Precious Maxi Dress

Today it is December First, the first day of a month packed with holiday events. School, work, sport clubs and day care are all celebrating the end of the year, which means that our family is running from celebration to celebration while having progress conversations at school, finishing up work before year's end, packing for our yearly trip etc. To get a running start in an attempt not to get overwhelmed with all last minute stuff I already fished my eldest's party dress, a Precious Dress from the Scientific Seamstress.

The Scientific Seamstress is organizing a #ssholiday event during which many different bloggers show off their version of one of the SS patterns. My eldest has been begging me for a maxi dress ever since I made my middle daughter this one, so when I saw the Precious Dress pattern I immediately knew what my contribution to the tour would be, a maxi Precious. The Precious by itself comes in three different lengths, but maxi isn't one of it. It is very easy to determine the right length for a maxi by following the "measurement method"in the pattern.

The pattern has an optional apron. By tying the sashes of the apron the dress becomes nicely fitted at the waist. Instead of making an apron I added two sashes to the side seam. To balance the design, I added a horizontal bar between the bodice and skirt part. I kept the length of the sashes intentionally very long, because of this dress, just love that bow.

Both fabrics are from Soft Cactus and although they are from the same line, and I bought them both, I wouldn't have thought about combining them. In the past I saw somebody combine them and I was blown away by the result. I was sure that my example was the earlier mentioned dress from Sofilantjes, but when I searched the picture to link to, it turned out that she did a different color sash. If you were the one that inspired me (I commented to the post), just tell me and I will add a link to your post. Update: the orginal source found me and here is her project.

I love the black back of the dress, but this was not my original plan. I however managed to (again) incorrectly cut the back twice and then I was out of main fabric (I should have stopped cutting after my first mistake, but I was determined to finish cutting that evening). Apparently it was meant to be, because I feel it spices up the dress. The black bias at the bottom of the dress does the same.

The last thing I changed compared to the pattern, was the closure method, I switched out the buttons at the back for an invisible zipper. I had one meter of fabric and I needed the entire length and width for this dress. I even had to make the skirt slightly less wide, simply because I didn't have enough fabric. I used the incorrectly cut backs to make invisible side seam pockets, so I really used the whole one meter coupon.

I love to hear what you think of my creations. Feel free to leave a comment in the language you prefer (although Google translate might have to assist me if you choose something different than English, German, Dutch or Hungarian).