Well, it’s done folks. My lovely Bianca dress is all finished and oh so beautiful! I think it’s my favorite handmade item so far. Part of that has to do with this great pattern from Rae and the other part of it is due to this amazing fabric- double gauze from miss matatabi fabrics in Japan. I have seen fellow bloggers use double gauze for a while and wanted to try it, but the price tag has always deterred me. Enter one middle-of-the-night nursing session with Eliot, an awesome sale posted on IG, sleep deprivation, and I just HAD to buy some of this fabric. The next morning I had a bit of a scare wondering what I had bought in the middle of the night and put myself on restriction from etsy browsing during night-time feedings. But it was worth it when I got this lovely fabric in the mail. And really, the sale price was so good that even with shipping from Japan, this dress (not including lining) only cost me $27! Not bad for a custom-made Easter dress, I’d say.

Only problem now is that I want to buy all the double gauze! It is so heavenly to wear. Okay enough rambling about fabric purchases; on to the dress details…

Pattern: Upcoming Bianca Dress/Top from Made by Rae

Pattern Mods:

• Followed directions to lower front facing 7/8″ based on my measurements (very important to check because it totally changes the fit!)
• Added 4 inches to original length (what I believe would be 2 inches to the final version of the pattern) to make it knee length.
• Added a white batiste lining: Now let me pause here for just a moment. I added a lining after the fact when I realized my double gauze was completely see-through (oops). The lining would have been fairly easy to add if I had done it while I was making the dress, but it was kind of a pain to do after the fact. I attached the skirt and bodice separately. The skirt is just a rectangle sewn down one side to make a tube, serged at the top and bottom hems, and then hand-sewn to the elastic casing. Bodice is machine-stitched at shoulder and arms seams but hand-stitched on all other seams- i.e. lots of hand stitching! It’s not the best stitching job (and that’s putting it nicely), but you can’t see it once the dress is on, and I figure this will be a hand-wash only dress so I don’t need to worry about the lining fraying or coming apart in the wash. For future reference though- check your garment for opacity before construction!

Fabric: As previously mentioned, Nano Iro double gauze from the Miss Matatabi etsy shop. (FYI I managed to squeak it out of 2 yards of fabric even with the added length)

Now that’s enough selfish sewing. I’m tired of editing pictures of myself- gets a bit awkward after a while. Plus, I have a lofty goal that all 4 of us will be in something handmade for Easter, so next week it’s KCW and clothes for the boys and then after that another Negroni shirt for the husband- fingers crossed for good naps and productive sewing!