ll be dress twins! I don’t yet feel comfortable making clothes for other people, but a knit wrap dress for someone who fits a size I would wear should be easy enough. :-D

There are two pleats on each front bodice piece. I was worried how this would look at first, but I like it just fine!

Better view of the print. Isn’t it pretty?!

I planned on working on my pencil skirt next, but I still need lining and with the oncoming Hurricane Sandy I won’t be able to get to the Garment District anytime soon! And that’s why V8379 is so awesome. Just grab some knit fabric and sew away. (And if you don’t have a serger, never fear, this pattern comes with instructions for a regular sewing machine).

I predict this will be my go-to pattern in the future – a knit wrap skirt from the skirt pieces and other variations are just some ideas floating through my head. My mission is to see the possibility in my existing pattern stash because, at a certain point, I feel like I’m shelling out cash for similar patterns when that doesn’t need to be the case. We shall see!