Wrapped in love: gala-dress-hack

When I first saw the testcall for the wrapped in love dress, I immediately saw a great hacking opportunity 🙂

I came across this pinspiration and knew the wrapped in love dress would provide the perfect base!

I had to try and hack it to achieve this look! I used the pattern piece of the front bodice and altered it to have a sweetheart neckline. I used that altered piece to cut my liner. I also changed the back bodice pattern piece for the liner. All I did then, was cutting my main pieces out of a stretch lace fabric (sleeves, front and back bodice), and using that as an overlay.

I was doubting: should I attach the liner to the overlay fabric or not? I decided to stitch it on, and risk it pulling down the lace fabric. Otherwise it might shift or lay loose and unflattering. Turned out that was a good decision. The liner is secured to the main following the curves of the liner, and afterwards I did catch it in the side seams as well. I love the result! Since I was just trying, I had lengthened the bodice pattern pieces, so I could use it as a top. But once I had it ready, I thought it would be fun if I didn’t attach the skirt, but keep it as a separate. I just cut the skirt pieces in my liner fabric and used elastic band on top. Serged it on (on the inside) and then folded it over to the inside and stitched it together.

Now I have a fancy dress, but can just as well wear the top on a jeans!

Now everything worked out, I had to make a black one! I tried to make some pictures to show you how I hacked it.

First, I want to show you what I did with the pattern pieces. On the pictures below, you get to see how I altered them.

On the front bodice, I drew a curved line to create the sweetheart neckline for the liner. To make sure the liner wouldn’t shift, I started above the armpit. This way, the liner will get caught when putting in the sleeve, keeping it in place. I wanted to make sure that there wasn’t to much exposure, so I can easily wear a strapless bra underneath. But of course, you can play around with the curve to your own liking. For the back bodice, I just folded down the top part of the pattern piece, creating a straight line. Again I made sure that line runs above the armpit. To prevent shifting, and to cover up my bra.
To create a top, I just lengthened the pattern piece by adding 5 inches to the bottom. Since I wanted my hips to fit in, I did let it flare outwards.

Now for the black version: this is how my fabrics looked like once cut.

Since I wanted the scalloped hem of my lace fabric, I had to cut the back bodice in two, creating a middle back seam.

My first step was attaching the liner of the front bodice to the main of the front bodice, following the new lines on my liner. And then repeating that for the back bodice.

All that was left was attaching bodice front to back at the shoulder seams, making sure my stretch fabric was sandwiched in between the liner fabric. Next step was attaching the sleeves and closing the side seams. I made sure to catch both my main and liner fabric when doing so.

Since this stretch lace had a beautiful scalloped hem, I now had a second top ready! All that was left, was making a black skirt as described earlier in this post. Now I have 4 pieces to play with! This black dress makes me feel gorgeous!

I love this dress, I love the wrapped-in-love pattern and I love to share. So as icing on the cake I can give away a gift card of $35 for the Ellie & Mac webshop! All you need to do is follow me on Instagram: www.instagram.com/ingelrelst and react on my post about this dress!

My fabrics all came from Driessen Stoffen. The blue and black stretch lace, the jeans blue velours and the black jersey for the liner and skirt of the black dress.

And of course, here you can find my affiliate link straight to the pattern of the Wrapped-in-Love Dress by Ellie&Mac. It’s now 40% off during the March Sale!