Simplicity 1355 Maxi Dress

This past week I did a little stashbusting and I am pretty stoked about it.  I made Simplicity 1355 view B, the maxi dress.   I styled it with my version Simplicity 2227 that I made back in April and one of my favorite tan belts.  I ended up using 2 yards of stashed scuba from Girl Charlee that I bought on Black Friday last year and some small scraps of white swimwear lining for the straps. The total cost of this dress, $7.00.  SCORE!!This pattern has pockets, so you know it had me from the start! Originally, The pattern had a seam down the center front of the skirt with a slit. I opted  to put both the front and back skirt pieces on the fold because I didn’t want to have to print match a seam in the center front.  It just looks cleaner to me with out it.  I still wanted to put a slit in it for movement, so I put one in each side seam.For fit I made just a couple of alterations.  First, the amount of ease in the side seam is out of control!   I ended up taking out 3″ from the top of each underarm and tapering it down to nothing in the side seam of the bodice.  I also ended up taking 3″ out of each strap too.  Without those alterations the dress just hung so low below the band of my bra that I knew I would be uncomfortable wearing it.  My only real issue with the finished dress is the back. The cross over is so low my bra hangs outs the top, plus the straps do not quite hit in the right spot to cover my bra straps.  This probably means I should just find a different bra to go with this dress. Overall, I am pretty pleased with the outcome of this dress.  I like it paired with my denim jacket and I think it would work great with one of my white cardigans too.  I hope to wear this a lot this summer and try to make the jumpsuit version too.  You can read my full review of the pattern here on Pattern Review.

For now I am off to sew up another chevron maxi.