The Westcliff Dress by Friday Pattern Company has been on my radar since it first came out, however despite eyeing it up constantly I never chose to buy or make it.
Until now!
The Westcliff is a faux wrap dress - the top has some little gathers into a shoulder yoke, a wrap front, but the top is sewn entirely into a skirt so there is no wrap around or inadvertent flashing to contend with.
The intended dress was supposed to meet the brief of 'winter appropriate maxi dress to be worn with boots'. It absolutely did not meet this criteria but I love it anyway.
My first attempt at the Westcliff was with this great neon leopard jersey just to test the fit.
According to the charts I was an XL-XXL and so that's what I made. I would say that was pretty accurate! It is a stretch jersey dress and so there is of course leeway on fit which is great.
My only adjustment was to take a little wedge out of the back bodice as I was getting pooling from sway back. There is a belt that you can add over the top of the waist seam and so it hides that a little anyway.
I think this will be a great dress for Spring. I can't put tights under this as the jersey just sticks and gets annoying. It is however a very comfortable option to throw on when it's a bit warmer.
My actual vision for this pattern was a stretch crepe black Cobra Corsage version. I did previously try to make a maxi in this which was an epic fail as it was so thin. I had convinced myself I just bought a 'bad batch' and so gambled on another piece.
Nope. It's still very thin and also not very black. HOWEVER, armed with a much better pattern idea the end result was surprising. After some fiddling....
The top went together just fine however upon attaching the skirt, the weight of the skirt itself pulled the top down a whopping 4 inches. I did a bit of creative pinning and took 2 inches our of the bodice and the skirt to get rid of the drop.
It's also incredibly long! I'm wearing trainers under it here and I don't know whether to take it up a little or not. Time will tell.
The casual maxi-dress I was after is now a bit more of a fancy dress! I didn't have enough fabric left for a belt and so popped this leather wrap over the top which I quite like.
The dress is fairly sheer which is ok (ish) on a dull day in the photos - but I will have to test it out when it is brighter.
In looking back for the fabric details I discovered Chelsea from Friday Pattern Company has made the exact same dress!! Her's looks much better though and has that casual vibe I wanted.
I do really like this dress, and pattern, and would definitely make it again. The cotton jersey definitely worked a lot better to hold it's shape though. This one can be a drapey evening dress.
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