I bought this pattern quite a while ago, 2020 I think, it’s a Very Easy Vogue pattern and although it’s a wrap dress (which I have a love hate relationship with!) I rather liked the collar and the full drapy skirt. I don’t think I realised initially just how fabric hungry this pattern is, it takes over 5m of fabric! So it was a while before I found a suitable fabric at a reasonable price so I could afford to buy 5m!

I bought the fabric on line (back in 2020) from Fabrics for All which has sadly since closed. Its a dark sage satin with a leaf design in a silver grey. It’s a really soft satin with not too much sheen too it, it feels really nice and soft. I think I bought it thinking it would be rather nice for Christmas, but pre-Christmas I was always too busy to make it…

Last weekend a friend was having a retirement come birthday party, so I decided to make myself a new dress. In an attempt to reduce my stash a little I decided to go for a fabric hungry dress and out came this pattern.

I’d forgotten what a nightmare satin can be to cut out! It didn’t help that a lot of the pieces had to be cut out one by one, not two at a time on the fold. It always makes me nervous cutting out like this as I always think I’m going to run out of fabric! The fabric moved a fair bit, I didn’t realise how much until things didn’t match up when I was sewing.

At first the seams were a little lumpy, I then tried stitching them with a stretch stitch and it did seem much better. I overlocked all the seams as it does fray pretty easily.

Last time I made a Vogue pattern dress I followed the measurements, cut out a size 14 and it was HUGE. This time the pattern said it was loose fitting so I decided to cut out a 12. I had checked the actual garment measurement round the bust, that gave me about 5″ ease…I didn’t notice that the waist was -1″!!When I first tried the top on the waist was decidedly snug and also seemed to point too far down. I decided as there were pleats front and back, I could let a bit out there without being too noticeable.

There were no pleats in the skirt so I just stitched all the seams with a 1cm seam instead of 1.5cm, which as there were seven seams, gave me a vital extra 3.5cm! I also realised just how much the front edge of the top had stretched on cutting, this is why the ends seem to point too far down. I also discovered the neck facing which comes all the way down the front didn’t reach the end of the front piece, it just about reached the end of the collar. I deduced that maybe if I attached the skirt to finish at the facing, it would work…and it did. The wide elastic belt I bought to wear with it also helped to cover up all the fiddling!

The final task was the hem. It’s a very long, curved narrow hem…not a great thing to stitch in satin! The pattern recommended using a gathering thread close to the edge to ease the fold in, but mine gathered too much as I was stitching it. My hem is a bit of a dogs dinner, but luckily it’s fairly long so not too noticeable.

I wore it last Saturday and it does feel lovely to wear, I love the collar, it feels almost snuggly. The wrap skirt hung beautifully and I didn’t have any wardrobe malfuctions with it but I didn’t wear it outside! My only misgiving is with my choice of fabric, it’s a printed satin so it’s white inside, so on the odd occasion when the skirt flapped, it was very noticeable. I can see why now on another wrap dress pattern I have, the front edge piece is self-lined. Despite this I did get lots of compliments and it did feel lovely to wear. I love the shawl collar and the deeper cuffs. If I can find some more reasonably priced fabric I might even make it again.