Travel Maxi Dress DIY

On a whim, we decided to road trip to LA and visit some family.  In preparation for the 6 hour drive, I decided to slap together a maxi on the serger.  The words "slap together" did not work for me as my attempt to quickie sew backfired and I wound up tearing the dress apart 3 times (working up till 2 am the night before the trip).  I still need to properly hem the thing (right now it's narrow hemmed by my serger which is too visible of a hem for me), but this works for now and it lived up to my needs of comfy travel garb.

Machines: Regular sewing machine w/ twin needle for gathering and serger for all other construction.  LOVE the built-in stretch of serger stitching on knits!

Materials: 2 yards red ponte roma fabric (this is quite heavy, but very stretchy - modal might have been a better choice, but I wanted to use something I had on hand)

Difficulty: Easy if you don't try to shortcut it (I eyeballed instead of pinning - bad idea)

Dress Pattern: Modified bodice from McCall's M5893 (cut the neckline extra high then drew the asymmetry and cut), self-drafted skirt, bodice edges finished with facings rather than full lining to make sure it didn't get too thick / hot (ponte)

Another asymmetrical neckline

Long and drape-y with gathers at the center front and back.  This helps with tummy camouflage and I think the vertical lines look elongating (at least I hope so).  Belting it made it seem slimmer IRL, but the pictures here don't seem to look that great.

 The color IRL is more like this bright red from my original instagram

Will post about the fabric stores and food here soon!