Once again I was hovering on the edge of a trend, the Tiered Dress trend to be specific. It takes a while for me to get my head around whether I like a trend enough to get on the bandwagon. I dabbled a bit last year with my Blouse to dress hack to see if the volume would work for me but I finally decided to give it a go with this dress.

Part of my reluctance to try new styles is my conviction that I must have something similar in my quite large pattern collection or that I should try to draft my own. The decision was helped by my subscription to Love Sewing magazine. It comes with a couple of paper patterns with each issue and this was one of my “free” patterns.

In my fabric stash, I had a length of double gauze which I had dyed a lovely colour. The dye packet promised a vibrant orange, but I was not mad with the soft mango sorbet that emerged from the washing machine.

I love the hand of double gauze and it is the perfect fabric for heat-defying garments. Once I knew I could travel again and we had planned a trip to Greece, I knew it was time to sew up that double gauze.

When making a tiered garment each successive tier is wider than the last and they are gathered to fit. One thing about double gauze that I noticed is that the crinkles seem to “relax” a bit after cutting. When I came to join my first tier to the bodice, they were almost the same length so there wasn’t much gathering. I think it doesn’t look too bad in the end but I was quite alarmed as I knew my cut was accurate.

This is quite a simple garment, the wide neck and deep opening mean it can just be thrown over the head, I didn’t have any fastenings on this one. I would note, however, that the front is very deep so you may want buttons or to sew the V up a bit.

My finished garment is light and airy, perfect for the hot weather and quite casual. The pattern has an oversized feel to it and I think I could have sized it down, the shoulders in particular feel a bit wide. However, it felt really comfortable and was just what I needed.

Who needs some holiday vibes?

Thanks for dropping by,