Olivia, or orange issues

So, here is one of the dresses I was freaking out about last week.

I was looking forward to making this dress. I wanted to try out Named because their reputation seems impeccable, but a lot of their stuff isn't really designed for my shape and I don't think I'm cool enough to pull off most of their patterns. I went for the Olivia because it seemed classic and wearable. The Kielo is definitely the more interesting of Named's wrap dress patterns, but I cannot find any photo examples of that dress on my body type (or on any body type that isn't tiny, really), so I wasn't prepared to risk it.

Pictured: far more orange than I'm used to. 

I bought the pattern and the fabric during a sale at The Splendid Stitch. I hadn't planned on using the two together; the fabric looked much brighter on the website and I'd intended to make it into the skirt part of a dress with a black bodice. When it turned up I decided that wasn't going to work, but it was still quite a lot of print and making it into a wrap dress seemed like the best way to break it up slightly. I got slightly more fabric than I'd ordered because I got the last of it and it had to be sent as two separate lengths. It's lucky that happened because this pattern actually did need as much fabric as it claimed to need, which basically never happens.

The pattern pieces were printed on one sheet of paper, all overlapping each other, meaning that the pattern has to be traced. I don't normally do that despite knowing all the reasons it's a very good idea, so I grumbled a bit. They also don't come with seam allowances, which was a new experience for me. Again I know the benefits of drawing stitch lines onto fabric and cutting a seam allowance on, but I tend to go on autopilot when I cut fabric so before I got started I spent literally an entire day instructing myself to remember seam allowances over and over again. I mostly managed it, though due to fabric constraints my seam allowances were pretty skimpy in places. Apart from the bit where I cut the top pieces out backwards because it was Shit January and I was doing that a lot, construction was fairly straightforward and I didn't run into any issues with either the drafting or the instructions.

When I first put the dress on, I hated it. Hated it. I hated it enough that it prompted my minor crisis.

Boyfriend: What's the matter?
Me: I don't want to make clothes. Everything looks bad on me. Skirts hang weirdly, nothing suits my shape, I have weird shoulders, I hate everything.
Boyfriend: Don't be ridiculous.
Me: [puts on dress]
Boyfriend: Well, it's... hmmm. I see what you mean.

The skirt as drafted was too long for me, which I'd known was likely going into it (I'm not short, but I'm definitely not the 5' 10" that Named drafts for either), but it was also heavy. It pulled the waist into a place that was slightly too low for me and made the whole thing look strange and disproportionate. And while one of things I'd liked about the design of this dress was that it had a full-coverage wrap and full-length sleeves, when it was on my body in a bright orange print, I was less keen. It was just too much.

The next day, I hacked about six inches off the skirt and three or four inches off each sleeve. It's still extremely orange but it's less overwhelming and much more wearable now.

It's growing on me, slowly. I hated the first set of pictures I took so much that I thought the dress would never see the light of day, but I put it aside for a week then wore it for a day, and I feel much better about it now. I'm still not completely convinced about the print, but the fit is great (I traced it in a mix of five different sizes, so the back pieces are smaller than the front, the waist and hips are a couple of sizes different, and the sleeves are bigger at the upper bicep). The actual design of the dress is fantastic - it's the most secure wrap dress I've ever tried by quite some way. There's no gaping at the neckline, it wraps over far enough that I'm not concerned about accidentally flashing people in a passing breeze, the waist is elasticated so the ties aren't doing all the shaping work, and it has pockets. I can't fault the design or drafting at all. I will probably try making another one later in the year, and in the meantime I'll let this one continue to grow on me some more.

(Also, I bought the Kielo. I'm going to try being cool.)