Midi Maxi

Hey-o,

How's ere'one doing?  My weekend is winding down nicely, I hope yours is as well.  We had such pleasant weather this weekend, it was awesome.

So have you all heard about #sewingdares?  At the beginning of the month over at Crafting a Rainbow Gillian was doling out sewing dares for those that were interested and I was definitely interested.  She suggested either I go for the newest pattern from Grainline Studios, the Morris Blazer, or if I wasn't up for purchasing a new pattern, a maxi dress.  Well, I opted for both.  Why not right?  I figure I'll do my best and if it doesn't work out, it ain't no thang.

Well, here's part one:

A (midi) maxi.  This was actually the dress I started before temporarily giving up to work on my soma.  I finally got my act together and figured out how to make a chevron.  ::pats myself on the back:: I'll share the secret with you.  Cut one half on the bias and then match the stripes, .... do not lay your original piece on top of the remaining fabric and create a chevron before cutting. Creating a chevron will give you two pieces that continue the bias... aka diagonal lines... it will be maddening...you will hate it, ... so don't do that.  Here's a shot where you can actually see the chevron I worked so hard on:

Chevron aside, this dress was pretty straight forward, it was basically a knock off of a shirred top maxi dress I already own that I had cut the bottom off to create a midi length.  Why midi you ask?  Well basically I find floor length stretch jersey to be a 'busting your face while climbing up the stairs"-hazard.  So on my last one I snipped off the bottom and I figured I might as well do the same here.  Plus this fabric can get a bit sheer in direct light so I'll probably only use it as a casual coverup anyways.

This was the first time I used the technique of shirring with elastic thread in the bobbin.  Once I really took the time to understand my bobbin it was actually quite easy.  I sewed everything together except one side seam and then just shirred my booty off until the top was all done and then blasted it with steam:

After that I sewed up the remaining side seam and it was done.  Easy peasy.  Thankfully my Morris Blazer pattern came in the mail on Thursday so I'm all set for challenge number two.  Tune in next week peeps and have a good week!