I’ve enjoyed my orange cotton double gauze Meet You There dress from last summer, and have been looking for a nice double-gauze print to use to make another one. I found this lovely brown and purple large floral print at Califabrics last December and finally got around to sewing it up.

I decided to size down from an AU10 to an AU8 to make the dress a little less roomy, and I shortened the bodice by 2 inches and kept the tiers at their full length. I also made the sleeveless version this time, shortened the ties by about 3.5 inches and sewed up the bottom of the pocket openings (as I did for the orange dress).

The other change I made that I really like is I cut the facings from purple batik quilting cotton instead of from the double gauze. From my previous double-gauze sewing experiences I’ve discovered that it is really difficult to keep double-gauze facings from stretching. Kate constantly warns us not to stretch the facings in her fantastic instructions. However, when sewing double-gauze, I find this nearly impossible. It was so much easier to use the batik fabric for the facing — no stretching. I gently pulled the stay stitching to bring the neck and arms in a smidge to fit the facing. I picked a batik that coordinates nicely, but since it is sewn on the inside of the dress you don’t actually see it so you could use anything that isn’t going to show through. Since I made this one sleeveless I had to sew facings on the neck and two arms holes so was happy to use this technique!

After I finished sewing the dress, I ran it through a quick wash and hung it up to dry. This light and airy fabric was completely dry in a few hours. This will be a nice dress to travel with in the summer as it is lightweight and can be easily washed in a sink.

I’m very happy with how this dress turned out! Here are some more photos and a bonus picture of the rabbit who joined our photo shoot.