Little Black Dress (Drape Drape No.5)

I figured I needed a break from the dressy, complex dresses I’d been making of late, and that something a little simpler, both in terms of appearance, and construction, was in order. I’d fallen in love with the “no.5 v-neck drape drape dress” from Hisako Sato’s Drape Drape as soon as I got the book and thought it was time I gave it a try.

no.5 drape drape dress from Drape Drape by Hisako Sato

This would be the second thing to make from Drape Drape – I made the “no.13 loose drape tank-top” a while back and really liked the result (I am planning on posting a write-up of that at some point but it’s very revealing and I need to find something to go underneath it first!).

Just as I’d found with the no.13, the most difficult thing about using this book is tracing out the goddam pattern. The patterns are all printed over each other (which is pretty much standard but that doesn’t stop it being annoying), but they aren’t colour coded or anything, which did make it a total headache trying to work out which line I needed to trace. Also the pattern paper was basically as big as my office (says more about my office than the paper, but it still feels relevant to say). It’s not really fair to be too critical of this though, since, as I say, this does just seem to be how pattern books do things…but man it makes my eyes hurt!

Once the pattern was traced out, it was time to cut it out. I used 2m of black jersey, which is what the model in the book is wearing – I’d normally try to be a bit more original, but then I wanted an LBD and that was that. To cut it out, I used a rotary cutter. I kind of just love using this for everything as it gives a much neater, more accurate finish than hacking at things with my scissors, and it’s just really satisfying to slice though things. I would really recommend this for stretch fabrics especially, as it reduces the risk of accidentally stretching the fabric while you cut and then distorting the shape, and nobody wants that.

My baking paper pattern

The instructions were pretty straightforward to follow. The only real issue I had was with working out the tucks – I think this was mainly me just being in one of those moods where nothing makes sense, as I was just staring between the instructions and the fabric and back again for like an hour with no clue how I was meant to do them. Then it eventually did hit me and I felt kind of foolish for taking so long to work it out. I do think this was my fault rather than the book’s though (unless anyone else had that problem?) so again, not going to blame them for that!

Other than that, it sewed up pretty easily, and I was very pleased with the result. It’s very light and airy, which makes it feel summery even though it’s black, it feels elegant with the draping yet casual with the jersey fabric, it fits well, and it feels comfortable! So yes, very pleased with this pattern. I might even try and make another one at some point.

I’ll post pictures of the photoshoot shortly!