Simplicity 7454 vintage maxi dress

I finally made up my vintage Simplicity 7454 maxi dress pattern that I mentioned way back in November. I was inspired by Oonaballoona's post from June 2013. As soon as I saw her beautifully bold, summery, amazing dress, I knew I had to have one of my own. I finally found the perfect fabric for my dress from... where did I order it from? Denver Fabrics, I think.

Loud, splashy tropical print + vintage maxi dress pattern = BRING IT.

I loooove the colors of this fabric. Also, this style makes me look tall and slim. No complaints here.

One of the straps ended up closer to the center back than I'd intended. I have the worst problems with placing shoulder straps. I'm happy to see that the flaw isn't really noticeable. Also, the back has a string tie. I was going to use a zipper instead because I thought the string ties were stupid. Then I decided to just go with the string ties. They really are stupid. Next time, I'm using a zipper.

I love how this fabric drapes.

Can't go wrong with an A-line dress. They're always flattering, even when they're in the form of vintage maxi muumuu dresses.

I was surprised at how much fabric this pattern does NOT require. I bought five yards of this fabric (it was only like $2.00 a yard) thinking it had a directional print, but when it arrived I realized it doesn't. Since it's 60 inches wide, I made this dress out of barely over 2 yards of fabric. I still have 3 yards left to make something else fabulous with.

A few brief notes about making up the dress:

• I had to shorten the pattern by about four inches, and I still feel like it's a bit too long. Perfect for lounging out on the balcony on a sweltering early summer evening with a cocktail though. 
• The pattern comes with a knee-length version as well, which I'm definitely going to make up. 
• This pattern was so easy. 
• The straps and the front band didn't even require interfacing, which made me happy. 
• No darts, no gathers, no tucks, no princess seams. Just straight lines. 
• I forgot to add the patch pockets. 
• It was a size medium, 12-14, but there was only one cutting line on the pattern (i.e., there wasn't a line for size 12 and another line for size 14). That corresponded to a 34"-36" bust. 
• My bust is 37" and I always pick the size that goes with a 36" bust and never have problems, but I had to grade the upper bodice of the dress down by about an inch total on each side, and I think it still gapes a bit but it's not really noticeable at all.

This pattern has such a wonderful drape, I really did feel regal as I swished around the apartment in my new dress.

You can kind of see how the fabric moves in this picture, where I turned around too quickly trying to get a shot of the back of the dress.

In conclusion, I love this pattern. The other bloggers who made up this pattern were not just whistling Dixie when they praised it.

Finally, a couple pictures of my amiga Lulu, who loves to photobomb my crappy photoshoots.

She's such a beautiful dog. I got really lucky with her.

That face!