Infinity.... dress

In preparing for a friend's wedding I intended to make my bridesmaid dress. In the course of all things hectic it was suggested that we wear this one type of dress that was found online so we all match. The dress seems very simple so I was wondering why in the world would it cost more than $100.

I think to myself "I can make that!" Lucky for me I had some stretch fabric lying around from a previous binge of $5 bolts. I decided to make a floor length dress. After looking at the ones for sale online I decided it seemed like it was just a skirt with two straps sewed to it. I cut out one rectangle of fabric and split it diagonally to make the skirt then cut 2 strips and tried to make them tapper a bit.

After sewing it all together (only 3 seams necessary) I tried it on to realize the skirt wasn't nearly as full as the picture and the straps were a tad to narrow for me as well as not long enough. Since I had used the entire remaing bolt for this project I figure all I can do is start over. Although I'm not done with this particular dress yet. It makes a nice skirt and I'm thinking of ways to add fabric to it in a pretty way to make the straps wide enough and long enough. (Thinking of just adding a second color to the back of the straps of the first color and that way they'll double up for a bit.

So I set out on the internet to find a pattern for the dress instead of just guessing and I come across a free pattern on this wonderful site . Now I knew why the skirt wasn't nearly as full as I had intended. The skirt uses an full circle. So after a few calculations I figured out where to cut for the waist and hem. I folded a square of fabric in 4 so I would only have to cut out a quarter of a circle. However just before I cut I forgot all my measurements and made the diameter about 2" to large :( This made the skirt portion shorter then I had intended but I guess that's ok. I doubled up the fabric in the straps and made them about 15" wide instead of the 8" wide I originally had in the first dress but more than the 12" I needed since the fabric was 60" wide so that took care of the entire bolt. I didn't put in a waistband because I ran out of fabric.

After sewing the two sides of the strap together, I attached them to the skirt and since I had made a calculation error the skirt was way too wide to wear. In order to fix this, I cut a strip of elastic and folded over the portion of the skirt which wasn't attached to the straps and sewed it into the back making it ruffle quite a bit but I like the result.

I now know why the straps shouldn't be doubled, it makes it bulky and much harder to tie. However I like the additional coverage it gives initially. On my next attempt I plan to only double the fabric for about 30"-45" and then use single layer of fabric for the rest. Maybe this way I won't run out and the straps can be the right length. In order to connect them I'm thinking of sewing the single strip between the two end strips before sewing it to the dress, that way once it's turned right side out there is a single seam.