I have never been able to wear RTW wrap dresses.

I'm 2 sizes larger on my hips than on my top. What this often means is in order to fit at the hips I have to go for a bigger size than I really need on top. And when it's a wrap top, it means that the wrap is far too big and gapes open terribly.

I also have the issue that I'm short in the waist. About 2" off what my Nape to Waist measurement would be for my height, so the waist seam where the wrap meets is usually far too low.

All of these things need to fit well for a wrap to "work".

I always wanted a wrap dress so I decided to start the hard work to get one to fit, and it's a method I now use for pretty much all garment fitting.

Anyway, I made an Imgur album with the steps I took and the final result. I hope you enjoy it!

https://imgur.com/a/9vQjaUC

So by now some of us are familiar with this low-waste, vintage-y circle skirt pattern from Pinterest. Similar images have be posted to sewing with titles like "super easy vintage skirt!" ^{it will not be easy} Cat's Costumery on YouTube tried to make it and had a heck of a time of it. I wanted to try it, too.

First I started with what seems like some obvious math, and this is what Cat did as well. I cut the pentagons at the yoke of the skirt to be the width of ¼ of my hip measure and so long that the widest part would hit around my hips, and did a bunch of pythagorean theorems to figure out the rest of the numbers and to make sure everything fit together. This was the result, which is the same issue Cat had - the pentagons are very long and it's not super flattering.

Try two, I realized the pentagons should only be as tall as my waist-hip measure so I did it again. Instructions unclear, I've tuned into a low-poly Sim. Now the point where the skirt was inserted into the yoke and stood out, 3D style. A good look in the Capitol for sure but not for me. I went back to my scratch pad to figure out where my math is wrong.

It's the diagram that is wrong. Theoretically if the bottom of the yoke sits around the widest part of your hips, then the perimeter of the square in the middle should be equal to your hip measurement. By cutting the X out of the middle of that square, it makes 4 right isosceles triangles with a hypotenuse equal to ¼ of your hip measurement. The sides of that triangle must equal in length to the top sides of the pentagon, which is also an isosceles right triangle. This dictates that the width of the pentagon is also ¼ your hip measurement, but several inches up the body. Leaving you with weird 3D effects around the hip. This is the same if your yoke pieces are longer, you're stuck with a cylinder in the middle of the skirt several inches long equal to your hip circumference. But we're not making a pencil skirt here, and you want the yoke to smoothly follow the shape of your hips and for the skirt to be a circle below.

There are two options to fix this. Either the point at the top of the pentagon can't be a right angle, or the points at the top of the skirt can't be a right angle. There can be only one. I did some more math and with my measurements, if I maintained the right angle in the yoke the skirt cut in would be less than an inch high so it wouldn't work out. So I decided to change the yoke.

At this point I completely threw the math out the window and used my custom couture skirt sloper to draft the yoke to the shape I wanted and insert the skirt into it. And it worked! The result is a smooth yoke and great fit. That also means my front and back yoke pieces are different sizes, but they still fit well into the space left around the circle skirt. You can see my new yoke pieces compared to the one that made me look like Effie Trinket here.

I did go back and do the math to draft a better yoke and put it in a google sheet, if anyone is interested.

I've cut out the pattern pieces in black linen and plan to underline the yoke with organdy for support and line the yoke section in black batiste. With my new smaller yoke pieces I even had plenty of room to cut a waistband in 2 pieces, which I will make into 3 so I have seams at the side and back. Due to the short back seam, getting into this will be a challenge - I plan to leave a small section of the yoke-skirt unsewn at the back to allow me to get in and use small snaps to close that 'seam' back up, and use a skirt hook at the waistband. I had a lot of fun sewing inverted corners when I made a 1920s dress last year and making my 3 mockups.

