I made this dress very quickly last year, and I finally got around to mending it this summer. Since I was in a bit of a rush when I made it, I did not spend nearly enough time making sure that the bias tape was really hugging the edge of the fabric. That means that over the past year, some bias tape was coming off in small bits. I love the shape of this dress, so I pulled myself together and made sure that the dress was nice and strong so that I can wear it as much as I would like.
This was made with a really interesting wrap pattern from the 1950's. There is a bit of a misconception that wrap dresses were invented in the 70's, but they have actually been popular for many decades, and were first invented by Charles James in the 1930's.
Charles James is my favourite designer, so you may have heard his name through my blog before. There was also a Met Gala about him in 2014 (learn more about that here), and he was the inspiration for the New Look by Christian Dior.
Wrap dresses were especially popular with housewives in the 1950's as a dress to clean in. The wrap feature makes it work great as a sort of apron, so many patterns from this era have large patch pockets.
I especially love this pattern because of the backwards wrap, which was very common in this decade. Having the wrap part at the back gives a lovely deep V at the back with more of a crew neck at the front. I love this kind of neckline because it is more comfortable for me to wear regularly (I don't have to worry about anything moving around, and it is appropriate for work), and I love having a low back feature.
Another neat thing about this pattern is that the entire thing is finished with bias tape, so it is just one layer. This makes it so nice and cool for summer. The day that we got photos of this dress was a very warm one, and this dress was perfectly comfortable to wear all day long.
The pockets are also great, since you can fit pretty much anything you need in them. So far I have used them to hold a small paper back, a can of soda, my phone, and many other little things that need to be carried around the house for one reason or another.
Since the wrap closes with buttons instead of a tie closure, I find that I don't have to fidget with it as much as some other wrap dresses that I have had in the past. I can see why it would be such a great house dress -- it takes seconds to put on and take off, and it is incredibly comfortable for such a pretty dress.
If you search for 1950's wrap dresses on pinterest, you will likely find short versions of these as well! They were mostly worn with cigarette pants as a sort of longer top, but they could also be put on top of a nicer dress and used as an apron. There are also many styles of these dresses, such as ones with a mandarin collar or short sleeves. I love that they can be made out of nicer fabrics and self-made bias and be turned into a fancy dress (can you imagine this pattern out of a silk dupioni?).
Do you like this type of wrap of the modern version more?
Thanks for reading!
~Katherine
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