Sew Cheap April Free Pattern Review: Wrap Around Dress

Right off the bat, this is my favourite Sew Cheap monthly make yet!

April was getting away from me and all my planned free pattern makes just weren't inspiring me. Then I found this amazing dress! My April Sew Cheap Free Pattern make and review is the Peppermint Wrap and Roll Dress. This dress is described as a light weight woven wrap dress perfect for summer. The dress is designed to be fully lined or even reversible. The armholes, bodice and skirt opening are finishing with bias binding and the dress closes with button across the front. See below the dress photo from Peppermint website.

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The dress comes with a bodice pattern and measurements to cut the skirt (e.g. 3 rectangles). Unfortunately there are only three sizes available (Aus 8,10,12). There is no size guide on the website so I had to take a gamble. In the bodice I can range anywhere from any Aussie 8 to 12 but decided to go with the 12 as it's easier to size down than up once cut. The fit is actually pretty spot on. The only adjustment I made was to take up the shoulder seams 1/4". This improved the dart height and waist length on me but made the arm holes a little high. There is also a bit of excess fabric at the lower back. But neither of these issues are bothering me. 

As there was no size guide and I couldn't find any online reviews I didn't want to make the dress out of any precious fabric and I still had 4 meters of the floral I used for my Emery Dress Skirt hack. I used yellow bias binding I picked up from an opshop (took about 4m) and a selection of non-matching plastic two holes buttons that looked cute together (also from an opshop). I decided not to line this dress, or make it reversible. It seemed unnecessary.  So, all up this dress probably cost around $5. 

The dress came together from start to finish in about 4 hours. The most time consuming part was the bias binding. It is an incredibly easy make if you are comfortable sewing button holes (Tip: interface under where you'll place the button holes if using light weight fabric). If you don't make your dress reversible than you only need 7 button holes/buttons: 6 down the diagonal front and one on the opposite waist. the instructions recommended 14 if making reversible. The right front bodice and skirt wraps fully over the left. 

While I found the dress a really easy make, the instructions are incredibly brief. If I was following them word for word I probably would have been a little confused. Thankfully the pattern is quite intuitive. If you have made a dress before, can sew buttonholes, darts, and bias binding, well you'll know how to make this dress! The only troublesome component might be figuring out your size, or potentially grading up. 

I absolutely love how this dress turned out! I'm so sad it wont get much wear during winter. But, I love that I've found a fun new dress pattern. I think I'll make a winter version out of a bold navy, black or grey with fun contrasting binding and buttons to layer over tights and long sleeve tops. So what do you think? Would you give this pattern a go? 

If you like this post, check out my Sew Cheap: Top Tips,  Sew Cheap: Free Patterns and previous Sew Cheap posts.