Dear Diary...I'm Loving my New Maxi Dress!

Summer in South Florida is hot hot hot so staying cool AND stylish takes a little extra work. I've been loving all the maxi dresses this summer in the department stores and around the web. Unfortunately, very few are actually affordable and the few that are never seem to fit my style. I finally decided to take things into my own hands and DIY a few of these myself!

I started with a few tanks that I picked up from Forever 21 for about $4.50/ea and 1.5 yds of 2 different fabrics I picked up at the Moonlight Madness sale at Joann Fabrics.

I took another maxi dress I already had to figure out the proportions for both the skirt & top (I highly recommend this approach unless you are an advanced sewer).

After determining how much to cut off the bottom of the tank, I wound up with this:

For the skirt, fold the fabric in half lengthwise & sew a seam 1.5" down the selvage (unfinished ends of the fabric). Depending on the fabric, you may need to sew the bottom of the skirt as well, one of mine I did, the other I didn't. Tip:Sew/trim the bottom of the skirt last

With one of the dresses I decided to go a little fancy and added some pleats to the front. You do NOT have to add this, a slight gather works just as well! (You'll see at the end with the leopard/coral maxi)

Then I sewed the skirt & tank together (wrong sides facing)

Tip: if your sewing patience is short, try fabric or hemming tape instead, just iron on!

I also decided to add a loose sash to hide some of my not-so-perfect stitching around the waste which also gave it a more finished, fun look.

After investing about $28.00 & 1 1/2 hrs per dress, I wound up with these beauties!

Have you made any great summer DIY dresses or other clothing? Tell me about it, I'd love to hear YOUR tips!