I’m back with yet another B6453 to show you! Except this is a new era of the B6453 for me, because I had to start my fitting process from scratch. I’ve written about this dress multiple times on the blog before (here, here, here, and here), but since my body has changed from rock climbing NONE of them fit anymore. Yes, I occasionally metaphorically weep about this, especially when I think about the Nani Iro sateen one and the Rifle Paper Co. border print dress. But I can’t change the fact that they don’t fit, so I finally returned to the pattern to start from scratch. Aside from a quick muslin of the bodice (which I did some adjustments on – will discuss below), this is my first version of the dress since the other ones stopped fitting. And of course, it’s Nani Iro double gauze because the loss of the other one has left a very specifically shaped hole in my heart. (The other ones are in storage, not gone forever, for the record).
This ultra fem floaty floral double gauze is the Fuccra Rakuen print from Nani Iro that I’m clearly obsessed with, in a very pale pink colourway. I got it from Patch, and there was the EXACT right amount left of it on the bolt. Total serendipity! So this dress was definitely meant to be! I was worried about making a structured bodice like this with aalll of that gathered fabric on the bottom in such a floaty fabric as double gauze, so I underlined the bodice with a white cotton voile that I got from Atlantic Fabrics. For those of you who don’t know, underlining is when you put two pieces of fabric together and treat them as one unit. It’s different than a lining because they don’t act as separate entities. So I cut all the bodice pieces out of the double gauze AND the voile, lay them together, and basted them around the edges inside the seam allowance. I’m happy with this decision structurally, because there’s no drooping or dragging at the waist seam, but also it made it much easier to sew the curved princess seams and darts and zipper since there was more structure in the fabric.
Fit-wise, I changed a bunch of things based on the muslin of the bodice, and there are more things I want to change for my next version. On the past versions, I’d started with a size 12. This time, I started with a size 14. Before making this, I shortened the straps by 2.5″ (because I vaguely remembered doing that last time). I took 3/8″ out of the side seams on the front and back pieces at the waist, grading to 0″ as I went up to the underarm. This adds up to 1.5″ total taken out of the waist. I also took 3/4″ off the back center seam at the top, grading to 0″ at the lengthen/shorten line. As always, I’ll be fully transparent about my measurements: 37″/29.5″/39″.
For next time, I want to do some other adjustments. I’m going to shorten the bodice at the bottom by at least 1″, maybe 1.5″ or 2″ (thoughts?). I notice some puckering/pooling around my torso that I think will be solved by shortening the bodice. As well, I want to shorten the straps by another 3″, because as you can see below, the sliders are all the way up to the front of the dress and the straps still feel a bit loose. I may pull out the straps at the front bodice and shorten them on this dress because it wouldn’t be a major thing to do. The sliders/rings are from here, which I highly recommend. It’s also where I get my 1/4″ clear elastic, 10m at a time, which I use for stabilizing shoulder seams on knit garments.
It’s unusual for me to gravitate toward such a pale colour, but I think the reason I’m into this one is because the print on it is so beautiful and uses other colours that are more interesting when combined with the background pink. I love double gauze too, so that definitely was a factor. Does anyone else love double gauze clothing? I know it gets really wrinkly, but I kinda love that rumpled look. And it’s soooo soft. For once, I actually machine washed AND dried the double gauze before I sewed it, and I have no regrets! Normally with Nani Iro I wouldn’t put it in the dryer, and I’m going to hand wash after this, but it softened it up in such a lovely way. (I didn’t measure shrinkage though, so wash/dry at your own risk!) Next up on my sewing table miiight be another version of this dress, except with semi-naked men on the fabric… We’ll see what strikes my fancy.
