An infinity dress guide, which even a blond like me can understand!

As I was browsing through the internet I stumbled upon the infinity dress, a dress that has an infinite different ways to wear it. While browsing through all of the different ways I could wear it, I found a few I really liked! I was hooked!

I started looking for patterns online, found some too! Unfortunate for me, all of those patterns were intended for small chest skinny girls, who can wear this dress open backed and bra-less, I cannot. I had no choice but to replan the dress patterns to fit my bra + modesty requirements.

Me, my mother and her superb sewing skills started this project together. We didn’t get mach salvation from the guides online, so we recalculated the Measurements as we saw fit, with a lot of try and error (which we will try to spare you).

And this is the story of how this guide was born!

Step 1: The Fabric

What fabric should I buy?

Flexible and heavy (I recommend some combination of Tricot – Lycra)

How mach fabric should I buy?

The fabric should be 4m long and 1.5m wide (1.5m is the standard)

Attention!

The length of the skirt is determent by the width of the fabric, the rest of the fabric is used for the straps, anyone who is taller or wider and want more then 2.5m straps (not recommended!) should buy more fabric accordingly.

Note: from the excess fabric marked in the layout as X I sewed a tights pants.

Step 2: The Skirt

Fold the fabric in half along the length of the fabric.

fold the end of the fabric to the length of 75cm. (you should have 4 layers of fabric with the length of 75cm)

Mark the radius of the skirt (75cm) from the corner and cut.

Attention!

If you use a fabric with a pattern on it, make sure its in the right direction.

The up side of the skirt is toward the corner, and eventually this is the side that will be connected to the front of the dress.

Waist radius calculation:

1) Measure your waist

2) This is the formula I used:

R=P/2pie

For the blonde of us, you need to take your waist Measurements and divide it by 6.28 .

in theory I should have taken my waist measurements (78cm) and divide it by 6.28, that gives me a 12cm radius.

What I actually did in the end was cutting half of that (7cm) because the fabric was very stretchy. I recommend cutting les and widen the radius one cm at a time, other than cutting too mach and discover the hole is too big.

In conclusion: I cut 7cm instead of 12 and it came out great!

In the pictures you can see that eventually the skirt opening is determined not by the waist, but by the chest or the ass(you need to wear the dress from one of those directions!)

You can also see in the picture that you can skip the waist strip step if you like, and sew the strips straight to the skirt.

Step 3: The Straps:

The straps in my dress are 30cm wide and 2.5m long.

To determine the wide of the straps, I measured the length from the middle of my chest to my armpit line. (30cm)

If you are thinner you can make the straps thiner, but I don’t recommend that.

The length of the straps was determined from internet recommendations and try and error (Unfortunately). I truly think that 2.5m is enough for everyone, if you are substantially taller or/and wider then me you can make the straps longer (in that case you should by more fabric).

Measure 30cm all along the length of the fabric and cut.

Step 4: The Waist Strip:

The waist strip doesn’t show up in any of the online designs, I have added it for comfort and modesty (I don’t like my bra showing from the front or the behind). And anyway, if you do want a less modest dress you can always fold it and hide it behind the skirt easily.

Measure the chest again, this time from top to bottom, 20cm.

in the picture you can see me measuring 20cm along the width of the fabric, which I previousely folded.

Waist strip length

in Theory my waist is 78cm around. Remember that the fabric stretches! Therefore (with some try and error) I reduced the length of the strip to the minimum which will allow either my chest or my ass to go through. Eventually I sew it at 70cm (35cm in a folded fabric)

On the 20cm strip I just cut , I measured 34 cm along the length, cut and sew.

I think it goes without saying, but match the thread color you use to the fabric.

Step 5: Connecting the Straps to the Waist Strip:

I decided I wanted a 3cm Overlap of the straps in the front of the dress (I didn’t want all of my chest to be out there, the boys can use some imagination sometimes!)

Another problem popped.

The straps being 30cm wide were too long and passed the armpit line, that happened because of the length difference between the chest and the waist.

I solved this problem with a combination of two methods.

I let the straps pass the armpit line around the back by 4cm, and the rest of the fabric, that i had left on the front, I collected with Equal folds and later on sew it stretched.

If you don’t want to add the waist strip to your dress, you should add the straps directly to the skirt using the same method.

You can see in the picture that I decided to pass the side point (armpit line) by 4cm, also to hide a bit the side of my bra.

the execs fabric being folded evenly-

One of the methods is to find the middle points each time and pin them together..

In the end we should have a waist strip that the straps are connected to in one side (the side without the suture!)

Attention!!

All of the pictures in this step demonstrate the connection of the straps directly to the skirt, and therefore the patters are facing each other.

Step 6: Connecting the Skirt:

Make sure you connect the skirt in the right order: inside the skirt, then the straps, then the waist strip. Make sure the fabric is in the right direction!

The side of the fabric you connect is very important:

The straps and the waist strip should be with the pattern toward the inside (the suture is inside).

Now you add the skirt from the inside! The pattern toward the waist strip.

Step 7: Sew the Whole Thing Together

If like me you were lazy and worked only with pins, make sure you remove the pins wile sewing, or it will break your sewing machine.

Sew slowly, its only one suture! Take your time!

Stretch the fabric wile sewing so the suture will be elastic and stretch with the fabric.