Madeline’s Maze Dress

This was going to be my submission for the ‘One Pattern Two Ways’ contest of the week; but alas, I made it as far as the number one make.  It’s been awhile since I’ve made two dresses in one week, and when traveling and two whole days spent at the pool happen during that week, I was surprised to end up with even one dress.  If only I had my sewing act together this month!  One make will do, for now.

This is my first time ever participating in Indie pattern month, and even though I won’t be eligible for any of the contests so far, I am happy to be posting something for the month.  I have found several new Indie designers, and I have a new list of things I want to make because of it.  It’s a great month over here on the Monthly Stitch!

This is the Madeline maxi dress from Serendipity Studios – one of my favorite Indie pattern designers.  This dress is style number five (I think) that I have made from Kay Whitt’s pattern line.  I love how versatile every one of her dresses are with many ways to make each one your own.  It would have been so easy to make this one in two ways, which I still intend on doing, and hopefully before the month is over.

The pattern is a maxi dress, but I made the shortened version.  I kept it simple by using only one contrasting fabric for both the neck and waist band.  Polka dots go with a square maze print, don’t they?  Speaking of maze print, I had no clue what to call this one, and didn’t even notice the print was so very ‘maze’ like until a friend commented on Facebook.  Now all I see is one great big maze of a dress.

I got the material at Hobby Lobby, both pieces were on seasonal sale, so basically I couldn’t have left the store without them.  Fabric sales get me EVERY TIME!  I ended up liking the material even more after I washed it and noticed how little it wrinkled.  My only problem with making the kind of dresses that I do – cotton – is all the ironing involved, and then the wrinkled look once I arrive where ever it is I am going in a homemade dress.  (Tell me I am not the only one with this problem.)

This dress was easy to make, the instructions are a breeze to follow, and the only thing I did differently was to stay stitch the neck trim.  You are told to stay stitch the neck line, which I did, but then I couldn’t get the neck trim to line up correctly, so I stay stitched that too.  It was perfectly in line after that.  I debated putting in an exposed zipper with this one, but ended up using an invisible one as called for in the pattern.  My next version will probably have one exposed since I like the look of them so much.

That’s all the details I have about this one.  I am going to go ahead and post these next two pictures even though they are not the best, but one of them is the best shot I got of the back of the dress, and the other was the best I got try while trying out a new photo location in my backyard.  If I sometimes think it’s hard keeping my subject in focus when it’s an inanimate object, let me tell you it’s even harder when the subject is yourself, and you’re trying out a different lens with the self-timer.  Plus, it’s even trickier when you just realized you might have been standing too close to what looks like poison ivy, and the bees keep buzzing you mid picture.  Ah, self-photographer problems, I guess.  I’ll just go ahead and file these under the outtakes.  

Thanks for reading, and as always, I would love to hear your thoughts.  You can also find this post and more over on my blog: rejoicefortheday.com.