Velvet Appleton Wrap Dress

When one posts a third dress post in a row, one must admit to oneself that one is no longer classified as “not a dress person.”

This was the dress I wanted to make myself last Christmas, but I was too pregnant to handle figuring out how to work for maternity. Instead, I made my daughter a velvet dress, and myself a velvet t-shirt and didn’t blog either because hashtag-too-pregnant. So here I am NOT pregnant, and living all the velvet wrap dress dreams.

Also, I’m freezing my butt off. However, when your husband is willing, and there is beautiful snow covering your weedy gardens, you toss on the dress, and squirt some dry shampoo in your hair and say, yes-honey-yes-now-is-perfect-yes-that-looks-fine-I’m-cold-that’s-good-we’re-done. phew.

Also, I wish I could have recorded six-year-old Gladys hamming it up behind Andy, striking her best “blogger pose” to make fun of my feeble modeling in the snow attempts. She is a riot.

There isn’t much to report on the construction itself. I used the Cashmerette Appleton pattern, which I have sewn before. I lengthened the skirt and the sleeves to give it a more formal look. In fact, I cut them a generous length and fussed with pinning the hems until I found a length that looked “right”. I didn’t want to have to muslin my tweaks because I knew the pattern was rock solid.

I must say I love that this pattern is a true wrap dress, because it is both easy to nurse in and also easy to adjust the fit, as my weight does whatever it is doing while I nurse my way through baby Edna’s first year.

However, I highly recommend sensible undergarment choices when wearing a wrap dress. Especially if you are wearing said dress around babies or obnoxious two-year olds. I was by both during our Christmas Eve mass, and I was grateful for my prudential choice to wear a half slip.

Cashmerette Appleton Wrap Dress in Stretch Velvet

• Pattern: Appleton Wrap Dress by Cashmerette
• Fabric: Navy Blue 4-way Stretch Velvet from Cali Fabrics
• Measurements: Height – 5’10”, Bust – 43 inches, High Bust– 39, Waist – 43 inches, Hips – 51 inches
• Size/Adjustments
  • I used size 18, graded out to a size 24 in the hips.
  • I added 5 inches to the skirt length to have it hit below the knee.
  • To adjust the sleeves, I added 1/2″ to the bicep width and lengthened it 2 inches to make it long sleeve, but then I hemmed it up to the bracelet length shown by removing 5 3/8 inches.

A classic silhouette, in a luxurious fabric, made with a tried-and-true pattern is just about the trifecta of sewing perfection. Isn’t it?