I was still very pleased with the Myosotis by Deer and Doe and having Charcoal Grey thread in the overlocker prompted me to review my stash of Viscose challis fabrics. I retrieved the Tropical Floral Viscose Challis on a Navy background that I purchased for £3.56/m from Rainbow Fabrics in August 2021 to make #3 of the Myosotis pattern.

I had approximately 4 metres x 150cms wide fabric which meant that I could have a very full skirt made with 3 tiers of gathered frills provided I made the bodice sleeveless or with only short sleeves. I thought that this print would be ideally suited as a Summer dress or if sleeveless, could be worn in the Autumn/Winter over a fine jersey top. However, I decided on short sleeves as I already have at least two Navy pinafore dresses to wear in the colder months.

This time I would use my TNT short sleeve with the puffed cap and combine with the full 3-tiered skirt. It would be fabulous for ‘twirling’!

I started the construction by making up the sleeves and then the bodice. The sleeves did not come out quite right as I had not added depth to the sleeve head to account for the fact that I had narrowed the shoulders by 1 inch. This meant that the sleeves are pulled up at the centre of the hemline. However, the fact that the hemline is now visually a diagonal angle helps to reduce the width at my bustline. Apart from this little hiccup the remainder of the bodice was fine. I used 5 plain Blue buttons from my stash.

Preparing the skirt: I cut 6 tiers 60 inches wide (WOF) x 11 inches deep and stitched them together into a long strip. I then cut into the lengths for each tier:- 75 inches – tier 1, 113 inches – tier 2 and finally 180 inches for tier 3.

Once again I cut my favourite pocket bag 4 times. As I was running short of fabric these are made in a patchwork of the fashion fabric combined with remnant from the previous dress. I set the pocket bags aside to insert into the top tier once all tiers had been stitched together. The reason for this is that the pocket bag would extend below the seam joining the top tier to the middle tier and I did not want to chance getting the bag stitched into that seam!

Each tier was seamed into a loop, quartered and then two rows of gathering stitches at the top of each one. Normally I would use the ruffler/pleater foot but this time I wanted to have greater control of the gathers so it was back to the old method – two rows of gathering stitches and some time spent pulling up and setting nicely! The 2^nd tier was attached to the bottom of the 1^st tier and the 3^rd (bottom) tier was attached to the middle tier. The hem of the bottom tier was overlocked and then double turned into a narrow hem and top-stitched into place. Now I could insert the pockets.

Now that I had both the skirt and the bodice completed it was very simple to gather the top edge of the skirt and join to the bodice. The waist seam was then overlocked and the dress finished!

Conclusion: I think that this version is very flattering on my figure. The slightly fitted bodice makes me look slimmer than I am and the full skirt balances my bust. I love the drape, feel and print of this fabric which compliments my colouring so can foresee that the dress will get a lot of wear.

Project #24 completed 20^th April 2022