Dress the Fourth: Red and Blue Floral Floof– Planning

Website image from Pound Fabrics of floral printed cotton gauze, with pink-red and china blue flowers with grey-green leaves, on a white background. Each flower is an inch and a half across according to the ruler in the photo

I knew I wanted at least one of these dresses to be sheer, and that I wanted the sheer to be floof. I am planning a very simple style for this dress, essentially taking my plain cross over bodice/blouse pattern and adding a straight gathered skirt. It will have a slight V neck and the accents and ties will be in all three colours– grey/green, reddish pink or pinkish red, and purplish blue. The burgundy will predominate, however. The sleeves will be 3/4 rectangles with points to full length, with a hand rolled embroidered hem. The neckline and skirt hem will be the same. The sleeves will be set in with some amount of fullness– as much as I can eke out of the fabric.

The dress will be unlined, and my mockup will be in an unbleached sheer voile.

The supplies list is as follows:

  • 3m of printed gauze– 2m for the skirt, 1m for the rest
  • Scraps of either pinkish red cotton, reddish pink cotton, or rose linen, for ties. Will have to colour match once fabrics arrive. Also considering if I can do one each red blue and green, but getting a suitably matching green/grey might be tricky
  • White aurifil for sewing, or possibly very light blue
  • Embroidery threads for hem and ties– have decided to go ahead and get those. Greens, pinks/reds, and blues in size 25 cotton a broder, for this.

My cut list is:

  • Bodice, printed gauze
  • Sleeves, two, printed gauze
  • Skirt panels, printed gauze
  • Ties, in whichever fabric I end up choosing, 6

Steps list is:

  1. Embroider ties
  2. Baste skirt
  3. Baste sleeves
  4. Stitch skirt and sleeves, french seams
  5. Hem skirt, sleeves, and neckline
  6. Baste sleeves and skirt to bodice
  7. Stitch sleeves and skirt to bodice
  8. Finish attatching seams via hand whipping
  9. Attach ties

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