I sewed some frosting!! I’ve made this dress probably half a year ago but never got a chance to take photos with them, until now. I got these gorgeous border fabric from fabricmart, and wanted to make a cute 50s dress with them. The fabric is beautiful – a black stretchy jean material with white embroidery. the embroidery area is a lot wider than I had anticipated. so to keep it proportional I decided to make a maxi dress out of it.
I took the top from a very basic pattern McCall’s 3571, and cut the pattern off straight 1 inch below waistline. The funny thing is that I had cut out my size, but had to take it in aggressively on the sides to make it fit. But I wanted the seams in the front to move more to the side anyways, so it worked out. After I made the top part, I tried it on and felt that it was too floppy, especially that I dont plan to wear a bra with this. So I impulsively put in boning. I didnt remember working with boning before at that point – though I have some left over boning in my stash, which was weird. Anyways, putting in boning was not as daunting as I thought. Its easier than sewing in a zipper! I then lined it with comfortable cotton on the inside. The bottom is a rectangular gathered piece.
Its a little roomy for me but the belt helps clinch the waist and make it stay in place. Also that mitigates the very horizontal seam which I tend to dislike. I decided not to take it in since I am sure I will get chubbier as I grow wiser 😛 this way I can enjoy the dress now and in the future!
This was a pre-kat-dress project. After I made the kat dress, I realized that this dress would be much more awesome with the kat dress pattern and Jen’s maxi dress version. Also I really wish I put in ribbons in the lining so I can hang it up normally. Oh well! next time! 🙂
I really love the result! Its a bit dressy, so I only got to wear it once so far to a good friend’s wedding at an auto museum, which was a perfect location for this dress! 🙂
I also feel very princess-y in this dress.
It was very very windy that day.
A good day to contemplate important questions: will this be in fashion when little K grows up? will she want to wear it to one of her dances??? Because I sure dont have fancy events to go to to wear this for a long while… hmmmmmm.
JuebeJue 
Love it! But dressy? Nah-uh. You can wear it out in the neighborhood and you’ll just be a hot mama!
lol, cant imagine the looks i’ll be getting! ;P
Very cute! I am always worried about sleeveless clothing falling down. It’s always been a problem on me! I wish I could wear something like this. 🙂
haha, actually i forgot to mention that that was one of the reason for adding the ties across waist – this was falling off my rack too. the key is to make the dress very fitted at your waist!
This is cute, and totally appropriate for all sorts of occasions! 🙂 I say wear it whenever you want! 😉
😉 i will need a lot of courage!!!
What a pretty dress! Found your blog via The Scientific Seamstress, and will be returning often 🙂