A Modern(Ish) Maxi Dress

Why hello there! Want to see the dress I made? Here it is!

I am really excited because I actually made this dress entirely myself. I even drafted my own pattern!

I will tell you a little more about the process.

I decided yesterday that I wanted a maxi dress. The weather has been really warm and balmy...but not quite hot. Perfect maxi dress weather! Now, being freakishly tall (6'1"), I can never find maxi dresses that are long enough. Plus I wanted to make it myself because it would fit better.

So I consulted Pinterest, and while there were quite a few tutorials, they did not please me. Most of them were basically giant, shapeless sacks. Who the heck does that look good on? No one. Wait, I take the back, stick bugs could probably rock it. But any woman with a body fat percentage over 18% would not look great. So I knew that was no way to go. So I decided to draft my own pattern. I am no where near an experienced seamstress, but I just went for it. I actually didn't use a pattern for the skirt, I just took measurements. For the bodice I took a bunch of measurements, marked it on some interfacing and cut it out. I made it larger so I could add bust darts (which I didn't actually do until after I attached the skirt).

The skirt.

The skirt actually started out as a mistake. Me, forgetting that I wasn't a stick bug, forgot to make the skirt wider around my hips than it was around my waist. Hahah! It was terrible and I almost gave up, but I had enough scraps to make it better. Rather than just sew the panels back in, I was inspired to try something else. I sewed my two strips together and then pleated the top, basted them, and sewed it into the skirt. I really like how it turned out! Isn't it funny how mistakes work out and sometimes make things better?

I think the "bustle" adds a lot of interest to the dress where there would not have been. I certainly know that no other girl will be wearing my dress! I used a blue and white striped jersey fabric. It was also my first time using jersey. Even though I was yelling at my fabric every 5 seconds while I was making it, I actually didn't mind it too much, and after I was done I decided I didn't mind at all because the drape of jersey is so nice, yet it feels like pajamas.

It was really, really windy today and rained on and off.

Anyway, there you have it, a new dress!


Outfit

Dress ~ Made by me with a custom pattern
Shoes ~ Kohl's a few years ago
Butterfly Hair Piece ~ From my sisters Etsy shop, LoveYourQueen