Vogue 8379 - five versions of my trusted go-to wrap dress

I am often drawn to the classics and the basics. The thing is that as much as I love sewing, I´m not all that fussed about clothes. Sounds weird even to me. But what I mean is that I don´t like to have to spend a lot of time or energy to get dressed.

I usually only wear a minimal amount of accessories - mostly two inherited rings that mean a lot to me. I have a few scarves that I may sling on from time to time. My make-up has been the same for many years. As much as I admire women who can put together outfits and be on trend, it was never for me.

But I do like to feel well-dressed, and I do want my clothes to fit me.

And I love, love, love wrap dresses. They´re instant dressiness and yet, feel like a robe. They give you a flattering neckline, cinch in your waist and flow forgivingly over the tummy area. What more could a girl possibly ask for? 

For a long time I considered splurging on a Diane von Furstenberg original, as an investment. I even came as far as trying some on. And then... they didn´t really fit. It´s not that it was horrible, but it wasn´t perfect either. And if I´m going to spend that kind of money, I really want it to be perfect.

I am tall (5´10") with a high waist, and the hem just didn´t hit me in the right spot. (I see no need to share my knees with the public, thank you very much.) The skirt part was just a little too narrow to be forgiving. And as I looked at the originals, beautiful though the dresses were, I thought that they weren´t really that advanced either.

So when I started sewing again, a wrap dress was high on my list.

I bought a pattern, and haven´t looked back since. The pattern was Vogue 8379, and since I bought it, I have made five different dresses, and modified the pattern a little bit along the way, though no big changes have been necessary.

I also have two other wrap dress patterns in my stash that I have yet to sew, Vogue 8784 and Vogue 8827. The former is particularly interesting, I think, as it´s made to work with wovens (I see view B coming up). I also really like the waterfall neckline in 8827; especially in view A. 

Vogue 8784 (left) and Vogue 8827 (right)

But back to the pattern I have worked with; 8379:

The only thing I have really changed about this pattern in my later renditions is the interfaced neckline facing. I obidiently followed the instructions for the first ones, and it has  an interfaced facing, about 5 cm wide, around the neck and front opening. 

I don´t like that facing for two reasons - it's a bit stiff in contrast to the general flowiness of the dress, and also, it doesn´t keep in place and flips to the outside. I have seen on PatternReview that others have the same issue. So in my later versions, I have simply folded the front edge under and stitched it in place - haven´t had any problems.

The only thing is that this change messes up the fastening of the belt, which originally goes between the front pieces and the facings, but I have just stitched the belt to the front and not cared too much that it doesn´t look great on the inside.

The first version I did, was a straight up version A, in a thin light brown/beige cotton jersey. I was pretty pleased with the dress, but unfortunately the facbric turned out to be a poor choice. After washing the dress it became really flimsy and stretched badly while drying, in addition to some unseamly pilling. It simply had to go...

#2 is a dress I absolutely love and adore, but it was a bleeping nightmare to sew.

This fabric is a Pierre Cardin viscose jersey that I bought in Rome, at my personal heaven, Fratelli Bassetti Tessuti. This fabric is incredibly slinky. It was all over the place both cutting and sewing, and in the end I just soldiered through. The seams are embarrasingly wonky, but I don´t care. This is my go to dress for summer parties.

The fabric for dress #3 also comes from Rome/Fratelli Bassetti. 

This is a dress I wear for work quite often, and I really like how the print lends itself to the soft shape of the dress. This is basically view A, but without the collar and with full length sleeves (I modified the pattern). And I think I prefer the sleeves like this; without the cuffs.

Dress #4 is sligthly crazy, and not one to wear for those days you just want to blend in with the walls:

But when you don´t want to blend in, this is ideal. I usually wear this with my denim jacket and a can do attitude.

Dress #5 is probably the one I wear the most:

Classic, black, soft, perfect. This is a simple black cotton based knit, fairly stable, incredibly comfortable. I wear this all the time. For work, for parties, for jsut hanging around at home. I can put it on in the morning, slap some mascara on, and feel at least half way decent immediately. That, for me, is wardrobe magic.