Making: Simple Maxi, Long-Sleeve Dress With Elasticated Waist

by Contour Affair

Happy Holidays from Lapland!!! Here's my last DIY of the year - I did some standard panic sewing when I realized a couple of days before flying back home, I had nothing to wear for Christmas dinner.. The basic idea of this dress was almost the same as this one here, just with some simplification because I only had just over 2 meters of fabric (no ruffle details, no yoke, no gathering of the waist before adding the elastic). I'm EU36/US4.

making simple maxi long sleeve dress with elasticated waist

My sewing year 2017 wasn't as productive as I would like, which can happen when you actually need to go to an office every day, to afford all the fabric you want to buy.. So here's to a 2018 full of MORE sewing!

TOOLS:

Fabric (cotton, crepe, almost any type that's flowy will do) 2.5-3 m (I used 2.3 meters but it was the ultimate Tetris exercise, no need to put yourself through that)
Scissors
Thread & Sewing machine
Pins
Not in image but enough thin elastic to go around your waist + 1 button

I. To make my skirt with the little fabric I had, I cut 4 pieces the shape of a trapezoid, about double as wide at the bottom as at the top (it doesn't look like that in the image below due to the weird angle I took it in, but it's true). The length for me was about 95 cm for an ankle-length maxi.

II. Then I cut my top pieces, two pieces, same measurements, just the front piece with a scooped neckline.

III. When I got to the sleeves, I was running out of fabric. So I had to make them out of a main piece and an extension:)

IV. Then I assembled the whole thing, same steps as here, just leaving out any neckline or sleeve ruffles (I finished those with a double-fold). Also added a couple of darts to the neckline at the back for a better fit, and made a keyhole opening with a little button closure. Here's one keyhole method.

Closer look at the keyhole.

And finally, after attaching the top to the skirt, I added the elastic by sewing it with a zig-zag onto the seam allowance of the waist seam, on the reverse.