TL; DR – Thank goodness for color photograph tutorials, but sometimes it would be nice to see the larger context rather than a close-up.

Remember the green dress that inspired my Wildwood Wrap Dress? Yeah, I finally kinda have one!

Since my body has changed, and my neurodivergent brain refuses to reprint and retape patterns I had printed and taped previously but has no problem printing and taping an entirely NEW pattern, I was looking for a “new” Wildwood dress pattern. Enter the Helena Wrap Dress from Just Patterns.

I decided to try it out first using the peach striped fabric I got from my local buy-nothing group, and loved how it turned out (um…three months ago – I’ve been distracted), and so broke out the green linen blend which isn’t quite the deep green, but a wonderful shade nonetheless.

I really appreciated the way the pattern does the back/neck facing, but wow it was hard to visualize. Thankfully, between the blog tutorial and the included instructions I was able to piece it together. What made it harder (for me) is that it zoomed in on the step, but I couldn’t tell how they got to the step and/or how it related to the rest of the pieces I was trying to sew together. Like, I get that I am supposed to join them at the two right-angles, but WHICH ONES?

The wrap/best is also really ingenious, but as always I forget to read the instructions and don’t cut out enough of the pieces, so interior of the green dress belt/waist is white. I also didn’t check if the green fabric was 45″ wide or a larger 55-60″ wide which MATTERED and why I have white pocket bags and white inner-ties.

Plus the white fabric was lighter weight than the green fabric which was it’s own special kind of hell.

Anyway, obviously I like the pattern because I’ve already made it twice. Hooray.