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| Thrifted Infinity Dress |
One of the first pieces of real clothing I ever made for myself was an infinity dress. Up until that point I had only ever made costumes for conventions and halloween, but I wanted to make something I could wear everyday. Not yet ready to dive into muslins and fittings, I decided to go for a knit fabric and a simple pattern.
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| I wore it on Bourbon St in New Orleans! |
Now this first one I actually did not make. I found it in a thrift store for 7 bucks! It was listed as a Medium (and I am most definitely a Large/Extra Large) but I bought it anyways. I managed to shimmy it over my backside (with minimal ripping) and as long as I wear an undershirt with it, it's fine! The basic shape of an infinity dress is pretty forgiving and this dress convinced me to go ahead with making my own. And my first results were...
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| Yes, I'm in the kitchen. It has the best lighting. |
... not the best, but it was okay. I was crazy proud at the time. I even wanted to wear it to my college graduation.
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| Circle skirts are my best friend! |
I made this infinity dress with the tutorial over at
Rostichery. I read though the tutorial, the faqs, and all the comments until I had a solid understanding of the pattern. After the thrift store find, I knew I wanted an attached tube top for modesty control (the girls can't be contained by mere straps alone!). After some trial and error, I drafted a fairly decent boob tube.
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| Needs elastic to hold it up! |
Since this jersey is only printed on one side, I decided to double the straps so the pattern would always be showing no matter how the straps were tied. I now realize that this makes the straps really thick and HEAVY. I didn't realize that doubling 5 feet of straps would be so much fabric!
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| Look at those curvy stitches! So wonky! |
I finished off the edges with "bias tape" made from the same material as the boob tube. I did not look at any bias tape tutorials at the time ( I was a rebel yo!) so I just cut strips (not on the bias) and sewed them end to end (straight edge, not diagonally, so really bulky). Looking back I can totally see where I went wrong, but hey I was experimenting!
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| Alternate twisting |
The extra fabric on the straps also made them bulky when I wrapped them. In the picture above, I look like I have an extra pudgy belly, but it's really just all the excess fabric.
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| Another neckline variation |
The dress turned out pretty well and I still wear it every now and then. Nobody notices your mistakes as much as you do. I wore it proudly at my college post-graduation party and got plenty of complements.
Fast forward to 2 years later and I just graduated from grad school. By sheer coincidence, I made another infinity dress. I hadn't made anything since halloween and I was stressing from all the work. So I figured a quick knit dress was exactly what the doctor ordered. This time I used a pattern I picked up on Joann's dollar day sales:
M6353.
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| The pattern's line drawings with my fabric added |
It's the same basic shape as my old one just with a few design changes. The skirt is made from 3 pieces and flares to more of a half circle instead of a full circle. The straps start very wide and taper slightly to the ends. I was very happy with the fit of the boob tube on this, much better than my self drafted version.
This time I used a jersey that looked the same on both sides, and didn't fray on the edges. So no bias tape, no doubling, and no extra bulk. The end result is a light dress perfect for the approaching summer. It's awesome the difference proper knowledge can make between the first version and this one.