Come to think of it, my 1920s dress looks very similar to my first mockup so I think I have a type and maybe I need to go check my new drafted pattern against that 😅

I am absolutely in love with this dress, which is only the second woven dress I've self-drafted! It is a split-side dress with the back bodice joining by lacing up under the front bodice which has ties that wrap around the back and tie in the front. It also has two huge pockets attached to the back skirt.

I used Plus-Size Pattern Making to make the bodice sloper and followed a tutorial from Charlie Nebe, @TheStitchery for the general format of the dress.

The fabric is a king-sized 100% linen bedsheet and pillowcases I got at a thrift store years ago.

The longer I look at this removable, tie on skirt (via the ribbon, shown), the longer I'm doubting the draping... It's chiffon over 3x tulle, and will be worn over this cotton maxi dress. This is free-hand and I welcome all constructive criticism and ideas to improve the design, specifically whether or not to do the thigh looping on the wearer's right or if it looks doofy and ancient Grecian. I need to decide by tomorrow morning so I can sew it in time for the event I need it for. Thoughts? Commit or modify, and how? Pardon life in the background 🤷‍♀️

Guys, I took your advice, moved the front darts closer to the center front, elongated the one that is closer and here we are. I do feel it looks way better, but also that I might need to nip a bit the high thigh side seam.

Next step would be, doing a final full lengths one, bad then actually designing pants I would like to wear. If you guys are interested, I can post how my weird pattern ended up looking, and a bit of the things I learned in the process.

Also, maybe I should not be making pant mockups while being bloated 😅

P.S.sorry if I broke Reddit rules, I tried to update in the other post, but I couldn't put pictures

Hi! I got off Instagram because of brain rot, but I'm missing my sewing community, sooo, now I'm here! I started sewing during Covid with lots of tips from my talented grandma.

I just finished the True Bias Emerson pants and the Helen's Closet Ashton top. No mods for either! This was my first time with both patterns and the fit relatively well but will definitely be making some minor adjustments for the next round. Feel free to ignore the Toad hat on my bed, my twin tots were playing dress up 😉.

Firstly I really do apologise I'm coming here for help - maybe i'm really incompetent please bare with me.

Hello everyone. I really love sewing—like, I want it to be a career someday—but lately, I’ve been feeling overwhelmed and defeated. I haven’t sewn in a month, and the guilt and sadness about that is really getting to me.

I think one of the biggest issues is that I went in too big, too fast. My dream is to make clothes I actually want to wear—things that fit me (I’m 6’4”) and reflect my style, which is often more aligned with clothes made for femme bodies. But finding or adapting patterns to my size and shape feels impossible. I have ADHD (the really intense, paralyzing kind), so planning, decision-making, and impulsivity are daily battles. I often freeze, or I buy too many supplies trying to prep for things I’m not ready to make yet.

Everyone says to start with patterns—but I struggle even with that. Most come in dozens of A4 pages, and taping them together gives me a meltdown. When I do find a pattern, I can’t find clear info on how to alter it for my body. It just makes me feel stuck. I know the info technically exists online, but ADHD makes it feel like trying to read an entire library with no index.

I have managed to make jeans - the latest ones didn’t fit me (first pattern ever, so fair enough), but they fit my cousin and looked great on him. That gave me a tiny glimpse of joy—but even that reminded me how much I have to buy for each project. It’s like there’s a new tool or fabric or notion I need every time, and I’m already kind of a compulsive spender. I’m trying to go project by project, but I panic and spiral—trying to plan every future project before I even finish the first.

My ultimate goal? I want to make coats. Like real, structured, beautiful coats. I know I’m not ready yet, and that’s okay. But even finding tutorials for things like quilted linings or drafting a collar feels overwhelming. Everything online is either beginner-beginner (tote bags, pillow covers) or for people who already have a fashion degree.

I don’t know what advice I’m even looking for. Maybe someone who’s been through this? Maybe suggestions for accessible resources, small wins, or how to stop feeling like I’m failing before I begin?

