u/chloemal

A cotton gauze McCall’s m7974 I made a while ago that I managed to take on holiday! Absolutely loved doing the lace insertions on this one!

Somehow I could never get a good fit on bought wrap dresses or patterns as I found they always gaped at the neckline or just had weird fit issues in general, so I decided it was time to finally make my own! I even drafted my own bodice block just for this piece, which I then had to convert to this wrap dress after about three toiles 🙈 The fit I achieved on this dress was exactly what I was going for and it definitely came in handy on my holiday this year! Super comfortable and airy in this embroidered cotton gauze fabric, French seams all around, a bias bound neckline and a side pocket for my phone!

See the end for my Frankenstein-looking pattern piece after a whole bunch of adjustments!

I've had a well fitted wrap dress on my to do list for quite a while now with a certain fit in mind so I knew self drafting was the only way! I'd bought other wrap dress patterns but l've always found they gape an awful lot at the front or just bunch up in unflattering ways. So the journey began - a couple tries at a self drafted bodice block with a lot of adjustments and then converting it into a wrap dress pattern, with even MORE adjustments!
I think I made about 3 toiles of the wrap bodice alone before I was bouncing up and down with glee at the fit! It was mostly trying to get the neckline gaping down with a lot of dart adding and then rotating into the centre darts. I ended up with huge darts as I made so many adjustments - maybe someone has a way to get the dart size down… you can see my final pattern piece at the end that looks like a poorly stuck together Frankenstein 😅 I didn’t want a too close fit so she has a bit of ease to smooth the fit down, around 4cm, which ended up being quite comfortable on me.

She ties up round the back in a subtle bow, there’s a gap in the side seam that one of the ties runs through, I added some 3/4 length elastic puff sleeves, a bias bound neckline, French seams all around, a 3/4 circle skirt and a side pocket for my phone when I'm out and about. Made out of this titanium white embroidered cotton gauze, field testing her was a pleasure as she faired well in the Summer heat with a whole bunch of sightseeing and aperol spritz drinking in the Austrian Salzkammergut!

I used the basic bodice block tutorial by Coraline Street on YouTube and for the wrap dress tutorial I used a tutorial by Creative Bobbin called ‘how to make a wrap pattern for tops and dresses - the basics’. The sleeves were taken from a McCalls M7974 dress, which was the only part I stole from another pattern…