Lighter than air

Look what I found - pictures of a dress from this summer!  I almost forgot that I took these.

Way back (I had to dig through the blog!) - could it have been so long ago? - I started with a designer pattern, simplified and redesigned/simplified it and came up with what I thought was the perfect summer dress.  Thought that I would make many variations of the same thing.  Well, as we know, that did not happen.  Every summer I would make plans for this dress, but other things got sewn instead.  C'est la vie.
Then last summer (I think) I bought some border print fabric for what I thought would be a skirt.  It's the most unbelievable rayon.  Feels like I'm wearing air.  Absolutely perfect for hot humid summer weather.  Now this border was printed in panels - I find it a little difficult to figure out how much to buy, and I ended up with 3 panels - figuring that was more than enough for a skirt.  This year when I pulled out summer fabrics, I changed my mind - the fabric wanted to be a dress.  What I didn't think about, was that these prints are rarely perfectly on grain, and when they get cut at the store, you do end up losing a bit on your end panels.  Since I've decided to make my skirts longer these days (hey - I can make my skirts any length I want - I sew!), it ended up being a little bit of a challenge to fit everything in as I wanted.  Luckily the fabric was wide, so the middle panel became the skirt - with a little bit borrowed from the panels on either side.  The two layers of the bodice came out of the other two panels.  Positioning prints just so does make for some waste, but what can you do?  Other details - I added some piping around the neck and armholes. I had to.  The fabric was so soft, it needed something to stabilize the edges, and there was no way to add any kind of interfacing without losing drape.  There's no zip - just a slit and one button on the back of the neck.

Jacket is an ancient white linen - what I call my "Edwardian jacket" with antique lace, but that's a story for another time.

I'm thinking that I'd rather like this in a drapey silk with sleeves ... may-be for Christmas... and I just happen to have the perfect fabric...