I Always Get What I Want

I was too lazy to drag out the tripod...

   
        This summer I decided that my must have item was a maxi dress. It took me a while to warm up to them and see them as something other than pregnancy garb. No offense to you, Jennie (my fab sister in law) and it certainly wasn't you who gave me the idea that maxi dresses are only for preggos. There's something about that empire waist and the long skirt...it just looks like something that would be perfect to wear while cooking a bun in the oven.
       Former beliefs and ideas set aside, I still wanted a maxi dress. Earlier this year, I found a lovely maxi dress at Forever 21. It was cheap. It was sooooo comfortable. It looked great on me. So why did I put it back? I haven't a clue because I haven't been able to stop thinking about it ever since. I'd show you a picture of it, but I can't find one for the life of me. All I have is the memory of the perfect maxi dress to comfort me.
       Well, I couldn't take it anymore. I needed that dress. So I did what any good, stubborn, girl would do: I made it. And here's how:






First, I started out with a sketch of what I wanted. This is similar to what the dress at Forever 21 looked like, but I altered it to better fit my taste and my sewing abilities. I also made a swatch of diagonally striped fabric to make sure that the technique I had in mind would actually achieve the effect that I wanted.



Next, it was time to pick out my fabric and get to work! I'm lazy and the summer time just makes it worse. I didn't want the hassle of looking for a knit fabric (which I already knew what going to be a pain to work with) in four different colors that were all the same weight. What's the easiest way to get a bunch of cotton knit fabric in a multitude of colors?

 T-Shirts!

 

I picked up seven adult XL t-shirts in the colors that I thought I would need, including two black shirts that are not pictured. I chose XL for the sheer volume of fabric. Each shirt was easily two yards of fabric and they only cost $2 each. Sooooo much cheaper than buying knit fabric off the bolt!

      My plan was simple: Cut each shirt into bands of my desired width, sew them together, then lay out and cut the stripes to the shape needed for the dress. The best laid plans result in the worst disasters...

 I cut each shirt into two strips, each about eight inches wide. I used my very professional looking ruler to do so. I left the hemlines of the shirts as they were so I wouldn't have to work with a raw edge on every strip (again, because I'm lazy).

 Cutting the fabric was the easy part of this project. It was deceptively easy.

My next step was to sew the strips together in the color order that I wanted. Enter Bertha: the toughest machine I know.

She makes me so happy!

Sewing knit fabrics is tough. It likes to stretch, so when it goes in the machine (which tightens and pulls it) the stitches don't actually secure the fabric exactly where you want it to. Going fast is not an option or the fabric is just going to be destroyed, so I had to use the slow setting for an exceedingly BORING task. This is halfway through the first panel. Sewing all of these little stripes together took somewhere between 2 and 4 hours...I took a lot of breaks so this is a very poor estimate.

After finally finishing the front and back panels, it was time to construct the shape of the dress. I thought this was going to be a piece of cake: just throw it on the dress form, pin it in place, sew it, and cut of the excess from the interior. :D

HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!!!!!

       I started draping the fabric and a day and half later I finally had a shape that somewhat resembled a dress. In order to create that shape, though, I had to add fabric all over the place. I had to split stripes and add some black panels just to get the gaps to close and the hem to even out.
       I finally got everything to the right length and shape after MUCH blood, sweat, tears, and cursing. I'm very happy with the outcome. I like how the color blocking gets a little chaotic near the bottom of the dress.
       For the top, I used a swimsuit as a model and fashioned it out of two layers of t-shirt scraps. I ran out of pink and gray, so I decided that using blue and black would provide a high contrast and give off the illusion that I did it on purpose. :)

 


   My original sketch had a crossed strap back, but that didn't provide enough support and the back of the dress began to sag. So , I just added another cross with the length that was left over.

       Moral of the story: I always get what I want.

=D