April BeeBox – VHCO – Stitching & Making

Hello friends! Today I am happy to share my new creation from Vinegar and Honey Co‘s April BeeBox – a Made for Mermaids Mama Ella maxi hack!

If you’re not already in the know, Vinegar and Honey does a monthly surprise subscription box of 2 yards of fabric. Everyone gets the same print (usually) and it’s so exciting to see what their pick is! This month there was a small shortage, so I ended up with an alternate print, but it is super similar to the original and I’m certainly happy with it! As soon as I saw it, I knew it had to be a maxi dress of some kind.

The Mama Ella has been on my mind for a while, since it has the option for this dramatic open back (or a higher back). I chose this version because I’m in the process of sewing up some things for our upcoming trip to the Dominican Republic. It will be the perfect breezy island dress!

It sewed up very easily and I had no trouble with the pattern. I did end up taking it in a bit though because I wanted more of a slim fit, and the weight of the maxi length did pull it down and gape on the back slightly. So I made it a little more fitted, which helped that.

To make the dress a maxi, I simply lengthened the existing dress length option to what I needed for my height, tapering out as much as I could for volume. Since I am pretty tall, I ended up with just enough fabric to make the dress the length I needed, but not enough fabric to properly match all of the stripes. I could do it for one pattern throughout the length though (the diamonds), so I went with that. I also needed to slightly modify the back ruffle as well due to fabric. There wasn’t enough to make it as long as it needed to be to go over my arms like sleeves, so I shortened the width and attached it about 2″ lower than the shoulder seams on the back. Then I tacked the top ruffles on each side up so that they wouldn’t completely flip over when they hang off of my back. I think it worked out pretty well and I love the result! Grab the pattern here. 😉

The fabric is rayon spandex and the drape is simply perfect for a dress like this. It’s flowy yet lightweight, stretchy and forgiving. You really can’t go wrong! The BeeBox is a super awesome option for treating yourself to “just a little bit” of fabric each month. If you want to check out Vinegar and Honey, here’s some free credit to get you started! Or link to the BeeBox subscription – there’s also one for kids’ fabrics, too!

I also want to apologize for my extreme goosebumps in these pictures…hopefully they don’t look too bad here. It was about 56 degrees when we took these and the wind was really getting to me. As Brian was taking the a closeup he was like “um, your goosebumps look really bad…”, there was nothing I could do though so here we have it! I’m thinking the sun makes it look warm regardless. Also, I realized I had a setting wrong on my camera so these are much more blown out than usual and even though I spent hours editing, these are as good as they’re gonna get. 😉