ON ME// front wrap dress fabric: , Heels: ; Wide Brim Hat: , location:
I loooove a good summer dress and this easy front wrap dress tutorial will be your new favorite summer companion. Who needs friends when you have a well fitted dress, kidding… okay fine, half kidding. But like seriously, I should have made a couple more before now because I will wear anything that will combine glamour and comfort.
It’s been almost a month since my Nashville trip. I will never understand why summer flies by in the blink of the eye and yet the winters can last soooooooo looooooooong. Don’t get me wrong, winter is great because fall fashion is my love language! But you have’ta remember that I live in Seattle, for this west coast girl, it’s winter 10 months out of the year, quel dommage!
So yeah, I made this green dress the day before I left, it’s made with a light weight rayon that withstood the heat and humidity that Nashville gifted me the minute I walked off the plane. It’s also a beautiful bright green to bring out my eyes b..e..a..c..a..u..s..e if I was gonna look sweaty glowy, I was going to look glam doing it, ha!
I personally think it worked.
Alright, alright enough of my vain thoughts, back to this dress. It’s a relatively easy look to recreate. Since I was going to be in the south, eating as much comfort food as I could find (and Idid), I wanted a dress that could more or less conceal the food baby I would inevitably have! For my moms out there, you know exactly what I am talking about – 1 cup of water equals a good baby belly sometimes. for those who don’t know, . But whether you have a baby bump or not, the dress is gorgeous and quite simple in regard to developing the pattern.
If you already have a shift dress pattern that you love then you are already ahead of the game. I also reccommend making a mock up first if depending on your comfort level and fabric choice. With that said, take a seat and let’s run through this look real quick!
Front Wrap Dress Tutorial
- To start you will need a basic shift dress as your sloper. There are many styles that can be found out there, whether you have developed one yourself or looked through your favorite sewing companies for help, it’s a classic silhouette to work with. If you do not own one, you should. Check and for examples.
- Next begins the fun stuff, I like tracing the shift unto pattern paper so that I can make future changes to the pattern if I need to adjust. Then I am going to add my wrap detail that will look more like a wing to the side of the dress. The length of the wrap will be determined by dividing your waist measurement by 4 and adding 1-2” to the length for ease.
Here’s the math for the Wrap Measurement:
(Waist Measurement)/4= (Wrap Measurement) + (optional 1-2 inches for desired ease)EXAMPLE:
(28)/4 = 7 + (optional 1-2 inches for desired ease) - At the waist or right about front, draw your Wrap Measurement line straight out from your side seam at the waistline (***the photo below was drawn at the bust, that’s a drawing error, stay close to the waist).
You could also opt to go right above the waist. Your choice.As far as the ease is concerned, you may not need it but it’s something you can edit out in the final dress. You can take away fabric, but you cannot add it once it’s cut. Also, ignore the dart detail in the original dress pattern, it get’s swallowed in the wrap. - Next, create a curved line about 1-2 ” below your arm hole to wards the end of your wrap measurement. I also added the tie part into this pattern (looks like a tear drop); that is not included in my wrap measurement. Finish the curve of the added wrap detail towards your high hip line or longer. I went long and will most likely go higher the next time around.
- Add the changes the changes to the back. You can almost copy the added detail from the from to the back.
- When it comes to the hemline, I wanted a flirtier look to this dress. Adding a high and low hem detail with the addition of a side slits, I think did the trick. But you are the designer now. YOU decide the length added to the back AND how high you want the slit.
HOWEVER, this detail can be completely optional. If you’ve been following along, then you know I’m craving slits this season as seen and . As designer of your dress, you decide how high or low you want your back-dress length. You are also in charge of your slit length, mon cher.
Looking at it now, it may even be more fun to have a longer dress length for both sides. When I was getting ready for this photoshoot at , I didn’t have a full length mirror. If I did, I would have made a tighter wrap knot at the waist. You live and learn, c’est la vie!
Well, I think that covers it! If you decide to give this a try, share it with me on and/or give me a shout out on . I would love to hear from you and celebrate with you on your newest creation!
Until then, have a glamorous day my beautiful friends!
xoxo/ Riva
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