I love that this pattern is a “gown” and not just a “dress”. It makes it sound so fancy!

This pattern has been on my radar for since its release by Friday Pattern Co last year. There have been tons of gorgeous versions of this dress floating around on social media. After a lot of umm-ing and ah-ing over whether I need yet another loose fit tiered gathered dress, I ended up just going for it!

The main thing that drew me to the Wilder Gown was the neckline. The neckline is closed with a tie with creates a gathered ruffle all the way around. Clearly I’m a sucker for ruffles on a pattern!

The bodice has a front opening and raglan sleeves. It’s an empire style bodice ie it’s super short. I actually lengthened mine slightly – the first time I’ve ever done that! As much as I love a short bodice, I wanted to be able to belt this at my natural waist so I felt that a slightly more elongated bodice would be better.

I used a black and white animal print fabric from The Textile Centre for this. It’s a polyester peachskin fabric so not the most ideal substrate but I loved the print too much to leave!

I couldn’t just make the Wilder gown straight out of the packet as such. I had plans on hacking it of course!

I widened and lengthened the sleeve (using the By Hand London Hannah bishop sleeve pattern as a guide). I sewed a wide channel at the wrist to allow for a gathered cuff similar to the neckline.

The skirt I chose to make in three short tiers and used multiple widths of the fabric to create all those gathers!

I also added pockets!

Now I won’t lie, unbelted I feel like I’m drowning in this dress. It is A LOT of fabric!

In general I really like how this dress turned out. I think that gathered raglan neckline / ruffle is genius! I think the static from the polyester fabric may put me off wearing it too much though! 😂