Ever since I made my first Anna dress, I’ve been dying to make another. I wanted a v-neck Anna dress, and I wanted an Anna maxi dress. I thought I might even be ambitious enough to have a thigh-high slit in one of them. I didn’t know if I wanted all of these things in one dress or many dresses, or both! I definitely have more planned, and my next one will probably be a solid color, but we’ll see.

When I stumbled upon this lovely rayon challis, and I immediately envisioned a v-neck Anna maxi dress flowing gloriously in the wind. I picked it up (and resisted the urge to buy the other color too) and got to planning. This was the first dress I made any efforts to make pretty on the inside. I fully lined the bodice. I was tempted to line the whole dress, but I decided that was a lot of unnecessary effort and it might get too hot. I wanted to minimize my hand sewing (laziness, you know), so I followed this guide to sewing in a lining “bagging” style. I did, however, forget to understitch the neckline before sewing the armholes, so I ended up hand-understitching.

I was thinking about making this one with a thigh-high slit, but then I decided I might save that for another one. I took off about 6″ from the bottom before hemming, and left about 2″ for hem allowance. I’ll modify the pattern pieces before I make my next Anna maxi dress. I think this will save a substantial amount of fabric. I hemmed using a blind stitch, which took forever (at least it felt like it did) and ended up a tad bit longer than I was hoping, so I had to go shoe shopping! 😉

Future v-neck Annas will probably need some sort of adjustment as the front neckline likes to gape/fall/get exciting on me. I looked down in the car yesterday and my bra was completely visible, which is amusing but also not the best quality in a dress. I will take a horizontal wedge out of the front above the bust, which should fix the issue.

I think the more of these I make/think about making, the more of them I want. They are so easy to wear and so versatile. Plus, they are flattering on my figure, or at least I think so. I imagine I won’t complain much if I end up with a whole closet full of Annas! 🙂