Ogden Cami Hack – DIY Tiered Maxi dress

Every summer since I began sewing my own clothes, I get the urge to make and wear floaty summer dresses. I hadn’t quite made anything that scratched that itch until now though. The prefect alignment of fabric, pattern choice and inspiration made this dress such a quick and easy hack. The inspiration for this Ogden Cami hack came via a recent Instagram challenge that I was honoured to be a part of.

The Challenge

I was asked by Teameaka of Crumpets Tea and Sewing on YouTube and Crystal of Crystal Sews and Stuff on YouTube to be an ambassador for the #SewMaxiForMothersDay challenge. This is a relaxed, Instagram sewing challenge designed to encourage sewers to sew a maxi dress, skirt or maxi trousers. It ran from 11th April until 16th May. This year marked the third annual event and it has evolved into a popular sewing challenge since inception. Originally started to honour mothers on Mother’s Day (in the U.S and some other countries), the challenge has grown and become more inclusive and seeks to encourage anyone to sew a maxi style outfit. Pattern designers and fabric suppliers from the sewing community sponsored the challenge

The Inspiration

As an ambassador, I shared some maxi sewing inspiration to my Instagram stories. Sharing dress ideas definitely influenced my decision to make an Ankara fabric dress. The maxi challenge this year came with the theme “Sew Bold, Sew Bright“. I had some leftover Ankara fabric that I had previously used in a tutorial for Love Sewing Magazine. It was love at first sight when I purchased the fabric online at www.ankarashop.co.uk. I was itching to use the remaining meterage on something special. And this fabric fit the Sew Bold and Sew Bright brief perfectly.

I previously hacked this pattern (see here) and added a ruffled tier and I really wanted to recreate that look.

The Hack

I used the Ogden Cami as the base for my dress. The hack is a simple one ( I love a simple hack ), and every time results in a dress that is the perfect choice for summer.

I made the bodice according to the pattern but shortened it by around 7 inches. When shortening a bodice pattern piece by myself, I used to be unsure of how much to shorten it by. These days I take a bodice piece from another pattern of a similar length and use it as a guide for shortening.

I used a yellow cotton for the lining which was a little lighter than the medium weight Ankara fabric. This made the bodice less bulky in my opinion.

For the skirt panels, I used my hip measurements multiplied by 2 to get the width of the front and back skirt. That formula is my go-to when I need to hack a gathered skirt. I used a gathering trick that I shared to my Tik Tok. I do a zig zag stich over some yarn to quickly gather large amounts of fabric. You can watch the short video here.

The bottom tier is about 1.5 times the width of the bottom of the skirt piece and I gathered it using same method mentioned.

The “stitch in the ditch” technique ensures the lining is secured to the dress and doesn’t move around or ride up whilst wearing. I did this by sewing through the seam on the right side of the dress and catching the lining on the other side

Of course this Ogden Cami Hack would not be complete without pockets! This is an essential item for all of my dresses.

I cannot get enough of this print or this dress and I’ve worn it a lot since making it. I’ve layered it over a t-shirt and now that the sun is officially here, its a great dress for a hot summer’s day. I will definitely make another Ogden Cami hack in the future, will you?

Until next time,

Miranda x