When I saw the Sewing Masin Atlas Dress on Instagram, I literally bought the pattern immediately. I thought it would be perfect for my honeymoon so I very quickly tried the pattern and made one of my new favorite dresses. You would think that trying to speed sew this dress 2 days before my honeymoon would end in disaster, but I love the result!
Fabric and sizing
My fabric stash is quite large, so typically I just shop my stash when making new clothes. But I felt that this dress needed its own special fabric. I went with this Lady McElroy linen/rayon blend and I’m so glad I did. I had initially thought of using something structured to create a more shirtdress look (like a linen or a cotton poplin), but the drape of the linen/rayon is actually perfect. I love how relaxed it looks.
For the sizing, I was kind of in between A + B because my measurements 34, 26, 37. Since it’s a wrap style dress though, I figured I could always adjust the tightness of the ties. I ended up going with size B because I didn’t want it to be too tight in the hips. It worked out just fine! My only complaint about the fit is that the bust is slightly too loose and tends to lay more open that I would like. I’m not sure if sizing down would have fixed that though.
Sewing the Atlas Dress Pattern
For a wrap dress that looks very put together, this is actually a pretty easy pattern. I did make some mods to my sleeves which simplified the construction a bit. I knew I was going to be in warm weather and I was in a time crunch, so I shortened the sleeves. This meant I didn’t need to worry about plackets or buttons.
The only hiccup I had in construction was the collar interfacing. The pattern instructs you to interface all collar pieces. The interfacing I chose was way too stiff. Because my fabric had such a nice drape, the super stiff collar looked ridiculous. I ended up redoing the whole collar with a really lightweight tailors interfacing and I’m so glad I did. However, I do think having to redo it left it looking slightly wonky.
Aside from the sleeves, if you’ve done a collar before you’ll find this one pretty straightforward. The pattern pieces are slightly odd shaped due to the wrap style, which caused some confusion for me at first. But once I re-read the directions a few times it wasn’t too bad.
Final thoughts
This pattern is such a gem! I’m so glad that I bought it and made it in time to wear on my honeymoon. I am absolutely going to be making more. I think next time I’ll go with my original plan of a structured linen because I’m loving the shirt dress look lately. Can’t wait to make another!
