Thursday, July 12, 2012

So I Tried to Make a Maxi Dress...

Have you seen all of the great maxi dresses on Pinterest? You know the ones that are soooo easy to make. "It only took me 10 minutes!" Umm, yeah right! Maybe if you are an avid sewer and have an awesome sewing machine. Wait! I'm getting ahead of myself a bit. My journey into making a maxi dress started here. I pinned this lovely 'simple' dress tutorial. Then I pinned this one! And finally I found this one!

I was so excited to try this "easy" tutorial. My friend Stacy pinned the exact same first dress and so we made a plan to make our dresses together. So she brought her sewing machine to my house and we set everything up on the kitchen table. We both purchased jersey knit fabric because we thought it would be more comfortable...big mistake...Huge! Some people swear sewing knits is easy as pie. Not so much! I think our first problem was this....
Just kidding! Whidbey didn't read us the directions. Although, maybe things would've turned out better if he had.

Here's what happened.
We followed the tutorial by wrapping our fabric around us 1 1/2 times then cutting the excess.

The next step was to sew it together so you have a huge tube. No problem there! Smooth sailing so far.

The next step was to wind elastic thread onto a bobbin and to keep the regular thread on the spool and sew around what will be the top of the skirt. This is where we ran into problems. The elastic thread wasn't being so elastic and this is what happened to Stacy's skirt. Like she said, it looks like the "before" skirt in a weight loss photo ;)


It didn't work - so I decided to sew it using regular thread and along the way stop to pull the bobbin thread to create a gather while Stacy used the seam ripper. 

Funny thing happened. I created a lovely bag! Yup. Rather than sewing around the waistline I sewed it together. "Hey Stacy, throw me the seam ripper!" After ripping the seam that I created out I sewed around the waistline the correct way gathering it along the way. After doing that it was time to try it on for size.

This is why they say to use elastic thread! I got stuck. Stacy saved me - after she had to take a pic. I ripped that seam out too. By this time three hours have passed and I said F#$@ it and grabbed some elastic from my stash. I created a pocket to thread the elastic through to create a SIMPLE elastic waisted skirt.
Stacy did too.

This is where the pictures stop because you can't imagine what else went wrong. Seriously, you can't. It makes me giggle just thinking about it. Stacy's dress turned out really cute (and I forgot to get a pic - we were starving) and my skirt turned out good - I gave up after I got the skirt completed. I also created a simple sash to wear with mine to disguise the fact that it's a skirt and not a dress. I'm glad I did because look at all of the ways I can wear it!


*tank and jean jacket: old navy - belt (old) - necklace: kohl's - fabric: Joann's

Have you made a Maxi Dress/Skirt Yet? 

Katie said...

I love it!! When I made mine I made quite a few mistakes but hopefully if I make another one it will go much faster! love the color too!

Sarah said...

I made a maxi skirt the other day and I dont have a sewing machine so I sewed it by hand.... it actually turned out pretty good but the waist is a little too big!

Michelle said...

Hahaha! This is too funny. But it turned out great! This is good to know, because I plan on making one as soon as my sewing machine and I get acquainted :)

Bev said...

loveeee this!!! Even through your blopers, it looks amazing! Love the different ways you can wear it too! YOU ROCK ;)

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