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Thursday, June 6, 2019

Maxi Fringe Dress for Mom

My mom looks so cute in her maxi Fringe dress!


This is the Chalk and Notch Fringe Dress pattern. I was reminded how much I love this dress when I wore my version during Me Made May... it got me thinking that my mom might like one, too, so I sewed her one for Mother's Day!


For my mom's Fringe Dress, I cut a size 10, B-cup bodice and blended out to a 14 at the hip, which worked well.


This is View B, with the sort of notched, keyhole style front neck. I used the cuffed sleeve option.


I sewed the waist ties into the front darts so they could be tied in the back. Well, to be honest, I forgot to sew them in and had to unpick the darts and slip the ties in after the fact. Oops!


For maximum maxi dress drama, I maxified the Fringe according to Gabriela's tutorial, lengthening the skirt by 14 inches (rather than the 16-18 inches she calls for because my mom is short). 


However, in the end because my mom is apparently even shorter than I thought, it was still too long for her and was causing her to trip. I ended up cutting off all of the curved parts of the hem at the front and back. I straightened the hem to be even with the higher hem at the side seams.


For fabric, I used a length of rayon challis that I bought in Hanoi's Dong Xuan Market several years back. Those lovely pinks and purples on a navy background are perfect for my mom!


Two thumbs up, again, for the Fringe Dress pattern. A delight to sew and to wear! My mom seems to love it. She already wore it to her 50th college reunion and got lots of compliments! 

We have plans to make a top version, perhaps without the gathered skirt. I've seen a couple of folks (see Kelly and Cass) hack the pattern in that way and it looks fabulous!