Floral Maxi Dress

I tried to make this dress a couple of weeks ago but it turned into a disaster, so I immediately ordered some more fabric which I thought would be more suitable as it had a bit more stretch to it. I picked some fabric from Girl Charlee which I had used before for infinity scarves and so I knew I liked the print.

I used the same self drafted pattern pieces as I did for my body con dress and the disaster version of this one but just added so width to the sides as I knew it was tight before. I just cut out 1 large rectangle for the skirt the width of the fabric and then the length that I wanted to skirt to be. 

I sewed the bodice together first but had to make some adjustments to the side seams and under the arms so that it didn’t bag too much just above my bust at the armholes. I then attached the sleeves and it helped with the sizing so much.

The next step was your gather the skirt. I made it into a skirt by sewing up length of the rectangle. I decided to use regular elastic instead of clear elastic as I thought I would be stronger and I had trouble using the clear elastic before. This worked so much better although I had to pull the fabric through my machine at the same time as stretching the elastic as it wasn’t moving through by itself. When I finished the skirt was bigger than I expected it to be, possible because of me over stretching it and so I decided to make another seam on the other side of the skirt and cut of the excess so that it was tight around my body. I was so pleased with the gathers, they were pretty even and so much better than my previous attempt!

Attaching the bodice to the skirt was straightforward on the overlocker now that the skirt was the right size and the elastic was in. To finish off I attached a neckband, I made it quite thin as I didn’t want it to be too heavy on the dress, and then hemmed the skirt and sleeves. The final touch was to add one of my brand new labels! I decided to use some fusible webbing to attach it as I didn’t want the stitching lines on the back of the dress.

This has definately made up for the disaster dress and restored my faith in my self drafted patterns! Love It!