A fit-and-flare maxi dress is a fitted, darted bodice joined at the waist to a skirt that reaches the ankle or the floor, and the skirt can be gathered rectangles, an A-line or a half circle. It takes 3.5 to 4.5 m (3 7/8 to 4 7/8 yd) of 140 cm (55 in) wide fabric, a 50 cm (20 in) invisible zip at center back and a weekend of sewing. Choose the skirt by the fabric: gathered for poplin and lawn, A-line for linen, half circle for viscose and crepe.
What do you need to sew a maxi dress?
The pieces:
- Bodice front, cut on the fold, with bust darts and waist darts.
- Bodice back, cut as two halves for the center back zip.
- Neck facings front and back, or, for the strap version, bodice lining pieces and two straps.
- Skirt front and back. Gathered: two rectangles, each the fabric width by the skirt length. A-line: two flared pieces cut on the fold. Half circle: a front and a back, each a quarter circle cut on the fold.
- Sleeves, or bias strips to bind the armholes if you go sleeveless.
- Pocket bags, four, for in-seam pockets.
- Tie belt, optional, a strip about 2 m × 8 cm (2 1/4 yd × 3 1/8 in).
Notions: a 50 cm (20 in) invisible zip, 40 cm (1/2 yd) of lightweight fusible interfacing for the facings, and 1 cm (3/8 in) elastic for puff sleeve hems. Seam allowances of 1.5 cm (5/8 in) throughout, 1 cm (3/8 in) at the neckline.
| Skirt | Fabric at 140 cm (55 in), ankle length, short sleeves |
|---|---|
| Gathered, ratio 1.8 | 3.6 m (4 yd) |
| A-line | 3.8 m (4 1/8 yd) |
| Half circle | 4.5 m (4 7/8 yd) |
The half circle takes more because its two quarter-circle pieces each need a square of fabric as wide as the hem radius, which at ankle length is well over 1 m (39 in). If that square does not fit on your fabric, cut the skirt in four panels with seams at center front and back, or move to an A-line.
Which skirt should you choose for a maxi?
The longer the skirt, the more its weight pulls on the waist seam and the more the fabric's drape shows.
- Gathered is the simplest to cut, since the skirt is two rectangles, and the most forgiving to fit. It needs a light fabric: cotton lawn, voile, lightweight poplin, double gauze or viscose. In a medium cotton, a gathered maxi stands away from the hips and feels bulky at the waist. Keep the gathering ratio between 1.5 and 1.8 at this length; the gathering ratio calculator gives the panel width from your waist.
- A-line has the least fabric at the waist and the cleanest line. It suits linen, chambray, tencel twill and cotton sateen. The hem is wide enough to walk and climb stairs without a slit.
- Half circle swings the most and uses the most fabric. It wants drape: viscose challis, crepe, silk-style polyester or lightweight tencel. It must hang overnight before hemming.
How long should a maxi dress be?
Measure from your natural waist down the side of your body to where you want the hem, wearing the shoes you plan to wear with the dress. Ankle length ends at the ankle bone; floor length ends 2 to 3 cm (1 in) above the floor so you do not step on it. On a 1.65 m (5 ft 5 in) person, waist to floor is about 105 cm (41 in).
Add the hem allowance to that length: 2.5 cm (1 in) for a gathered or A-line skirt, 1 cm (3/8 in) for the narrow hem of a half circle. The bodice length matters too: measure your back waist length from the bone at the base of the neck to the waist, so the waist seam sits on your waist and not below it, where it would drag the whole dress down.
How do you sew a maxi dress, step by step?
- Cut, mark and interface. Mark the darts, the notches at the waist and the end of the zip. Fuse interfacing to the facings.
- Staystitch the neckline 1 cm from the edge, from the shoulders toward center front and center back.
- Sew the darts, bust darts pressed down and waist darts pressed toward the center. How to sew darts explains how to taper the point without a bubble.
- Join the shoulders and attach the facing. Sew the facing to the neckline right sides together, trim, clip the curve, understitch and press to the inside. For straps, sew the lining to the bodice along the top edge with the straps caught in the seam.
- Sew the bodice side seams and press them open.
- Prepare the skirt. Sew the pocket bags to the skirt side seams at 5 cm (2 in) below the waist, sew the side seams around the pockets, and finish the allowances. For the gathered skirt, run two rows of long stitches along the waist edge and draw it up to the bodice waist; how to gather fabric covers even gathers on a long edge. For the half circle, staystitch the waist edge instead.
- Join the skirt to the bodice, matching center front, side seams and the center back edges. Press the seam up toward the bodice.
- Insert the zip at center back through the bodice and the top of the skirt, then close the seam below it. The invisible zip guide shows how to meet the waist seam exactly on both sides.
- Set in the sleeves or bind the armholes. For puff sleeves, gather the cap and thread the elastic through the hem casing.
- Hang the dress overnight, then level the hem with someone measuring up from the floor, and hem. Add the tie belt last.
How do you keep a maxi dress from dragging?
The weight of a long skirt is what makes a maxi look either elegant or exhausted. Three things help. First, pick the lightest fabric that gives the shape you want; a gathered maxi in a 200 g/m² (6 oz/yd²) cotton is heavy. Second, cut the pocket bags from a lighter lining fabric, so the pockets do not sag at the hips. Third, level the hem on the body, in shoes: a maxi hem that is 2 cm longer at the back than the front looks like a mistake, not a train.
Before you hem, walk, sit and climb a stair in the dress. If the skirt pulls at the knees when you step, the hem is too narrow for the length, which only happens with an A-line cut with little flare; open the hem by a few centimeters at each side seam, or add a slit of 20 cm (8 in) at one side.
What mistakes should you avoid?
- A zip too short to step into. The 50 cm zip goes through the bodice and into the skirt; on a fitted bodice with a skirt attached, a 22 cm (9 in) dress zip is not enough to get the dress over your shoulders.
- Hemming before hanging. On a half circle, the bias sections drop by 1 to 3 cm (3/8 to 1 1/4 in) overnight in viscose.
- A sheer fabric without a lining. In voile or lawn, line the skirt with a straight lining cut from the A-line pieces, or wear a slip. The bias-cut slip dress doubles as one.
- Gathering the full fabric width into a small waist. Two 140 cm panels into a 70 cm waist is a ratio of 4: too much to gather neatly and far too much fabric to carry. Trim the panels to your waist times 1.8.
- Ignoring the print direction. A border print along the selvedge works beautifully on a gathered maxi and not at all on a half circle.
Can Sewly draft the maxi dress for you?
Sewly's fit-and-flare dress pattern drafts the bodice from your bust, waist and back waist length and offers the gathered, A-line or half-circle skirt in maxi length, with a length adjustment of up to 25 cm (10 in) either way for an exact ankle or floor length. The sewing guide lists the zip, interfacing and elastic, gives the fabric quantity for 110, 140 and 150 cm wide fabric for the skirt you chose, and the knee-length summer dress with puff sleeves follows the same construction in a shorter version.