My experience with wrap around dresses is that they fly open in the wind. Not good, they always fly open at the wrong moment. You may recall I made two of these dresses from Ottobre Design in a previous post, I also needed to make one because my Japanese voile dress was quite see through:
Also, in a recent post I made my go to pattern Simplicity 2371, which also was made of voile, so a half slip was necessary.
I had purchased some stretch silk some time ago for this very purpose from Rathdowne Fabrics.
Making a half slip is very easy, and no pattern is required. I have purposely made this slip to sit around 5 cm (2") above my knee. I don't usually wear my dresses or skirts above my knees, so this suits me.
To make this half slip, I did the following:
1 I measured my hip measurement and added 3 cm ease plus 2 cm seam allowance
2 I decided what my length should be and added 5 cm to this length (2.5 cm for the hem and 2.5 cm for casing for elastic (just remember that the finished length needs to be shorter than your finished dress)
3 I used the french seam technique to finish the side seams
(a) Place right sides of the fabric together (at the seam)
(b) Sew a 2/8" seam, trim to 1/8"
(c) Press seam
(d) Fold the fabric (right sides together)
(e) Sew a 3/8" seam
(f) Press
5 On the top end, turn over and press 2.5 cm, sew into place and leave an opening to insert elastic, secure elastic and sew up the opening
6 Turn in side seams and hem and sew around this edge
7 Attach lace (since my fabric was a stretch silk I used a stretch lace) around the hem of the slip.
If my instructions don't make sense to you, here's a visual one from Craftsy.
Had I made the slip at a length below my knee I would have had to leave the side seam open at either one or both side seams. This opening would give you room to move freely.
Happy sewing everyone.
Sandra
