Mad Maxi

I’ve had an email from Liz asking for a really super quick and easy-to-make design idea. I didn’t have to think too long and hard about what my response would be: a Glammaxi dress. It’s the easiest thing I’ve ever made and took me the duration of one episode of Eastenders to make from start to finish.

The Inspiration: (Flashback, flashback, flashback...) In 2005 I wrote an article about Roland Mouret and his now legendary Galaxy dress. Mouret’s first collection was shown in 1998 at London Fashion Week. In the article I wrote that each of the fifteen pieces in the collection were made without patterns and were created by draping the fabric over the body and fastening with studs and pins, inspired by images from film where the heroine is dressed only in a bed sheet (think Allison Hayes in Attack of the 50 Foot Woman). This was such a powerful image that it has always stayed with me and was something that was at the fore of my mind when I first made the Glammaxi dress. I love the idea of one sheet of fabric that requires no cutting and just hangs around the body like a forties/fifties film heroine wrapped in bed linen in a post-coital moment of utter femininity.

A glammed up maxi dress

Marchesa silk gown £940

I bought a metre of this fabric (Abstract print crinkle taffeta in black and silver) for £13 which I thought was reasonable considering that it is 140cm wide. The first thing I did was to avert my eyes from Albert Square and fold the fabric in half inside out (so that it now measures half a metre by 140cm) and sew a seam straight down the side of the material so that what you end up with is essentially a long tube.

Then sew a length of elastic all the way around into what will become the top line of the dress (remember to pull the elastic taut as you sew it in order that it becomes elasticated) then do the same for the waistband. Then hem the bottom to the desired length.

Turn the material the correct way round and you have yourself a maxi dress. Pop a little belt around the middle and you’re good to go. However you will have noticed that you are still a good ten minutes away from the duf, duf, duf ending to the episode of Eastenders that you’re watching, and I did promise a Glammaxi to boot.

Next I took two metres of some silver elastic ribbon (49p per metre) and draped it around the top of the dress to give it a more fitted appearance. Once I was happy with how it looked I stitched it in place. (The fact that the ribbon is also elasticated means that the dress can still be taken on and off over the head or hips). To fasten, the ribbon can then simply be tied at the back of the neck. From maxi to glammaxi in 98 pence, and all done in time for Corrie.

The Damage: £14.98

Duf, duf, duf, duf…