Saturday, September 1, 2012

that's a wrap!

have you seen this?
 
The Bina Wrap

I first ran across it on pinterest. i saw this pin,
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which led me to this tute
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i was totally intrigued. so i decided to research the original product, which i started this post off with. there are so many ways to wear this wrap. i loved the idea and the concept. so i went to my stash to see what knit fabric i had. i don't have many. i have a winter white that is a medium weight, a wonderful soft teal that is a light weight and a soft blue that is also a medium weight. i felt all would be versatile with my wardrobe and so i began looking at the tutes available to make my own.
i chose the winter white knit fabric. i decided that i liked the idea of having two side seams to help with the support and shaping of the fabric. the tricky part was trying to figure out just how much fabric to use.  the tute above gives the guidance of three time the width of your hips. but then i discovered this tute

Peaceably Pretty: DIY Bina Wrap Cardigan ~another tute on the bina. a little more helpful as far as measurements go
http://pinterest.com/pin/145381894192257870/

and she said she didn't feel you needed that much in the back. so i adjusted the width of the back. i ended up with a back panel that measured 48 inches and two front panels that were 24 inches. i made my armholes 13 inches wide. after all i began to realize that this was not an exact science sort of garment. i ended up trying a couple of the styles out of the wrap. did i take pictures? uh ho ho ho, uh no. i don't think so. but i will share some of my discoveries with  you.

 discovery #1:  the back needs to be wide because of the way you wrap this....wrap(embarrassed grin) around yourself.
discovery #2: you need a light weight knit. it is amazing how fast this garment gets heavy with the fabric bunched up on your shoulders and around your neck.
  discovery #3: even though the armholes might look big, they need to be at least big enough to slip over your head and to be able to dangle off one shoulder (for the tunic).
discovery #4:  that you can decide which length to make it, but it's a bit easier to achieve the looks with the garment on the longer side than shorter.
and discovery #5: the most interesting aspect of this wrap, that i wish i had noticed before i even began this experiment. this wrap is better suited to a thinner person.
it was one of those head slapping durh! moments. i suddenly noticed the very obvious. the one thing that all the tutes and the website itself has in common, all the models are THIN. i am probably best described as....curvy or rubenesque. or let say i would prefer to be described that way. i am, nor have i ever been, thin or svelte.
i was playing around with my medium weight winter white knit wrap. i was bunching here and placing my left arm there, and every time i looked in the mirror i suddenly had added an extra 5 to 20 pounds of wrinkle to my curvy self. yeah not really the effect i was looking for. i then decided maybe i had too much yardage. i decided to try the soft blue medium weight knit fabric. it was a smaller piece and a little bit lighter. on this piece i was feeling daring and just decided to cut the slits in the fabric for the arm holes as opposed to seaming. this second attempt was when i learned the reason for the large back panel. and no matter how much yardage i had or didn't have this was just not the garment for me. so i folded up my knit fabric and decided that's a wrap!

Cheers!


6 comments:

  1. Super cute! Although if that were on a big ol' fatty like me.... it would look like I snagged a blanket off of my bed and wrapped it around me. Not to pretty I'm sure lol

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  2. What a cute wrap. Thanks so much for visiting and following me. I hope you have a great week.

    blessings,
    Danielle

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  3. well thank you so much. i was going to make this but i am a plus size and after reading this i think i am not going to.

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  4. I am ridiculously thankful for your post. I too am um...Reubenesque! And I've seen this all over Pinterest as well. So YAY for your post, as I've ALSO been searching for any reviews from plus size peeps and came upon yours tonight! Sadly, as I kind of suspected, it seems as though it's kind of bust for we curvy gals! Thanks for sharing your results!

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  5. I am ridiculously thankful for your post. I too am um...Reubenesque! And I've seen this all over Pinterest as well. So YAY for your post, as I've ALSO been searching for any reviews from plus size peeps and came upon yours tonight! Sadly, as I kind of suspected, it seems as though it's kind of bust for we curvy gals! Thanks for sharing your results!

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  6. I want to also chime in and say thanks for the review. Also plus sized and since I am horrible at making all things fabric I thought about purchasing it. However, the "one size fits all" idea made me extremely worried. Glad I came across this before I tried to purchase or make!

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