Sunday, February 3, 2013

Mission Maxi - Modified

A few months ago (!) I made the Jamie Christina Mission Maxi Dress. I'm sure you're all familiar with this lovely pattern. I loved the dress made up as designed, but felt a bit self conscious when wearing it. It is designed to be form-fitting and I'm still not super-confident about my stomach after having a baby. I'm probably being a bit silly but I just couldn't relax when wearing it.

So I had the idea to modify the pattern to make it more 'flowy'. This was pretty easy. I just angled each pattern piece out from the bottom of the armhole. I did this after talking to Lisa about how she modified hers when in Tessuti one day. It was probably the most simple modification I've ever made.

So here she is:

You can sort of see my pattern matching here 

I made it in two remnants of viscose jersey I picked up in the Tessuti remnant sale. I've still got a lot of fabric left from the remnants, so this dress probably only cost me about $10 in fabric. Definitely my cheapest make of late.


I made a little belt to wear with it as Michael told me it was a bit too sack-like (I really can't help it - I love a good sack! I'm obviously a slob at heart).


I like it left loose too. This was my first time attaching binding in this manner on jersey and I love the finished product. The pattern directs you to stitch in the ditch around the binding on the front and it produces such a nice finish.

I have worn this dress ALOT this summer. I'm wearing it now with a cardigan (and without the belt - sorry honey!). I'm thinking I might even be able to wear it in autumn/early winter with boots and a thicker cardi. What do you think?