After seeing them all over Pinterest, I decided to make myself a trendy, convertible “infinity dress” to wear to a friend’s wedding. This style of dress is appealing to me because it can supposedly be worn an “infinite” number of ways, hence the name. Well, I’ll tell you right now that you cannot actually wear these things all the ways seen in a magazine without flashing someone…but, I did come up with 4 or 5 viable, okay for public configurations, which makes taking the time to make the dress worth it to me.
I started with Simplicity pattern 1154 “Wrap, twist & tie” dress. I ditched the modesty panel and made it into a waist band partly because I am not modest and party because this isn’t a very good pattern at all. The construction and fit of the modesty panel and waist-band area is wonky and the fit is way off from what it should be if you follow the pattern to the letter, at least in my experience. This pattern, which consists of 4 pieces of paper total, also managed to confuse the crap out of me, a very experienced seamstress. These dresses are so simple: a circle or maxi skirt, a waist band, and two very very long wide straps. You don’t even finish the edges if you use the right kind of stretch knit. Yet the pattern really tried to complicate things in ways I won’t get into. My advice if you want to make this dress, is to use the pattern as a cutting guide for the straps and circle skirt, and throw out the directions. You know how to sew a stretch waist-band (hint, use a serger).
Speaking of stretch knit, I didn’t mean for this dress to come out quite so formal. It was a Sunday afternoon wedding and I was planning on making a semi-formal dress that I could wear after the wedding to dinners and maybe even work. But the fabric that I ended up going with is just so darn pretty that it elevated the dress into an evening gown and I didn’t realize this until it was too late! It’s a 4-way stretch cotton jersey: I didn’t think it would look so polished!
The dress worked out wonderfully for the wedding. It was an extremely hot day and so having and open back and sides during the outdoor ceremony was nice. I cannot imagine being in a suit jacket on a day like that! And the circle skirt was handy for dancing. If I were to make this dress again, I would not make another circle skirt. It’s not necessary to have that much fabric unless you’re going to have a petticoat on, or are dancing. The extra fabric also makes the skirt a little heavy and it stresses the waist-band more than I would like. In total, even with my pattern alterations and frustrations, the dress only took a day to make.
Congratulations to my friends and newlyweds Vic and Faith! Thank you for inviting me to be a part of your special day! (The groom is the one in the Spiderman shirt. I’ll let you guess which one the bride is.)
