A Different Bias

Unlike the previous project's bias aspects, this project is cut on the bias because it was the easiest thing to do.

How can cutting on the bias be the easiest option?  It can happen, for example, when you get a destash of someone's sewing supplies that includes a several yard length of fabric that's been cut and reassembled into a bias strip a yard wide (thanks again!)

It's also a lightweight, gauzy cotton, and I had recently been thinking about how nice it is to have the option of wearing loose, simple dresses in the summer.  So, I once again turned to the modified bodice and standard pockets of Simplicity 9153 (in medium this time)

It's loud, but should be lovely to wear on nasty hot days.

I did my standard edge stitching around the neckline (borrowed from Simplicity 8523)

as well as along the shoulder seams, but I resisted "hold ALL the seam allowance down" edge stitching any place else.

I did the usual pressing of the sleeve hems before sewing the bodice side seams, unfolding the pressed sleeve hems to stitch the side seams, then folding everything back up and sewing the sleeve hems from the inside.

The amount of fabric used for the skirt was determined entirely by what was left after cutting out the bodice, facings, and pockets; I then cut the length of fabric in half and attached the pocket bags and sewed the side seams.  It took a  few tries to get the ruffler on the right settings to match the top of the skirt to the bottom of the bodice, but it was still faster than dealing with my general refusal to make gathers by hand.

I hadn't originally planned to add the bottom ruffle, but the skirt ended up so long that I realized the amount to be cut off could be increased slightly and the off-cut could be cut in half again to make a ruffle.

I had initially used the larger hem roller to finish the bottom edge of the ruffle, but...as I suspected would happen, the hem roller doesn't really deal well with bias (at least, not at my experience level.)  I thought I could live with it, since there are a lot of flaws in this fabric (you can see a misprint below), but, no.  I picked out the rolled hem stitching--which was fairly easy, because the thread largely pulled out with little resistance--serged the edge, then hand rolled it as I sewed from the inside.

You can just see one of the seams from the bias strip assembly, below the printing flaw.  The print is busy enough to mostly obscure those seams.  And printing flaws.

And, of course, this is a dress meant for comfort, not style

And it goes together so fast (especially when I get the bottom hem right on the first try) that I'm probably not done with Simplicity 9153, much to my surprise.