Wednesday, September 23, 2015

Fabricista Fashion Challenge Week #2!


First, I want to say thank you to everyone who voted for me last week!! I was so excited, and surprised to win for the week!!  Thank you!!



This week we were to take a Diane Von Furstenberg wrap dress as our inspiration, and make a wrap dress.  This challenge was difficult for me because it was so hard to pick which era I wanted to go with for an inspiration dress! In the end I choose to make my dress inspired by her recent line.
Here is my inspiration dress:
challenge2 inspiration dress

I chose Vogue 8379 as my pattern and made some adjustments for my body type.
*1/2” swayback
*1/4” forward shoulder adjustment
*1/2” square shoulder adjustment
*Size 14 for shoulder, 16 for bust/waist, and 20 for hip (all 1 size lower than my measurements for less ease)

3wrap

I’ll be honest, I’ve never made a wrap dress and never worn one either. However, the pattern instructions are great and walk you through each step with helpful pictures. I made a test dress first, it fit well and only minor tweaking was needed so I moved on to the final dress.

5wrap

I love that there is an opening in the bottom of the bodice on the right side to allow one of the straps to go through when wrapping around. I don’t love that there is a ton of ease in the sleeves. Yuk.  I used my serger for most of the seams, only using the regular sewing machine to baste when instructed.

1wrap

I was inspired by the current line of DVF dresses because I love a great color blocked outfit. Sometimes dresses look awkward on my body (due to my pear shape) so the solid on top with print on the bottom helps keep a separation between my top and bottom halves. I wanted to keep the iconic ¾ length sleeves with the flared cuffs but left off the collar to keep it more modern looking. Can you believe I actually put the cuffs on the wrong way at first? Ugh! I had to sit and unpick the serging from each one and then re-attach the correct way. 

4warp

I blind stitched the hem by hand and tacked down the facing on both the bodice and skirt in selective places to keep them from flipping out. I disliked the idea of a center back seam on the skirt, but understood after cutting my material that this is the only way to save on fabric. I was very careful to match the print on the center back seam to try and hide the fact that a seam is there.

8wrap

9wrap

I’m very pleased with my dress and happy to have made something out of my comfort zone that I’ll actually wear.

6warp

Fabric:  2 yards of “Regal Blue Poly ITY” from Hancocks; I had to pick this up on Friday specifically for this challenge.  $12.74.  2 yards of “Watercolor Floral Print ITY” from FabricMart, purchased July 2015, $9.00.  I absolutely love this fabric and will hoard my last 2 yards as long as I can!

Total for the dress: $21.74
Total time spent sewing the dress: 4 hours

2wrap

This week’s entries are all in and posted so head over to FabricMart’s blog to see them and vote for your favorite!!



















14 comments:

  1. Yay! Congratulations for last week, you deserved it :)
    I love your wrap dress too, the fabrics play so nicely together. You look so good in blue.
    Also, your pattern matching on the back is top notch ;)
    Best of luck in this weeks competition!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Kristin
    I've used Hancock's regal red ITY and it feels amazing. That blue is rich and goes with the floral print wonderfully. I think you have a great shot at back to back wins.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Frougie! Congrats on your win! Your dress was amazing :D

      Delete
  3. I love, love, love the colors you used on your dress!!!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Your dress looks so pretty--love the photo shoot! I hope you win this week's challenge!! I'm rooting for you!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Aw. Thanks Shirley! I didn't win, but I'm not out yet either :D

      Delete
  5. Congrats on your win!! I love the mix of print and solid on your dress. Very flattering!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Congratulations on winning round #1. This dress is gorgeous. Truly. The solid color top and floral bottom is fantastic. Brava!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you Meigan! This challenge has been so fun - it has pushed me to sew for myself more. :)

      Delete
  7. VERY late here, but wanted to say that your take on this pattern is way better than the original envelope drawings, and is gorgeous on you.

    ReplyDelete

Your comments really make my day! I read each and every one. Thank you!

Sorry for the word verification. I've had too many spammers lately.