Named Inari Tee Dress - Green African Wax Print

I made a sack dress! And I think it looks pretty good! This cocoon shape has been popular in fashion for a while and I've always thought it was a tricky style to pull off if you weren't a tall skinny model type... but this works! The Named Patterns Inari Tee Dress is a super popular pattern among sewing bloggers, I've seen lots of versions in a wovens and knits over the years and have been meaning to make it for a while, I even added it to my #2018MakeNine challenge! The drafting is really nice, with a cute high/low split hem and only slight cocoon shape. I bought the pattern from Indie Sew's pattern shop. They have all the coolest indie patterns all in one place so it is pretty convenient.

The fit is pretty good, I made a straight size 10 and the only adjustment I made was to add a bust dart at the side since my fabric was pretty stiff and wasn't falling the way I wanted without the dart (you can almost see it in the photo below). I am only 5'5" so I think this would probably feel very short on anyone taller than me, especially when you lift your arms. Carolyn from Handmade by Carolyn shows you how to adjust the sleeve so that when you lift your arms it pulls up the dress less.

The fabric I made this from is an African wax print cotton that I bought in Tanzania two years ago! It is a very special piece of fabric to me and I was nervous about cutting into it but I think choosing a pattern with very few pieces/style lines was the best way to show off the cool pattern.

As you can see it was a little windy when I took these photos... lots of out-takes with hair in my mouth or pulling the dress away from my butt :P

Here is how I would probably wear it to work, possibly with tights if the weather was chilly.

And here it is on a hanger, you can see the cocoon shape a lot better when it's flat. I decided have the pattern of the fabric running down the centre of the dress in front and back mainly because there wasn't really much of an option! There was an edge print and then this long strip down the centre with solid green on either side. so in order to be symmetrical I pretty much had to go with this.

This fabric, while pretty exciting by my usual standards, was actually one of the tamest of the fabrics they had in the shop we went to - if you've seen other African wax prints you know they can be quite colourful with all-over repeating patterns. I chose this one since I knew once I got back to Canada even this would feel pretty vibrant and I wanted to be confident enough to wear whatever I made since it was such a special trip souvenir!