Liberty Maxi Dress – Ready for Summer

Liberty Maxi Dress
 
Lucy tells us about her gorgeous Liberty Maxi Dress make.  
 
“I’ve been wanting to make a maxi dress out of Liberty fabric for so long, but the problem with working in a studio surrounded by so many beautiful fabrics is deciding which one to choose!! On top of that I felt a real sense of responsibility to choose really carefully as I assumed I was going to need loads of fabric, which would make this a big mistake if I “got it wrong”…”
 
Liberty Maxi Dress - Ready for Summer
 
“So, when the new SS22 Wonderful Fantastical collection landed in the studio I was almost relieved to focus in on this one amazing range of fabrics and was immediately drawn to the Garden of Life print.  Inspired by Lewis Carroll’s “Alice’s Adventures Through The Looking Glass” it is literally bursting with beautiful, delicate floral details and trailing foliage. 
There are 3 different colour-ways in this design and I eventually decided to go with colour-way A, with it’s gentle blues and greens interspersed with pinks and yellows and lilacs, as I felt more confident that I would wear this on an everyday basis and  I am determined that this dress is going to be worn a lot and not just saved for special occasions!”
Liberty Maxi Dress - Ready for Summer
 
“I trawled through lots of different sewing patterns before settling on Simplicity’s S8872. I was definitely influenced by the fact that it didn’t require as much fabric as some of the other patterns!  I already knew that I wanted to make my dress with a v-neckline, but I do really like the actual neckline on this pattern and know I will make this style in the future.  (This was a fairly simple amendment to make as I simply had to fold back the neck edge on the front pattern pieces to form a v shape, and then use this new shape to cut out facing pieces).”
 
Liberty Maxi Dress - Ready for Summer
 
“However, I only had 3 metres of fabric and I wanted to make the longer version of the dress… well, I do like a challenge!  So, I took some of the bulk out of the skirt, as it is a bit too full for me, which freed up some fabric to add to the frill.  I also left out the pockets and shortened the length of the sleeves.  By slightly altering the cutting layout in this way I managed to fit all the pattern pieces perfectly onto my fabric…phew! After that, sewing the dress was actually a breeze!  
 
Having thought about this project for so long I’m really pleased with how my dress finally turned out, and you know what,  I really shouldn’t have spent so much time trying to choose the perfect fabric and worrying about “what ifs” because, looking at all the stunning fabrics around me here, I’m pretty sure any one of them would have looked fab! In fact, I think I’m going to make another…”