Dark Librarian

I decided to make another layer cake dress, this time using an assortment of fabrics I'd gathered from my stash with the idea of using them for patchwork.  I then hesitated to do anything with them, because the color palette is on the darker and more muted end of my preferences

  

(Photo taken 11 days ago--I was just recovering from being sick when helloooo PMS, so I didn't work as fast as usual)

Turned out that that lack of jumping straight into patchwork gave me enough time to realize they'd work well for this kind of dress. 

As with the previous dress of this kind, it is absolutely ridiculously fun to wear.

I shared pictures of the progress on social media, and people there decided it looked like the kind of thing a gothic librarian (or gothic Miss Frizzle) might wear.  The colors are serious, but the rabbit print is definitely whimsical.  

It's a Japanese fabric by Sevenberry.  It was a gift--most of the fabrics in this dress are second hand acquisitions of some sort.  That makes it all the more fun to mix them all together into something that feels so coherent.

The patchwork print fabric, visible at the top of the above photo, and the plaid flannel (real flannel, no flannelette for me) were cut on the bias, using a continuous bias tape technique.  I did that for the print because all I had of it were some big triangles left over from a bias skirt I'd made from it ages ago (before I started documenting everything I made, let alone started this blog); I cut a normal bias strip to bind the neck line, then realized I could sew the remaining triangles together to make the convoluted tube for continuous bias from it.

I was going to cut the flannel on the straight grain, but realized that bias would look more interesting, and I could do a convoluted tube again to make the strip of fabric.  I estimated how much fabric I'd've needed to cut the straight grain strips and figured that would provide the right amount of area to make enough bias, and it was!  With about a yard left over.  Given that I did absolutely no math about it, that feels pretty close.

I did hesitate about adding the flannel at the hem, because it's grabbier than the smooth cottons everywhere else, but I thought the absolute voluminousness of the hem might counteract that.  I decided to add the lace as a further measure for keeping the hem independent, and also because the idea of finishing the spongy bias cut flannel with lace seemed way more appealing than trying to roll a hem on it.  (Also, that lace is something I ordered a 284 yard spool of from Deb's Lace.  I have plenty to play around with.)  I like the result!

As with the previous dress of this kind, I assembled the skirt front and back as separate units, so I could add side seam pockets.  I remembered to place them higher than on the previous dress, but they could probably be a little higher still.

That brick print is the only fabric in this that I bought new, acquiring it from JoAnn with the express intent of making backdrops for doll photos.  It works really well for that.  Then I had a lot left over.

The pocket fabric was freed up from the blanket renovation I did before this project.  I considered using it for some of the strips in the skirt, but I don't like the yellow in it, and, while it might have been possible to cut strips from it in a way that avoided the yellow, the fact is that it's a Christmas ornament print--the gold in it is very faded/tarnished so it's not at all obvious any more that the dots are supposed to be ornaments, but I know it is, so I didn't want it visible in this dress.  It was nice, though, to not have to conserve any other fabrics for pocket use.

The top of the skirt is gathered down to about 38" (96cm), with the tiers being 90", 120", 180", and (roughly) 210" (228cm, 305cm, 457cm, 533cm.) This is mostly how the previous dress went, except that lowest tier was 270" (685cm.)  I just didn't have enough of the wax print to make it that wide, and then the lowest tier ended up  being a smidge narrower than what I did cut, because the ruffler was set a tiny bit less aggressively than it could have been, and it didn't gather all of it to the next tier up.  I did not, however, want to rip out all that stitching, adjust the ruffler, and try again, risking it being too aggressive and coming up short that time.  It's still about six yards around. 

The Gunne Sax pattern added visible facings to my repertoire, as well as reminding me about bias binding, and definitely teaching me that visible facings and bias binding can be combined.

I also took the time to sew this bias binding's ends together at a 45° angle, making it well-concealed amidst the print's angles.

 The total length, from shoulder to the edge of the lace at the hem, is 42½" (108cm.)

I have been picking a lot of lint and fuzz and loose threads and cat hair off of this (we do not have any cats right now...although I do go outside and spend a lot of time with neighborhood cats...), and I expect I'll be finding more to pick off for a while.  The state of the floor was dire when I finished this, and I was very happy to vacuum up all the little bits (and possibly the straight pin I very distinctly heard hit the floor and bounce, but searching--with flashlight!--did not discover it.)

 

This was fun!  As much as I like making patchwork, I feel like the strips make more sense for a dress skirt.  At least for now.