Dainty Dresses: Infinity Dress

 Last year I was on an infinity dress kick, I made a few for myself and one for Natalie.

 I love how light and comfy they are. 

 There are so many cute options with all the strap configurations.

I made another one this year. I was stashbusting, so I had a few "make it work" moments, but I love it when those happen :)  Things turn out so much better when you stretch yourself.  The contrasting straps were a result of the fact that I didn't have much of the purple knit since it was a remnant.  A knit jersey, preferably with a bit of spandex, is the best fabric for this type of dress.

An infinity dress is basically a glorified circle skirt with long straps attached.  First you need to take measurements.  I measured around Natalie's chest (20 inches), and from her chest down to just past her knee (19 inches).  I won't go over how to cut a circle skirt.  Dana did an expert job at explaining how to make a pattern for a circle skirt here.  Just substitute the chest measurement for the waist measurement.

Cut our your circle skirt, two straps that are 1.5 times as long as the height of your subject. These straps are 5 inches wide.  A general rule for strap width is the chest measurement divided by 4.

Overlap the two straps by about 1-2 inches, then place on the edge of the circle skirt.

Pin the straps to hold them in place.

Sew or serge down the straps to secure them for the next step.

This shows how the straps should be overlapped.

The next step is to add a band around the waist.  I made the band from the same jersey as the dress in the red dress.  This time I happened to have grey elastic that matched the straps.  I cut the elastic to size (chest measurement), and joined the ends.

Then I attached the band to the skirt at the two side points as well as center back, and center front.  I placed the seam of the elastic on the side because sometimes the back of the dress can be the front when tying the dress up.  Overlap the elastic and the edge of the skirt by 1/4".

Stretch and sew the elastic down and you are finished.

Have fun trying out the infinite number of looks you can get.