Black Pattern Review Claire Wrap Dress

When I first heard about the new Pattern Review dress pattern that was coming out I was quite excited.  A wrap dress that works for larger busted women, now that I wanted to see.  Then I saw the measurement chart and got even more excited - for a change my measurements were not all over the place.  My bust, hips and shoulders all seemed to fit within the size 14 range.  Of course my waist measurement was still larger than specified, but that's always going to be the case, and I figured with a wrap dress that wasn't going to be too much of an issue.

So after a bit of deliberating I went ahead and actually bought the pattern, printed it out and taped it all together.  I went for view B with the fuller skirt option.  I decided that I was going to try and stick to the pattern as much as possible for my first try with the pattern but I knew there was going to have to be some adjustment for height.

Based on the back waist measurement I decided to take 1" out of the top at the lengthen/shorten line, and then just based on holding the pattern up against my body, chopped the bottom off at the size 00 line, which took about 2" off the bottom of the pattern.

Now to chose fabric.  I wanted something light weight for summer.  I had a couple of options in my stash, but finally decided on a piece of black 100% cotton gauze.  It has a crepe type texture that provides quite a bit of stretch, is beautifully light and airy - and hey who doesn't need a little black dress.

I only had 2 yards of this fabric but I decided that that probably wouldn't be a problem as I wasn't going to do the long sleeves, or the collar and since I cut quite a bit off the length as well.

I cut out all the main body pieces and basted it all together and was quite surprised with how well it fit off the bat, so I went ahead and sewed it all together properly.  I french seamed all seams that were visible and clean finished all the neck and yoke edges so that it looks as good on the inside as it does on the outside.  The only part that I struggled with was around the pockets.  I wasn't a fan of the pattern instructions for the pockets and ended up ignoring them and just doing my own thing.  Also the slit to pass the wrap through ended up being a bit dodgy, but no one buy me will ever see that so meh!

The final step was figuring out what to do with the sleeves.  I contemplated leaving it sleeveless, but decided I would rather have little cap sleeves instead.  I started off with the sleeve pattern pieces, and just cut them off at the length I wanted them, but the sleeve cap height on the pattern sleeves was just too high and it didn't work for the look I wanted.  Thankfully I had just enough material left to cut a new cap sleeve, though it was cut on the cross grain, rather than with the grain.  I decided to use the sleeve pattern from New Look 6704 since I really like that sleeve.  The size 14 sleeve fit perfectly into the Claire size 14 arm hole which was nice.

The final verdict.  Pretty good.  I want to make a few small changes, the pockets need to come up a bit,

And the shape of the skirt needs to be slimmed down just a bit - it poofs a bit around the hips at the moment. otherwise I'm pretty happy.  The neckline sits quite nicely and the ties seem to be in the right place so that's the main thing.  The one thing I missed in the instructions though is how to finish the ends of the ties - that seems to have been left out.  I will go back and finish them now but I think I'll make a few changes next time I make this pattern...and there will be a next time.  I already have another one planned in my head.