[Tested] P4P Wiggle Dress

Recently, Patterns for Pirates had a Next Top Tester contest, I joined figuring if nothing else it would be a new and different experience. It was a completely crazy week with over 500 of us in the testing group doing mens, womens and kids versions of their free Walk the Plank Pajama bottoms. I’ll admit that I’m not a fan of my first pair. I did shorts and there was an issue with the leg width for the plus sizes. This did get fixed for the released version, but we didn’t test it.

I’ve since sized down and had much more luck, but I was just barely in my assigned size for hip – my waist measurement is smaller. I even went on a crazy, full day of making 7 pairs while packing for a trip to get pictures of my extended family – matching – done in time for the testing! Seriously, I drove around and bought fabric that morning and by 10PM was running out the door hoping I remembered to pack everything with 7 pairs of plaid pants. Needless to say – I didn’t win the contest.

My P4P Walk The Plank Top Tester

Matching Walk The Plank pants

What I did get was an email inviting me to join the general tester group for P4P, M4M and Cole’s Creations! Exciting, right!? It’s been about two weeks and I’m really enjoying even just watching the interactions between all of these women. Some of them are sewing idols for the rest of us. And now I’m working with them!

 

So anyway, just after I joined the group they had a tester call for a new dress (perfection embodied) from P4P – I’m sure you’ve been seeing the sneaks the last few days. I was totally in love, I had to make it. I told my husband it was dreamy. It’s reminiscent of a classic pinup wiggle (get the name?), but the floor length also flares out into a modern mermaid cut. There are so many options it’s almost insane. For real. There’s two top lengths, two bodice styles, 4 dress lengths, 4 sleeve lengths, a kick pleat option and a zipper option. Stable knits like scuba and ponte are recommended, but a few of us definitely did less structured pieces and it works, too. There’s also a ton of hacks on their blog, which you should go check out because they’re pretty incredible. Think separates, buttons, lace, full zipper, mashing with other p4p patterns…

 

We went through so many versions in testing to make sure this perfect, but I want to put a disclaimer here: Everyone’s body is different. Everyone’s shape is different. You might fit the measurements perfectly but this is a FITTED dress – if your hip curves higher or lower or you have more booty than sideways hip, you’re going to need small adjustments. The best way to do this is to construct the dress or even just baste it together and put it on inside out. Pinch out any excess and pin so that you can see for your curves. For example, I might curve the low back a little more to account for my extreme swayback or shorten a touch just at the hips. Some of my versions this is more obviously needed than others, depending on which version I was working with at the time.

 

All in all, it’s a quick sew and really isn’t much of a fabric hog even for bigger sizes. It makes it easy to get a beautiful dress for a pretty small cost.

One of my dresses is made from $4.95/yard Walmart fabric, can you guess which one?

And since we’re days away from Halloween… Morticia Addams inspiration, anyone? Add on some lace bell sleeves and you’re good to go! Need some other costume ideas? Use the separates hack and become a mermaid like Katy, make it in red and go Jessica Rabbit, pick a short dress for Marilyn Monroe pinup or make a leather off shoulder crop top and be Sandy (one of the other testers did!).

Late last night I started thinking about how many different options you have in this pattern. Which is something I try to think about when buying a pattern, because then I’ll get more out of it. I think I did the math right,  and there’s 256 possible combinations! 9 top/dress lengths * 2 shoulder options * 2 back options * 2 back neck options * 4 sleeve lengths = 256. Before hacks. That’s a lot.

See you next time, until then – happy sewing!

 

Links/Patterns in this post

P4P Wiggle Dress

Wiggle Dress Blog Hacks

Album of Tester Pics

Walk The Plank PJ Bottoms-Youth

Walk The Plank PJ Bottoms-Adult

*As always, there are some affiliate links sprinkled throughout my post in an effort to one day turn my hobby into something that could be self sustainable.