Thanks for the belt love!  And because not everyone thought the belt was necessarily a goer – I enjoy that people have different opinions – I am now looking forward to trying this pattern again in a shorter length with belt loops and a narrower belt, as per your suggestions.  I really do enjoy your input!  Moving on, I have another rendition of the You Sew Girl!  Draped T-Dress.

I spotted this beautiful striped viscose jersey when I was in Tessuti a couple of weeks ago, and knew immediately that it was destined for this dress. I love pretty much every single colour that is in this striped fabric! But there is a quite a tale attached to the making of this otherwise quick and simple dress. I bought twice the finished dress length. Then I got it home, prewashed it (I almost always prewash my fabrics, mostly to avoid issues with shrinkage) and cut out the back. Then laid out the cut out piece in order to match the stripes. You know what happened next, don’t you? I didn’t have anywhere near enough fabric to even vaguely match these stripes, because they are non-symmetrical. There is a definite right way up in terms of the order that the colours come in, and it is a much longer repeat that you would anticipate. Fortunately I already had another city trip planned for a couple of days later. I took the cut out pattern piece to Tessuti and laid it out on the fabric to make sure that I was buying the right amount to match the stripes.

And match the stripes I did – the above photo is the already cut piece, right side down on the fabric with every single stripe matched up and pinned together.

I made this dress using the size small, but added a neckband to both bring the neckline in a little bit and to take advantage of the striped fabric and play with the colours a little more.

I sewed the neckband into a loop, about two inches shorter than than the neckline measurement, quartered it and stitched it on matching the neckline quarter marks. I used the overlocker to attach it, then the twin needle to secure it and add an extra detail. I also used the twin needle on the sleeve and bottom hem, after securing both with vliesofix.

There have been a number of draped dresses around the blogosphere lately, especially the tank-top style ones from the book Drape Drape, but I really like Nikki’s pattern for a few reasons. Firstly, it has sleeves! Secondly, it’s drafted so that the drape does exactly what it should do. And thirdly, it comes in larger sizes. I doubt that the largest size in the Drape Drape book would actually fit me, whereas the Small in this pattern is terrific.  When patterns appear to be this simple, the secrets are all in the drafting – and Nikki is an expert in that area.

While two of these dresses is possibly enough for me this season, I don’t doubt that this pattern will get another airing at a later stage. As will this fabric – I now have plenty of leftovers to play with! Some print/solid/stripe blocking might lay ahead.