Saturday, May 2, 2015

Some quick maxi musings

My winter wardrobe has been lackluster (to put it mildly) and I'm feeling the itch to change things up. I love wearing dresses but am not feeling my usual sun dresses and 60s inspired sack dresses this spring, so I think this is the year that I will tackle the maxi.

Normally I feel too short to wear maxi's but I've seen it done and done well so I know it's possible. I still remember years ago seeing a woman casually walking around a big box store in a black maxi and flat sandals with her hair thrown up in a messy bun. She was so striking it took me several minutes to realize we were the same height!

As always the idea is to draw attention upward, and with my short waist a natural waist is not going to be my best direction.  I wear empire dresses, boat necks, and v-necks well so I think these are all good places to start.

Left - V Neck maxi via Chictopia
Right - high neck black maxi dress via Poshmark

I'm still pretty gaga over that recent David's Road collection so I am seriously considering buying a few cheap maxi dresses and doing dress surgery on them. I particularly like the "pickup harness" pieces they've been pairing with flowy maxis to change the silhouette. I'm not normally into pickups so this is a really cool way to get the shape and functionality without the permanence.

I'm not a fan of sewing jersey so I don't want to make them from scratch but I am not above altering the *heck* out of something I already have. That said I ADORE working with raw silk and have some thoughts about what I could do there.

Happily in the midst of some spring apartment sprucing my husband had a suggestion for where we can move my crafting stuff so that I can actually access it. Between the year and a half of wedding prep and two and a half years of tiny apartment living my sewing has gone by the wayside and frankly I miss it!