This one was something of an adventure.

I loved the look of the Wildwood Wrap Dress by Sew House 7 the moment I saw it upon its release last year.

I purchased it right away and I also had an immediate vision that THIS FABRIC would be the one for me. I had used it in another colour way for my Sapporo Coat and when I read that the view of the Wildwood with short sleeves worked best in a sturdier fabric, I was even more excited.

I then jumped onto the website of the Fabric Store and managed to order the last 3 metres of this fabric in existence!

If that isn’t sewing destiny – what is?

But we all know destiny is total bullshit, right?

A couple of days later, I received an email telling me that my precious last few metres of fabric was in three already-cut pieces of various sizes and did I still want it?

Well, no, that wasn’t going to work since I could have no way of knowing if the cuts available would work with these pattern pieces. Plus there was no “leftover” fabric to be sure that I could make it work somehow.

So I did what every self-respecting almost 40 year old with family living in a major Australian city would do. I called up my Mum and begged here to go into the Fabric Store in person to see if they had any left in store! And, thanks to the lovely assistant at the Adelaide Store, my Mum came home with the last few metres of this fabric from that store, where it had been nestled away in some back corner, off the fabric floor.

Phewww! Good thing I can always rely on my Mum to get me out of a pickle!

Good on ya Mum!

I did then have to wait until Christmas for the fabric to arrive – which, in turn, resulted in a bit of a wait until I could step away from the darkness of December and January and remind myself that daylight and sunshine WILL return again.

And, once I entered that spring sewing mindset, the first pattern I turned to was the Wildwood Wrap Dress.

Pheww, I hope that wasn’t too much fabric introduction for you! I’ve always said this blog is about my sewing experience and fabric angst, well, I don’t know about you but that’s definitely part of it for me!!!

It’s true when they say “there will always be more fabric!”. But it’s equally true that, sometimes, I will never get my hands on THIS EXACT fabric again!

Sizing woes

When starting out with my Wildwood Wrap Dress, I was a little dismayed to discover that my body measurements put me all over the place.

Around the bust, I needed a size 12. At the waist I needed a size 18. For the hips, I couldn’t get a clear idea of the amount of ease at the hip from the finished garment measurement. Further, given that the skirt is rather slim-fitting, I wasn’t sure what to do with my typical “pear shaped dilemma” (i.e. that my hips are not the widest point of my body and my thighs are much wider than my hips). Should I take this into account and increase the room I would need at the hip to account for it?

I also discovered that the measurements around the bicep were not appropriate for my body. Even though I needed a size 12 at the bust, I would need a size 16 or 18 sleeve opening to fit around my upper arm. But, with there being three entire sizes of difference between the 12 and the 18, I certainly didn’t want to just make the bigger size to accommodate my arms – the last thing anyone wants is a gaping bust on a wrap dress!

As the Wildwood Wrap Dress, however, includes grown on sleeves, it was not at all evident to me how I could keep the bust a size 12 while widening the arms, as you’re dealing with one enormous oddly shaped bodice piece at this stage.

In the end, in typical isewthereforeiam-style, I totally fudged it. I drew a line from the size 12 line to the size 18 line at the shoulder. This dramatically changed the angle of the shoulder line and therefore made me very, very nervous. But, somehow it all kind of worked and it still fits me fine in the shoulders.

So, to sum up on size, the version you see here is a 12 around the bust, increased to the size 18 line at the shoulder to create extra room at the bicep and graded to an 18 at the waist and hips.

As you can probably imagine with those numbers, there was a lot of drawing dramatic-looking connecting lines and hoping for the best.

And, yes, I can imagine the exasperated thoughts of blog readers out there thinking that if you have the last few metres of fabric that is so precious to you that you have literally chased it down from the other side of the world, you could have just made a damn muslin instead of drawing random diagonal lines on paper and hoping for the best.

Well, yes, I could have done that.

A better sewist would have done that.

But, hey, it’s just not really my style!

Plus, I maintain that fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants makes for a better blog narrative than muslined-to-perfection. We all relate more to the potential to failure, right?

Or is that just me…

Sewing the Wildwood Wrap Dress

I have to say that I found this project a little harder than I thought it would be.

At the outset I was confident. Cocky even. Wrap dress = a piece of cake! After all, there’s not even a button or zipper in sight.

(In case you’re wondering, the Wildwood Wrap Dress closes with inner ties, the visible outer belt, one hidden button that I didn’t realise was even there at the start and the optional of an additional hook and eye along the skirt).

When it comes to the sewing experience, I have to say that there were a few points where I couldn’t really follow what I was supposed to be doing from the pattern instructions alone. I definitely had to check out the sewalong offered by Sew House Seven to get me through a couple of times.

I must confess that I only turned to the sewalong when I had problems and didn’t go through the entire sewalong extensively, so perhaps there was something in there that would have been helpful for my grading issues.

My Wildwood Wrap Dress

I have to admit that, during the sewing process, I was feeling a little “blah” about this project. It had been more complex than I had expected and I wasn’t sure that I loved how it looked when it was coming together.

However, I do have to admit, that when I finally made the wide belt and wrapped it around myself for the first time, I felt like “DAMN”! This is actually a great dress.”

For me, the belt totally makes the Wildwood Wrap Dress and wearing it belted makes me feel fabulous.

The WOW moment it gave me has left me thinking that I need to sew wide tie belts to add on top of everything!

The shaping of the skirt in particular is lovely and there are certain great details. I think the collar is awesome and these pockets are simply the best! They are roomy and secured and are created to be non-gaping! Quick tip, however, I actually ripped my pocket stitching out the first time I put my hand in them, so I’ve added bar tacks at the edge of the pocket opening for extra security.

The fit around the bust is also great and it feels very secure. No gaping at all. I’m very glad to have stuck to my proper bust size when tackling my “but-how-will-it-fit-my-uppper-arm” dilemma.

Having said that, I have to say that the overall dress looks a bit more formal than I had imagined. Which is, of course, down to fabric and style choices made entirely by me!

I had wanted something that I would wear to work when lockdown is over, but I feel that this looks a little more “cocktail” dress than “day at the office”. I really like the finished garment, but I’m not sure where I will be able to wear it.

Further, I cycle to work and it is definitely not bike friendly. This dress does flash some leg even while walking, I’m terrified of the idea of even trying to climb on the bike with it.

I think some of my concern about the over-formality has to do with me having chosen the longer skirt length. Perhaps the shorter length would have been a better option.

The design of the dress means that there isn’t scope for adjusting skirt length once you’ve cut it out because it’s all immaculately finished with a completely beautiful hem and skirt facing.

It’s lovely, but not flexible if you decide you regret having gone for the longer length!

I’m a bit in two minds as to whether I’ll try to make this again in fabric which will be more wearable everyday. I think linen would be wonderful, as many of the samples attest, and I would like to try out the shorter length. But I would be worried that the lack of cycle friendliness would remain a challenge and the only thing worse than ONE dress I really like but don’t have much chance to wear would be TWO dresses I really like but don’t have much chance to wear.

In all honesty, this dress has been hanging outside my wardrobe since I made it, as though I’m not sure whether to put it in there or not. It is lovely and I like it, but I’m not sure where I would have worn it even a year ago, let alone in present times!

But perhaps I’m just stuck in lockdown myopia. Maybe one day, I will once again go on a date to a fancy restaurant yet and I will have the perfect dress just waiting for me! I guess I better find a place for it in my wardrobe after all!

If you want to see more of my sewing adventures, you can find me on Instagram here.