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I don’t know about you, but I cannot wait until winter is finally over. I am more than ready to store away my down coat, my boots and my gloves! The only good thing about winter is the fact, that you can wear lovely, long sleeved jersey dresses.

When I first started sewing, I read many stories about how difficult it was to sew with jersey, how shifty the fabric was and that you needed a special ballpoint needle or even better, a serger. I was intimidated and stayed clear of said fabric until last year, when I was gifted a serger for Christmas, by my Mister and my lovely mum. Needless to say, all those horror stories were complete and utter rubbish! Jersey is such an easy fabric to work with and most garments can be sewn up in a matter of hours.

I discovered the Maria Denmark Rachel Wrap Dress last summer, I was looking for a beginner friendly pattern, and after reading many reviews I decided to give it a try and was very, very impressed. The entire pattern consists of 4 pattern pieces, you have to add a seam allowance, Maria does tell you how to do this and you have to make your own ties, by using the neckband, which sounds much more tedious than it actually is.

I chose this fantastic Premium Jersey from Minerva Crafts in Charcoal, which is not quite as thick as Ponte Roma but definitely thicker than normal weight jersey. The fabric has a great drape to it and is soft and best of all doesn’t pill even after I’ve washed it 5 times!!! For this version, I lengthened the shoulder by 1 inch and graded the arm cycle accordingly. For the ties, I just used the pattern piece for the neckband and lengthened it by 5 inches. As the jersey has the same color on both sides and has a nice weight I didn’t bother using any interfacing, so far neither the neck band nor the ties have stretched out. I did sew some clear elastic band into the shoulder seam to stabilize it, something I always do when I sew with knits. I sewed the dress on my sewing machine using a narrow zigzag stitch that looks more like a thunderbolt and finished all the seams on my serger. Easy Peasy!

The dress turned out exactly as I wanted it to turn out and I love wearing it with my brown boots. As I doubt spring will make an appearance anytime soon, so hopefully I can enjoy wearing it for a few more weeks.

Do you guys have any favorite wrap dress patterns?