Ready for Summer

I like making loose, high waist, pullover dresses from lightweight cottons for summer wear.  My original plan this year, in that regard, was to use some of the lightweight woven black fabric I got from the craft thrift store to replace the worn-out thrifted skirts on some dresses I made a few years ago--I thought the fabric felt like a poly/cotton blend, so wouldn't really want to use it for a top/shirt/bodice.

I decided to do a burn test on it, just to laugh at how much of a plastic blob it turned into.  Well.  It did not turn into any kind of plastic blob, instead burning to a crumbly black...not exactly ash, because when has a burn test ever behaved exactly like the charts say it should?  So I decided that meant maybe there was enough cotton content to use for a top/shirt/bodice after all.

I used my "fake Burda 6401 modified to a fake McCall's 8157" and decided to go wild with a tiered skirt and here we are

 Honestly...it ended up a bit too long.  I eventually fixed that.

I ripped all of the strips of fabric for the tiers, and there were so so many black fabric scraps and threads on the floor when I was done.  That was the worst part of the whole project.

I did forget that the decision to sew the sleeve bands on when the sleeves are flat leads to having to sew the side/sleeve seams from the body down to the band seam, then (after finishing that seam), folding the band seam allowance to the other side, so they end up inside the folded sleeve band.  I also pressed the sleeve band before sewing to the gathered sleeve edge, so it was then ready to fold over all of the seam allowances and edge stitch from the outside.  It's a little awkward inside where I had to change the direction of the seam allowance, but not as bad as I expected.

(I have been spending time with a neighbor cat, who is shedding profusely, so there's a lot of cat hair on this.)

I understitched the neckline facing, then pressed and edge stitched it.  I also tacked the facing to the shoulder seam allowances.   It will mostly behave.

And of course I included pockets.

I have a note on the bodice piece to place the pockets 6" down; the tiers are a bit over 6" wide, so I decided to put the pockets entirely within the second tier.  

Because I was adding the pockets, I sewed all of the front tiers together and all of the back tiers together, then sewed on the pocket bags, and then sewed the side seams.  I know that, optimally, tiers are sewn on whole, but...this was easier.  It also allowed me to not have to set the ruffler perfectly, and trim away the unruffled ends after running things through the ruffler so it sewed the upper fabric, as it ruffled it, to the lower fabric.  I know the ruffler has more tricks like that, but I haven't had a cause to figure them out yet--what I do know is useful!

And that's the dress.

I have so much fun with prints that I know I forget to make things in solid colors very often, and bright colors distract from basic black.  But.  I also know I wear the black things a lot, so this will be much used.

And then a few days later I was ready to wear it, and immediately had to admit that, at knee-length, it was just too long.

I picked out the waist stitching, ripped off 3" all around, and gathered and sewed it again.

Much better!  Maybe the topmost tier is a bit narrow now, but I actually thought it was a bit wide before, so I don't mind.  I did consider just re-sewing every tier with a deeper hem, but, between the pockets and the need to keep the gathers even, it felt like too much trouble.  It'll all be a shapeless black blob when worn, so I'm not worrying about the details, just the overall silhouette, which is better when it's shorter.