Monday 25 December 2017

Making: Simple Maxi, Long-Sleeve Dress with Elasticated Waist

Happy Holidays from Lapland!!! Here's my last DIY of the year - I did some standard panic sewing when I realized a couple of days before flying back home, I had nothing to wear for Christmas dinner.. The basic idea of this dress was almost the same as this one here, just with some simplification because I only had just over 2 meters of fabric (no ruffle details, no yoke, no gathering of the waist before adding the elastic). I'm EU36/US4.

My sewing year 2017 wasn't as productive as I would like, which can happen when you actually need to go to an office every day, to afford all the fabric you want to buy.. So here's to a 2018 full of MORE sewing!

Tutorials take a lot of time & effort to create, and I choose to make mine available for free. If you enjoy this guide, you can support me with a donation that feels right for you, here.


TOOLS:
Fabric (cotton, crepe, almost any type that's flowy will do) 2.5-3 m (I used 2.3 meters but it was the ultimate Tetris exercise, no need to put yourself through that)  |  Scissors  |  Thread & Sewing machine  |  Pins  |  Not in image but enough thin elastic to go around your waist + 1 button

I. To make my skirt with the little fabric I had, I cut 4 pieces the shape of a trapezoid, about double as wide at the bottom as at the top (it doesn't look like that in the image below due to the weird angle I took it in, but it's true). The length for me was about 95 cm for an ankle-length maxi.

II. Then I cut my top pieces, two pieces, same measurements, just the front piece with a scooped neckline.
III. When I got to the sleeves, I was running out of fabric. So I had to make them out of a main piece and an extension:)
IV. Then I assembled the whole thing, same steps as here, just leaving out any neckline or sleeve ruffles (I finished those with a double-fold). Also added a couple of darts to the neckline at the back for a better fit, and made a keyhole opening with a little button closure. Here's one keyhole method.
Closer look at the keyhole.
And finally, after attaching the top to the skirt, I added the elastic by sewing it with a zig-zag onto the seam allowance of the waist seam, on the reverse.
Definitely not cold...:)
xo,

Julia

4 comments:

  1. Happy Holidays from Lapland!!! Here's my last DIY of the year - I did some standard panic buffet near me chinese sewing when I realized a couple of days before flying back home

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  2. I am in love with your ideas. I've used some of your previous ideas to make some good dresses for me. I am a party girl always tries to be the best paper writing service 2018 . I was following you for last few months. Thanks a lot for all the designs that you have shared with us.

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  3. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  4. Just bumped on to your blog while searching for indo western wedding dresses. Went through a couple of posts, they are awesome. Thank you for sharing beautiful designs

    ReplyDelete

I would love to hear what you think and learn about your DIY adventures! If you use one of my tutorials, tag me on social @contour_affair, I'd love to see!

 

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