And it’s time for the second installment of Karavan Kloset! In the first part we saw a tank top in the pink/tobacco colors. Today we’re staying in the same colorway, but moving to a swirly sort of print for a maxi-sundress.
This dress uses a technique called “shirring” where you put elastic thread into the bobbin of your machine (hand wrapped! PITA!) and sew lines across the width of the dress. I used this technique previously on the death grip on summer sundress.
I don’t know what summer looks like where you are, but we’ve had the best summer here that we’ve seen in SEVERAL years. While it’s entirely possible to get snow any month of the year here, “summer” is usually a term reserved exclusively for July and August. Out of those 60 days, there’s usually a thunderstorm every afternoon/evening, and we get less than a week of +30C (86F). The last few years it’s been hard to find nice weather in the summer, but this year Mother Nature seems to be coming out of her funk and I’ve taken full advantage by making a sundress.
This is my first time shirring a top and I just LOVED it! My husband just kept saying over and over, “it fits you so well!”
It’s definitely a “maxi dress”, it pretty much goes to the ground. I hemmed absolutely NOTHING on it, and the bottom is rolling up slightly to cover the raw edge anyways. It’s a light knit, it feels like a t-shirt, with tiny little hot pink stars. I like just cutting giant squares, so each piece uses the entire width of the fabric. The top is a 12 inch piece, the bottom is 2 3 foot pieces, and the straps are many many 1-1/2 inch pieces.
For each strap I used 6 strips. First I took 2 strips, looped them around a table leg, and started twisting. After doing that with three pairs, I braided them together and tied a knot at the end. After it was all secure, I cut the other ends off of the table leg and knotted them. I sewed both ends to the dress and then after it was secure, chopped off the knot on the back (who wants a knot in their back?).
While I was attaching the second strap, I looped it around the first strap. Not only does it make it pretty and more interesting than boring old straps, it keeps them from falling down! (I know, genius huh?)
Ninja Designs 