Double Gauze Desert Rose Dress

I love this new dress I made for Little Sister so much!

I don't have a lot of time left for sewing projects while I'm here in Tokyo (we move back to the US in less than 2 weeks!), but I knew I wanted to get this one done so that she could wear it in this hot, humid summer climate.

This dress is the Desert Rose pattern from Caila Made, and I just loved it from the first time I saw the pattern.  Of course, I am a cheapskate, so I just admired the pattern without buying it.  In this case though, it paid off, because eventually this pattern was featured as a Friday Fiver, and I was able to snap it up for just $5!  However, this was months ago, and although I printed the pattern out right away, it still took me ages to get going on it.

The main fabric for the skirt is a beautiful double gauze by Nani Iro (called Fuccra).  When I lucked into finding a 2-meter cut for less than $10 because of a small print error, I knew it was perfect for my Desert Rose dress.

See that little white stripe?  That was the only error in the whole 2 meter cut!

And I had a lovely lightweight coral batiste that matched perfectly that I could use for the bodice--I wanted the whole thing to be floaty and light and comfortable for the humid heat of a Tokyo summer.

The breeze really does pick it up--it's a good twirler too!

I wanted to make sure the bodice didn't gape, so I made a size 3 bodice based on Little Sister's measurements (her chest measurement matched the size 3 exactly on the chart, even though she's 5 years old) and it fits perfectly.  Since my bodice fabric was so lightweight (semi-sheer, actually, so it's nice that it's lined, and I used the same fabric for the lining), I interfaced the button placket on both sides and it feels secure.

I thought I would be clever on the skirt--I used the angled tunic skirt with a size 3 at the top but a size 8 in length, thinking that would get me to dress length without printing the dress skirt pattern pages, but I wasn't thinking about the fact that the size 3 bodice is shorter than the size 5.  So my dress was shorter than I wanted.   Next time I'll go ahead and assemble the skirt pattern pages to make sure I get the length I want!

However, I was able to cut it perfectly to avoid the print error!

Fortunately, I really like the look of the 4" panel of the bodice fabric at the hem.

How pretty is that Nani Iro fabric!?

 I really liked the way this pattern came together.  It all looks so professional inside!  I used french seams on the skirt since double gauze frays pretty easily, so there are no raw edges on the inside anywhere.  AND no hand-sewing on the bodice lining, since you topstitch the outside of the bodice instead!  I loved that.

Also, this pattern has pockets--I can't believe I forgot to take a picture of them, since pockets are usually my favorite feature.  I guess it speaks to how much I love this dress overall that the pockets are practically an afterthought, although they came in handy yesterday when my daughter had some drawings she wanted to carry around!

Now I've got to see if I can squeak a top for myself out of the remaining meter of that Nani Iro Fuccra double gauze!

Nani Iro Pajama Shorts

I have to admit, I am not much of a shorts person.  But after seeing Shorts on the Line, hosted by Rachael at Imagine Gnats for the last few years, I've been thinking it might be fun to try making some.

Now, these are pj's, so it's still baby steps--I'm not ready to try making shorts to be worn in public yet.  But as pajamas go, these are maybe the best I've ever had.  As a matter of fact, I made two pairs--one to try out the pattern before cutting into my Nani Iro double gauze (it's Pocho Adzuki Bean, a dark eggplant color--love it!)

The first pair is made from double gauze printed in Japan.  I love this fun print and I have bought it in several different colors!

I used the free Bias Trim Shorts pattern from Melly Sews, and since I was using a woven instead of a knit, I followed her instructions from this tutorial, where she makes a pair out of a satiny fabric.  Basically I slit the pattern pieces in the middle and added another half-inch of width to both pieces.  She says to add a quarter of an inch, but I'm slightly larger than the measurements she gives for the pattern so I bumped it up a little extra.  I also added about .75 inch to the length just for the heck of it.

Just what you want to see, right? A couple of pictures of my butt.

Maybe this is the real reason why I don't sew more pants...

I made both pairs exactly the same way--I was so pleased with how the first pair came out that I didn't change a thing for the Nani Iro pair!

In addition to changing the sizing slightly, I also used single fold bias tape instead of double fold.  This was mostly for practical reasons--the bias tape I wanted to use just happened to be single fold!  For the first pair, I had a package of vintage bias tape in exactly the right color, and it was a little bit silky, not a basic cotton kind.  Nice for pajamas, right?

And for the second pair, I knew I wanted to use the bias tape I found at my local 100 yen store, made from traditional Japanese print fabric.  Unfortunately, it only came in 1 meter packs, and I couldn't find more than 2 packs of any one print.  The pattern calls for 3 meters, but after making the first pair I thought I might be able to fudge it, since some of the bias tape ends up hidden on the inside when you sew the side seams together.

This worked great--I used exactly one meter on each side of the shorts, and was able to hide the unfinished edges on the inside.  As a matter of fact, I cut the back pattern pieces so that the exposed edge was on the selvage, so there weren't any raw edges to speak of.

Here is the front and back pieces for one side, sewn together and with bias tape attached.
You can see the white selvage edge where I ran out of bias tape.

Here's how the inside looks when you use single fold bias tape instead of double.

The Nani Iro double gauze I used was a great deal--I found two .6 meter cuts of it for 360 yen each (about $3) since there was a little bit of a print error.  I don't know if you can tell, but some of the dots have a tiny dot of the background color on them.  I think it looks fine!

Pre-sewing it all together

And I still have enough left to make a pair of shorts for Little Sister (although I'll have to find a different bias tape to use on hers.)  I'm actually hoping more of this bias tape will turn up, because I'd love to make a bias-trimmed tank top to go with these.

One final shot, to show how they look proportionally.  It felt weird to have a whole post with no pictures of my face!