Florida vacation + 3 meters of gorgeous fabric from Barcelona = excuse to make a maxi dress (although, does one need an excuse? Hardly!)
We just celebrated our first wedding anniversary this past weekend (crazy, time flies!) and decided to do a little getaway trip to Florida for a couple of warm days by a fancy swimming pool, some welcome relief after the cold spring we’re experiencing in Boston. Like a lot of sewists, I always try to make something new to take on a trip and wanted something special to wear on our anniversary. I had a maxi dress in mind with this floral polyester crepe I bought in Barcelona last month, and with the Saltspring pattern on my “to sew” list for a while now, the two seemed like the perfect match.
This pattern is brilliant – the proportion of the blousing of the outer layer is just right and I appreciated the use of the waist seam allowances as a casing for the elastic!
I followed the pattern to a “T,” but after reading a bunch of pattern reviews online, I opted to skip the zipper in the back – I knew I wasn’t going to have a hard time pulling the dress on over my head since the bodice looked pretty roomy. I didn’t have enough fabric to cut the back bodice pieces on the fold, but that’s ok since the print is pretty busy.
I got sunburned on my chest the first day we were there…oops. It’s much worse than what you’re seeing!
The ties are pretty long and I know some people ended up shortening them, which I may do in the future after wearing it a few times if they start bugging me. And let me tell you – using a bobby pin to turn narrow tubes is a life-saver in situations like this, I definitely recommend watching this video if you’ve never tried it.
I don’t have much to say about this dress since the pattern is pretty much perfect, although I wish I looked at the skirt length before I cut out my fabric – it’s a little short for my personal liking as a maxi and I made a baby hem in the skirt to keep as much length as possible (for reference, I’m 5’8″). Other than that, I’m thrilled with this new addition to my summer wardrobe – now if only the warm weather from Florida followed us back home!
Fabric: poly crepe from Ribes y Casals Barcelona
Gosh Elle, I adore this dress!!! I almost bought this pattern last week and now after seeing your dress, I wish I had picked it up!! You look great!
Ok…so I tried to comment on elleggee’s blog and the comment popped up here on yours! Sorry about that! Let’s try this again….
Happy Anniversary! You look fantastic in your dress!
What a lovely dress! That fabric is a perfect match for a delicate maxi dress like this one. It’s certainly a great anniversary-slash-vacation dress: congratulations to you both on that special milestone!