How to Fix a Sagging Wrap Dress

The "Wrap Dress" is an iconic classic that nearly every woman has had in her wardrobe ever since Diane Von Furstenberg first created it in the 1970s. Anyways, I don't wear a lot of them, but I was given this dress from a friend, and I love it, but I haven't ever worn it, because it had a little problem. You can see in this picture here, it's not a true wrap dress--especially from the front. It just looks like a "fit'n'flare" dress.

The "wrap" part is in the back. Basically "wrap" just means that there are two pieces to the front (or in this case, back) bodice that, instead of being connected with buttons, zippers, or other closure, are simply crossed one over the other. However, depending on how often a dress is worn or how it is cut, a "faux" wrap dress like this one can easily have a fatal flaw....

Here you can see what I'm talking about. Now, if this were a true wrap dress, this gaping could be alleviated by simply pulling the crossed part over a tad more and tying the dress a bit tighter. However, when the "wrap" is stationary and sewn in place, you are at the mercy of the cut of the garment and this gaping tends to happen. I noticed this in the mirror any time I tried it on. Any time I rolled my shoulders back and down in order to sit up straight, this gaping would happen. When I hunched over, it went away....I wasn't going to wear this pretty dress and hunch over! So...something needed to be done.

Another view of the gaping.

Don't worry. There is an easy fix!

All you need is either elastic thread or stretchy beading cord like this one:

I simply threaded enough beading cord to go from the waistline to the shoulder of the dress.

I started at the waistband and found the seam that ran up across the back to the shoulder.

Here you can see from the right side of the dress what I'm talking about. See what my fingers are pinching? That's the needle that I'm feeding up from the waistband.

Now look where the cord is coming out. That is the seam I'm talking about. I just kept fishing the needle up through that seam to the shoulder. I did have to wear a thimble to push the needle. I also had to wear two rubber finger covers to get a good grip on the needle as I fed it up the seam.

And here I've fed it all the way up the seam to the shoulder seam. I pulled the elastic just a little tighter than the dress needed to lie flat because elastic always stretches a little more than you think it will.

I tied the cord off into the shoulder seam.

I did that same thing to the seam on the other crossed side.

And now I've put the "Before" picture on the left and the "After" picture on the right so you can see the difference! All fixed!

The End!

Valentine's Day Special: Colorblock Western Shirt with Owls

Remember last year when I made this for my baby?

My friend, Tina, recently gave me a bunch of fabric and notions, so I was going through my current inventory to make room, when I came across this little gem in my pattern repertoire. I had forgotten that I've been wanting to make my husband a western shirt for ages. He likes that retro look, so this shirt was a perfect choice for him. I know it's like. . .two weeks early from Valentine's Day, but. . .I wanted to make sure that I got it done during a time when I wasn't busy, and. . .this gives him time to get me a good present. (Mmmmuhahahaha...)

Here it is! I'm not blogging the process because. . .it's just a pattern, and that's boring. Plus, the whole shirt took me about 12 hours from start to finish and this blog would be a book. I will, however, go over some details. First off, see how the plaids on either side of the buttons match up? Also, my husband is super skinny and tall. (He is so tall and skinny that the daughter of some friends of ours calls him "Tree.") Anyways, he can never find shirts with sleeves that are long enough, because apparently skinny means that you have short arms in the fashion industry, so that was something I considered when cutting out the patterns.

I found the owls on www.embroiderydesigns.com. My husband also loves owls, but as he is a man, I needed to find an owl that wasn't obnoxious and girly.

Most embroidery machines have the capability of flipping the design.

This butterfly collar is for REAL, y'all. I was able to use the last piece of iron-on interfacing that I had for this collar, but when it came to reinforcing the button strip and the cuffs, I ended up just using an extra piece of fabric inside. (By the way, if a pattern calls for iron-on interfacing and you don't feel like running to the store, you can always just use a piece of slightly stiffer fabric. Just make sure you pin it well [or stay-stitch, which I never do because it's a waste of time] before sewing so it doesn't move around. That's the advantage of iron-on.)

I made sure that all the buttons were sewn on with the crown design at the top.

In retrospect, I should have made the button holes vertical instead of horizontal, but they still do their job. I love my Husqvarna machine. It does perfect button holes. (Blogger won't let me center this picture, that's why it's off to the side.)

