I’ve never really been much of one for maxi dresses, although I’ve often admired them from afar. This summer, I wanted to change that and actually make one for a change, not least because, for reasons I’m not entirely sure of, maxi dresses are inexplicably linked to summer in my head. I had visions of wearing it to summer parties, of swanning around in it whilst wearing lovely sandals, and generally being a vision of summer.
In the end, due to the weird absence of a summer we’ve had in the UK this year, this dress has only been worn once (to a barbecue where it then unsurprisingly proceeded to pee it down, which led to some rather hasty alterations). However, next summer? Next summer I’ll be ready….
Remember two weeks ago when I wrote about having a dress to make for my birthday party? Well that party was last night, and I might just have made the deadline…..
It’s okay! You’re not seeing double! Or rather, you are, but it’s a fully intentional, taking-a-joke-too-far kind of double. It all started with a Christmas present…. Continue reading →
Aside from the secret cats? I made a couple of alterations to this after having made the underground dress, and it’s all the better for it. I could probably still take another centimetre off the straps, but otherwise it’s fitting and looking much better.
I also found the fabric was wonderfully easy to pattern match as the different cats made it easy to know where to lay out the pieces.
Honourable mention should go to the insertion of the invisible zip in this dress, which I expected to be a nightmare but which was near perfect (to my standards!) as you can see above.
What was bad about making this?
Pretty much nothing. It worked really well, I think I just want to take that one additional centimetre off…
Would you make it again?
Quite probably, I love the sit of the neckline on this dress and I have some lovely cotton I bought on ebay that is waiting for something like this….
Remember I mentioned that time I went fabric shopping with something of a hangover? Well floral fabric wasn’t the only thing my poor tired brain latched on to. It also found this:
What’s this? Why only the most inaccurate tube map you’ll ever see. Don’t believe me? Take a closer look at it and then compare it to this which is the actual tube map.
So wrong.
And yet…. so right. I knew I had to have it. So I did, and this was the result.
What is it?
A princess seamed bodice with a sweetheart neckline and gathered skirt.
Is it blue?
One of the lines is blue…
What’s the fabric and where’s it from?
Underground print cotton polycotton from a stall in the rag market. I’ve seen it elsewhere online.
I’d wanted to toile the Kim dress and this seemed like a good fabric to do it with. The instructions were really clear and it came together pretty quickly. I liked the construction of the bodice too.
I wore it for the first (and only, see below…) time on a London work day and had the miracle of not one but two complete strangers engaging me in nice conversations. Which made my day better too.
What was bad about making this?
The straps were way too long, but I didn’t find this out until I’d finished it. To get the neckline to sit in the right place (rather than half way down my bra…) I had to take at least 2 inches out of each side (maybe more). Which then meant that the waistline sits a bit too high. So although it fits it’s not as flattering as it could be. So it doesn’t get worn as much as it should.
I might get round to slashing it open and putting in a waist panel in to lengthen the bodice back out, or I might remake it using another £6 worth of fabric, or I might slash it and turn it into a skirt instead, but until then, every time I go to put it on I look at myself in the mirror and take it off again.
Would you make it again?
Yes as this was always meant to be a toile, although next time I’ll lose some length on the straps and add some length on the bodice to balance it out
Remember two weeks ago when I wrote about having a dress to make for my birthday party? Well that party was last night, and I might just have made the deadline…..
