Sunshine Striped Maxi Dress

This was my submission for Sunshine week over on SYTYC. Today I wanted to share the tutorial on how to create it. It is super easy!

When I think of sunshine, I think of warmth. I think of the beach. I think of lazy days by the pool. Most of all I think of Summer. What could be more perfect for all of those things than a comfortable bright striped maxi dress.

This dress was constructed from multiple colors of jersey fabric. The solid colors of jersey were cut into various size stripes and then sewn together to create a unique striped and colorful pattern.

This is the perfect dress to celebrate sunshine and summer. It is the perfect swimsuit cover up to wear to the pool or to the beach. It is the perfect dress to wear on a summer evening walk, or just to sport around town. It is just perfect for any activity on a sunshiny day.

What you’ll need:

1/2 yard each of four different colors of knit fabric

1/4 inch elastic (How much? Enough to fit around your waist.)

The first thing you are going to do is create your pattern. You will want to measure from your shoulder to your feet then add 3 inches to get the exact amount of stripes you will need to cut. For example: It is 56 inches from my shoulder to my feet. I cut 59 inches worth of stripes, because once you sew the stripes together you are going to loose about 3 inches of material.

I cut each cream colored stripe at 3 inches. Then I tapered the colored layers. The bottom color was 13 inches. Then the next color was 2 inches shorter than that, and and the next 2 inches shorter than that, and so on. You can see the dimensions in the image below. 

Once you have sewn your pattern together it is time to sew the dress. It can be completed in 6 easy steps.

*I have kept the instructions pretty general. I left out specific measurements. You can decide for yourself how big you want the arm holes, and where on your waist to place the elastic, or how deep and wide of a v-neck that you want for your body. If you do want more specific measurements just send me an email and I would be happy to share what I used for my dress.

As an optional step 7: You can hem all of your open edges around the arm holes, neck, and bottom of the dress. You can also leave it un hemmed since you are working with knit and it wont unravel.

Let me know if you have any questions.