Saturday, May 27, 2023

Testing, testing: Cris Wood Sews Glow Dress

Feeling floaty and fancy in this dress. With a hint of a summer glow, perhaps?

This is the newest Cris Wood Sews pattern, the Glow Dress. I was a pattern tester for this pattern. 


Note: Cris Wood Sews provided me a copy of the draft pattern, $40 for fabric and a discount to Stonemountain and Daughter to buy fabric for the test, in exchange for feedback on the instructions and pattern. I was not required to post about my dress.

The Glow Dress is a mid-length dress with a blousy V-neck bodice, elasticized shoulders and an elasticized waist. The skirt is tiered with a flat upper skirt and gathered lower skirt.

The Glow Dress is designed for lightweight fabrics that are at least 54 inches wide. 

For mine, I used a designer deadstock slubbed viscose/linen in a beautiful red/orange color called blood orange from Stonemountain and Daughter. It's a very light and floaty fabric, with a lovely texture. The color is pretty stunning, too.

The Glow pattern, like other patterns from Cris Wood, is not zero-waste, but low waste, with no paper pattern to print out and pattern pieces that are primarily squares and rectangles, making good use of the fabric. 

You take your body measurements and input them into a series of formulas to calculate the length and width of your pattern pieces.

The Glow Dress is quite cleverly constructed and very simple to sew. It does challenge your ability to cut straight lines on a slippery fabric, though! Luckily the design is pretty forgiving.

I made my Glow Dress pretty true to the instructions. I did add 2 inches to the lower skirt length to accommodate my height (the instructions are for a 5'5" height) and because I ended up with selvage at the hem, I didn't hem my dress, either, which added another inch of length. As a result, mine is closer to ankle length rather than midi length. 

In the future the only change I might consider is using a wider elastic at the waist, particularly if I used a fabric heavier than this one. The pattern calls for 1/4" wide elastic and sometimes I find the weight of the skirt is pulling the waistline down. 


I'm really delighted with my Glow dress! I love the proportions of the skirt, in particular, and the elastic at the shoulders is quite cute. The overall look is very elegant, but still pretty casual.