New Look 6936 Maxi - Jungle January #3!

I can hardly believe we've reached the end of Jungle January!

Prettynpnk has kept me so busy - and it's been a great safari! Seeing all the incredible - wonderful! - creations of my fellow bloggers has been such a treat. I looove animal prints and am so inspired by all I've seen.

What would my Loft be without a maxi dress! Ah. I saved my very favorite for last...

I've sewn New Look 6936 before - but in the pattern as given, a short dress... 

and decided to take the pattern to the Max for creeping (swinging?) through the jungle!

This version uses sleeves from View C, very relaxed, fluttery, so feminine. But very well done - no peeks in the armhole area, the bodice seam comes up just far enough :-)

Changes? Well, of course. Another Coco trait! Here's what I did - 

The length - to make this a maxi dress, I added 20" to the length of the skirt pieces. More than enough, but I was a little unsure of how much I needed, even after measuring every dress in my closet. Better safe than sorry...

My fabric is a poly/lycra matte jersey from Fashion Fabric Club. Just beautiful, no wrinkles, and fits into the 'travel' category. Honestly, I think I could roll it up and go. It's a 1-way stretch knit, really no give in the vertical grain at all, and has moderate stretch across the width. Which suits a dress really well - it is not going to get taller!

But the fabric is 'heavy'. I was concerned about hanging all of that off the 1/4" elastic raised waist in the pattern. My fix - I added a 1 1/2" waistband/casing between the bodice and skirt. Lined in cheetah of course! The lining is cotton calico, meant to stabilize the waist, bodice, and skirt.  And I used 1/2 knit elastic.

One more change (and I did this on my first version as well) - I used a back facing on the neckline. Instead of turning a 5/8" hem. I just do not like the finish on turned hems on curvy necklines! The facing works great...

I am in love with this dress.

And ready for an adventure. Ciao! Coco