Drape Drape Dress

Have you ever made something from the Drape Drape books? 

I hadn't... this is my first foray... no. 10 tuck drape dress* from Drape Drape:

* the black dress with side-on photos of the model tucking her hand into the side of her dress under her arm :-)

front view

back view

side / front view

My dress fabric is a shiny slinky knit from Tessuti fabrics, and the yoke is made from a small remnant piece of white cotton twill. You're supposed to interface the yoke, but my fabric was really sturdy and I didn't think it'd be much fun turning interfaced fabric inside out after stiching together the neckline and armholes :-) I think it's worked out fine without the interfacing. 

Look, the insides are presentable! Overlockers are tops!

the insides

Do you want to see it on me?

Sure, come inside - into the hallway - but bear in mind my dressmaker's dummy seems to have lost a bit of weight over winter, so we no longer fit my clothes the same way:

front view

side view

back view

silly view

Overall I'm really happy with this dress - really quick to make (the slowest part was choosing fabrics from my stash) and perfect for chucking on over a cossie in what promises to be a very hot summer.


The photos of this dress in the Drape Drape book show you the dramatic side / underarm draping (for the front and back views you need to rely on the line drawings).  Although I loved the look of that draping, I wasn't sure about exposing a whole lot of side-torso, so it was kind of lucky for me that my fabric wasn't long enough for the full draped effect. Fabric limitations forced me to remove a wedge about 20cm (about 7") wide from the pattern at each underarm, which I tapered away to nothing at the dress hem.  I also lengthened the dress by about 6cm or a little more than 2", and my hem is as narrow as I could make it. Removing the wedge of fabric makes for a less attractive but also much less revealing dress - but if I make it again I'd like to try to keep that drape and wear the dress with a little tank top underneath.  


The sizing is small of course, because these patterns were designed for the Japanese market, but apparently they keep their structural integrity when sized up. I'm bigger and taller than the biggest size in this book (XL: bust = 90cm or about 35", height = 168cm and I'm guessing that's around 5'6"), but the width of this dress seems alright for my XXL size, and the pattern was easily lengthened.  

If you're worried about making something from Drape Drape, the sewing techniques involved are straightforward but the directions are quite minimal compared to say, those in a Vogue pattern - and the language used to describe some steps is a bit odd. For example, step 2 (of 8) for this dress is "Edge-stitch the neckline and armholes on the upside and lining of the yokes." At this step you haven't yet sewn the yoke outer and lining together, so you're really meant to sew the pieces together with a narrow seam. There are loads of diagrams that show you what's meant at each step though, and the diagrams are excellently explanatory.  Just studying the patterns themselves also helps you understand draping techniques - so useful!

So - one down. This first dress is not perfect, but it gives me a good feel for the sizing of these patterns.  I'd really like to make no. 11 loose flare drape dress and no. 3 drop-waist gather drape dress too... so many patterns, so little time -

- Gabrielle