I absolutely love the detail on this dress from Boden. It’s a simple style, but the bands give it a little something extra, don’t you think!? And once again, I am sooo ready for summer weather (it’s on and off raining and gloomy outside right now…silly Wyoming). Also I’ve never been able to buy a maxi dress for myself because they’re never long enough. So here goes…

Boden – Maya Maxi

Theirs: $148 (on sale this week for 103.60)

Mine: ~$22

I used some of the fabric from my online shopping spree the other day – this one is a cotton jersey print from Mood Fabrics. I had 2.5 yards – used a little over 2. I love this fabric. It’s super soft and comfy. I used McCall’s M6658 as a starting point again, but only cut the top top pieces to the waistline.

I used this tutorial to piece together the top (using another layer of the same fabric as the lining) so I wouldn’t have to worry about hemming any edges. Also used this tutorial with elastic to get the ruching at the neckline (although I didn’t get as much at the neckline as I would have liked) and waist. For the front panel of the skirt portion, I used the elastic along the entire edge, and on the back panel only used a piece in the middle to get the gathers like they are on the Boden dress. If I made it again, I would make a deeper neckline and thinner straps, and figure out how to fix the gaping at the back neckline. To make the center bands, I ended up making basically 6 strips of bias tape (sewing each closed), arranged them in the right pattern, then sewed them into a tube of fabric to go across the back. I sewed the band to each side seam of the top of the dress.

 

Here’s the making of:

(SP34)

Also see:

• A is for Anthropologie

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