Last fall, I wrote about my fascination with the prairie-chic dresses from The Vampire’s Wife, but I never got around to making the dress because 2020 got in the way. As luck would have it, last month H&M unveiled its latest collaboration with none other than The Vampire’s Wife, so my much-delayed make actually ended up being quite timely. The H&M versions are extremely affordable at $19.99-$69.99 but they are rendered in a boring black fabric that I think strips away the sexiness that is the hallmark of the brand’s dresses. My version cost a little more (about $100 of this purple metallic brocade from Mood) but the luxuriousness of the fabric really ups the glamour of the finished dress:

I made the dress using McCall’s 8032. The pattern had the fit and flare silhouette, neck ruffle and puff sleeve that I was looking for, but it needed a few tweaks to look like the inspiration dress, modelled by the incomparable Thandie Newton:

I cut my usual size 10, grading to a size 12 in the waist, and took out 1/2 inch at the center back seam to account for my straight back. I cut a size 6 in the sleeve because I always find that the sleeves in McCall’s and Vogue patterns are far too big.

The dress was pretty easy to construct. I followed the pattern instructions to sew the bodice and neck ruffle, but narrowed the width of the ruffles at the sleeve and skirt hem to 1.5 inch (with 3/8 inch of seam or hem allowance at either side) and cut two tiers of ruffles instead of the one suggested in the pattern. I stitched one ruffle to the end of the sleeve, then sewed the other ruffle 1/2 inch above that to make the second tier of ruffles. I did the same with the ruffles at the skirt hem. The inspiration dress has three tiers of ruffles, but I thought that would be too much poof given that my fabric has a lot more body and shine than the fabric in the inspiration dress.

The biggest change I made was to the skirt pattern. The original skirt pattern was essentially a gathered knee-length circle skirt, and the skirt had far too much volume for my taste (especially when paired with the ruffles at the hem, which would be the sartorial equivalent to adding cotton candy to an already-voluminous soufflé). I narrowed the silhouette to an A-line above-the-knee skirt, which is much closer to the inspiration dress. I did it by simply pinching out the excess ease in the side seams while wearing the dress, but it would be even easier to use a skirt pattern from another dress pattern (there are tons of commercial patterns out there that could be used as the base for this narrower skirt, for example McCall’s 7994 View C).

Overall, this dress was a pretty simple and quick make (with the exception of the miles of hemming on the tiers of ruffles - those tried my patience!). I love the finished dress, and now I just need to find ways to wear it, which of course is a challenge when everyone is staying home and there won’t be any holiday parties - I might have to resort to throwing a virtual cocktail party just to have an excuse to wear this dress!

Do you want to make your own look-a-like Vampire’s Wife dress? I’ve put together a checklist that walks through how to hack McCall’s 8032 to make this dress - just click on the button below to get it! If you’re interested in a sew-along with video tutorials showing each step in the process, let me know in the comments and I’ll put it together.

UPDATE: I am moving and I need to clean out my (overflowing) closet of handmade items! I love this dress but there just isn’t enough room in my new place for it. If you’d like to become the owner of this unique piece, check out my shop here.