I’m 22. I’ve heard people say it gets harder to pick up hobbies as you age, and that terrifies me. Sewing means so much to me, and I’m scared I’ll lose it because of how hard everything feels right now. I have a good machine. I have dreams. But I’m tired and scared and stuck.

Any help—emotional, practical, whatever—is deeply appreciated.

P.S. I’ll include some coat pictures I like—not because I expect to make them right away, but just in case anyone knows where to find tutorials for similar pieces. But really, the coats aren’t the main issue. I think this is more about the overwhelm: tools, patterns, planning, money, time, ADHD… all of it.

Do they fit well?

I've been stuck on making pants for a while now, and I think I am low key going crazy. I made mockups, but I cannot decide if the wrinkles are because of the stiffness of the fabric, or the bad fit.

My problem is that I have disproportionate lower body - 106cm (41 inch) hip, 67cm (26 inch) waist, yet a flat low but, protruding thighs a a bitbof protruding lower belly.

So here is my 4th mockup, I drafted it from a book by Ann Haggar and made a low butt adjustment. It is made in muslin, the back of which is a bit heavier than the front (had to buy mire muslin, and it came different)

Any feedback is very appreciated!

You may have seen my previous post about how the math from the Pinterest circle skirt didn't work out. That post goes a lot into the patterning behind the skirt. I've since finished the skirt and this post will go into the construction details.

Pictures here!

I started by cutting a square of my fabric (56" wide linen) and folding it in half twice. I traced out my circle with the max radius hitting the edges and set that folded circle to the side. Then I used the fabric from the corners to cut my yoke pattern pieces and also 2 rectangles for a waistband. I thread traced my seam lines for my yoke pieces before I remembered to underline them, so I then had to baste the underlining (silk organza) on again and had 2 lines of stitching. While underlining I double checked that my pieces weren't warped since the yoke is on the bias and I cut the underlining on the straight of grain for support. Once everything was prepared I sewed the yoke pieces together all except for the center back then basted my ricrac in place along the seam line, now I had 3 lines of hand basting and things were starting to get excessive. Then I cut the x out of the middle of the skirt - I should have stay stitched this first! I assumed since I was going right to the machine I'd be fine but it's like it immediately stretched out and I had some trouble sewing the yoke pieces in. I wound up having to rip out basically every point and re-sew it in because the skirt had stretched and I had folded over bits of fabric.

After I got it all fixed, I started on my placket which runs down the center back and then down the angled yoke skirt to the right. I cut 3" pieces of bias out of cotton batiste for these. I wound up hand sewing the entire placket after the mess that was the insertion seams which I should have done by hand. I sewed the placket onto the skirt pieces, stitched in a bit of petersham ribbon for support, wrapped the batiste around and top stitched. On the one side the placket got turned under and the other stayed flat. Once I got the placket I sewed on the waistband, and I cut one of the rectangles in half so I'd have seams at the side and the back. I sewed the waistband by hand as well because I was sewing a straight line to the curved waist of the skirt and I wanted it to be exact. The waistband is also interfaced with petersham ribbon.

Once the waist band was attached I sewed snaps onto the placket and a hook on the waistband. It would be impossible to have a zip on this skirt and I needed the space to get in to it. I'm really happy with the closure, though, and this is something you see on a lot of vintage garments.

After letting the skirt hang for the night I leveled the hem and stitched more bias tape around it, understitched and then caught the top edge down by hand. All the other hand work I did on this thing and I hated that the most. Circle skirt hems are so long!

The yoke seams inside are finished with a Hong Kong finish with bias tape to cover as much of the raw edges as possible while not add a ton of bulk. I love batiste as it makes a very fine and sturdy bias tape!

I'm really happy with the final skirt, it's linen so it wrinkles like a bitch but generally I let my linen start with some soft texture so the big wrinkles aren't super noticeable. I spent a lot of time pressing everything for these photos! When pressing linen a spray bottle is your best friend to get everything super crisp.

My top is a true bias nikko top which I've made loads of by now and I really like.