For some reason, Blogger won't let me type above this picture, so. . .Anyways, here's the cuff! Isn't it great?! 

I learned a new seaming technique: flat fell. The pattern called for it along the shoulder to armpit seam. It's a little crooked because I had to top stitch it from the inside. It bothers me, but not enough to take it out.

This is what a flat felled seam looks like on the inside. It's nice and clean. You are supposed to do this technique on seams that see a lot of wear. In fact, the inside seams of jeans have this stitch.

Here is the inside of the shirt.

This is the seam along the sides of the shirt. It was supposed to be flat felled too, but I got lazy and just did my "surger" stitch that I typically do on jersey. Actually, I didn't want to have top stitching down the sides. I felt like that would be overkill.

The back.

I wish I would have had those pearl button snaps that you find on most western shirts, but I didn't. Anyways, I tried to nod to them at least by putting a smaller button at the collar.

The End!

Sound of Music Curtain Dress

In some of that aforementioned fabric, I found a bunch of this crazy 70s floral pattern. It looked like curtain fabric or something, so I naturally thought, "The hills are alive!". . .and then. . ."Dress!"

This is it:

I made it from a free dress pattern found here: Coffee Date Dress in a pretty awesome sewing website called "burdastyle.com." What I love about this pattern is that it prints out over like...30 pages or something, but then you get to have fun and put it all together like a puzzle. . .but with tape. It's a great spring-board pattern--especially for free; however, I did notice that some of the pieces needed some major tweaking, but I think that's owing to the fact that scanners and printers and everything aren't calibrated the same, and not the designer's fault. Also, the pattern comes in several sizes. You measure yourself and then cut out the pattern according to your measurments. (*Notice* The bodice is really high-waisted.)

Okay, so I really only followed that pattern in the bodice region. I made my own skirt, simply because if you look at the pattern on that link again, you'll see that the skirt is A-line, meaning it's much thinner at the top and has a full hemline. However, if you notice the print in my dress, you will see definite lines that can't be avoided, and doing an A-line skirt would have thrown the print all out of whack, so I simply just used two big rectangles and gathered the tops of them. Hopefully, this will make more sense in the following pictures.

Incidentally, this isn't so much a step-by-step site as it is "Look what I did. Does it give you any ideas?" site.

This is the front. See what I mean about the lines of print on the skirt? If I'd done the A-line thing, I would have had to cut diagonally across the print once I got to the outer hips. That would have looked weird--trust me. Instead, I just played with the lines in the print and almost used them as  guides to know where to sew.

Notice how I made the lines go out diagonally from the waist to the shoulders. Those lines help add shoulders to a person who has none (me!) and detracts from full hips. Also, I put a horizontal line down the middle of the skirt to draw the eye down from the shoulders to a thin line. It's like a trick that magically makes you think I'm more proportionate than I am. Mwuuhahahaha....

Here is the back. You may notice there are more lines in the print on the back of the skirt. That's because baby got back, and I put a little extra material on that side to help everything hang properly.

If you see here in the front, I am pointing to only two gathers.

Here in the back, I put four. (A little bit more material). Don't you hate when dresses hang higher in the back and don't leave room for your butt? I sure do. It's like. . ."Listen, Clothing Designers! We can't all be shaped like men with boobs!"

This is how I darted the front. I just pulled the line of print over enough to give the bust shape. It almost looks reminiscent of lederhosen!

This is a back dart.

To make the torso hang a little lower, I cut out a line of the print by itself and attached it horizontally like a belt. As you can see from the inside, adding that portion gave an inch of extra torso length. I double-sewed it top and bottom to make sure the whole dress would hold up in the mid-region.

I attached a side zipper instead of a back one because it's easier to zip once it's on. However, can you see how small that zipper is? It's like 6 inches tops. That's a freakin' small zipper for a whole dress. In the midst of all the grandma fabric, there was a big bag of zippers. Somehow, all forty zillion of them are this exact short length! However, my goal is to design a bunch of clothes using just what I have inherited and nothing more. So. . .tiny zippers it is!

You can see I picked an interesting flower for the front, but didn't place it anywhere embarrassing. Check these things when you are pinning your pattern to the fabric before you even start cutting.

From the side.

See what I mean about it not riding up in the back? Even with my arms up, it stays the same length all around. Also, if you do pleat-style gathers instead of basting, the gathers will lie more flatly. 

This dress kinda makes me wish I could yodel.