Ladies,
The “classic wrap dress” as it was sold to us really is such a versatile piece of clothing in a woman’s wardrobe. It can be for every day, it can be for dressy occasions, it can be for breastfeeding years, it can be for comfort, and it can be for style. Wrap dresses give us something few garments can give us….a defined and cinched in waist because of the “wrap” at the midsection, and a V-neck that not only lengthens and flatters a neck, but like I mentioned, remains wearable during child-rearing years.
However, the best wrap dress is a faux wrap dress meaning that only the bodice is wrap but the skirt is sewn fully closed, not wrapped. This way the skirt will never open up on your legs to potentially show your undies when moving around or in wind. That is my one gripe with wrap skirts, they are terribly immodest in this way. Many of them are cut too shallowly to fully wrap around the body so they open to show legs and undies. When I find a good wrap dress or skirt that fully covers without flapping open, I will share it. Since this is a common issue with wrap dresses, I say, faux wrap is the best option. The fact is, the best part of a wrap dress is actually when the bodice wraps, not the skirt. The wrap bodice is what gives you a beautiful and flattering style up top with breast-feeding access. This wrap style is weight fluctuating friendly due to how this style literally wraps over the bust and if sized correctly and not too tight will lend enough fabric to accommodate more or less bust without it looking ill fitting. When the bust is less full the fabric simply lays in a more ruched style, when the bust is fuller, the fabric simply fills out. This is why I prefer to sew my wrap bodice larger than overly fitted because I love that ability to wear it during different phases of life.
New Look 6301 has been one of my tried-and-true sewing patterns since I began sewing my own wardrobe. Do not let the pattern packet dissuade you. The fabric they used for this dress and the shoes paired with it are not pretty and the styling of pairing them together is very outdated. Even the drawings are all done in less than pretty fabrics. Focus on the shape of the dress.
I have 5 dresses in my wardrobe from this one pattern. This is not counting the times I took the skirt from this pattern and paired it with a different pattern’s bodice. I mix and match my patterns to create the exact garment I want/need. New Look 6301 has been a key player in building my best wardrobe whether sewing these exact dresses or using these pattern pieces with other patterns.
This pattern is clear and easy to follow for a beginner
I do not find that it runs big or small but true to size. I am my typical 12 in the bodice and 14 in the skirt as with most patterns. This dress shown here was one of my first projects and the bodice sewn is size 10, which fits but does not fit the way I want it to as it pulls apart on the chest more than I would like. It was after this dress that I perfected raising the neckline to cross higher up and also, I switched to a size 12 which was more to my fit preference. But this dress is still one of my favorites of all time and one of my husband’s favorites. It spans day to evening beautifully. I fully lined it and that gives the bodice a well-made structure and the skirt a better fullness too.
The Pros & Cons of Knit Fabric
Let me pontificate about fabric, since this is such a vital part of our lives. Yes, even for the non-fabric connoisseur, everyone must wear clothing. If you are reading this, you are most likely intrigued with this topic. Look around you, everyone is in the grip of this necessity whether we think about it or not. The comfort and versatility of stretch knit fabrics has become so embraced, so widely worn that people do not even question it. It has earned a place in our wardrobes, with as much as I dislike many of them. Fast fashion is ripe with knit fabric. It requires less fitting as it stretches conforming to our size and shape which is good and is why they are so easily made and popular as mass produced clothing. However, it has a short lifespan partly due to the nature of many knits and partly due to how people launder clothing, tossing it aggressively into washers and dryers for it to emerge a shadow of its former glory.
How Stretch Knit is Making You Look Worse
Stretch knit clothing, without the sturdiness often found in a woven fabric, are often trashed after one season of wear and a new batch of stretch knit clothes are purchased for the cycle to continue. On the flipside, some women continue wearing their pilled and worn knit fabrics refusing to understand that they are past their expiration date, making them look worse for wear. The majority of why women struggle to look put together is because of this lack of fabric awareness, that their fabrics are pilled and look worn out. Even if the fabric does not look worn, the lack of structure and pajama like nature of stretch knit fabrics easily make women look frumpy. Take the average knit t-shirt as an example. When a woman wears a boxy saggy t-shirt, it is often wrinkled around her mid-section, it wrinkles with every movement, it is shapeless in the way it does not shape her well, yet it has the shape of being boxy and wrinkly, which are the shapes that do not flatter. Also, a large ill-fitting t-shirt could literally be a man’s piece of clothing it is so indiscernible in gender.
How Stretch Knit is Making You Look Better
Unless stretch knits are made in womanly figure flattering patterns like this one here, unless they are a certain type of knit that stays nicer looking, unless they are laundered properly to stay nice looking, then stretch knits are not working for us. Make your stretch knits work for you. Choose a shape that hugs in the smallest part of the waist, drapes where it should drape, and is folded in layers where it is intentional instead of wrinkling with poor fit and movement.
One of the Best Knit Fabrics
ITY fabric is polyester and not a natural fiber. It can be thin and heavy, but it is one of my favorite knit fabrics to use because it stays new looking when laundered properly. It has a smooth and silky hand, with a drape that moves fluidly and elegantly. I have lined every single one of my ITY knit dresses with ITY fabric too, because it is such a thin smooth fabric it can show every ripple on your body when unlined. Some ITY fabrics, especially in lighter colors are see-through. Some are thinner and some are thicker than others, it just depends on the individual ITY fabric. But in the right colors, and even better – prints, ITY is incredibly flattering, silky, drapey, and never wrinkles! ITY stays new looking as long as it is laundered gently. This means only washing it with other soft fabrics, nothing rough, and hang drying. It can tolerate the dryer but the less friction on any fabric the better. I do a brief fluff for my ITY knit dresses and then hang dry them the rest of the time.
Good Shape + Good Knit
The goal with any piece of clothing is to get a good shape and a good fabric. This pattern is one of those good shapes for stretch knit fabric and I recommend making it with some beautiful ITY to level up your stretch knit wardrobe. As much as I prefer natural fibers and the structure of a good woven fabric, there is an almost indispensable dress that belongs in the rotation: the drapey, silky knit dress that hugs in the right places, flows in the right places, and spans the seasons of life.
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