I had no idea what to call this post, but the November theme for Make a Garment a Month sewalong (Magamsewalong) over on IG is New Again November and this garment certainly qualifies.

This lovely blue double gauze arrived in my stash as a donation from Jenny (@joeandroxy) – I think! When I opened it up I had a very large top front and back. I’ve had it out of the stash a couple of times but couldn’t bear to waste the fabric by taking the top off, so when this theme was announced I had a good think about the fabric and decided I could pin tuck or pleat the width out of it. And there was a lot of width as evidenced by these photos on my dummy – about 8 cms needed to come out of each piece.

I abandoned the idea of pintucks quite quickly, my machine did not enjoy this fabric for some reason, but I thought some narrow pleats at the neckline would work. Well, serious nightdress vibes!

Then I played with inverted pleats front and back but I got V shaped tunnels down the middle, which was not attractive. I thought I might sew the pleats down and pinned them here and there to see how they would look. Well I loved the look of the pinned pleats so I sewed them across at regular intervals. What do you think?

The armholes were almost to my waist so I took the side seams in by quite a lot, tapering to the hem, which has solved the problem somewhat. The gauze has vertical and horizontal lines and I did manage to pattern match.

I used bias binding on all the raw edges, and getting that hem level was a serious mission, and I’m not sure it’s perfect but it will do.

I am currently very excited as I’ve found someone to sharpen my pinking shears – a friend of my son, who is a knife maker. I sent four pairs off, and three are brilliant. I used a pair to trim up the hem.

The pair on the left are mine and I’ve had them since I was fourteen. The other pairs belonged to my mother. It’s so lovely to have pinking shears that don’t chew the fabric.

This dress will be wonderful in the really hot weather that will be heading our way soon. It might be a bit too short to wear to the shops, but I will definitely wear it at home a lot.

I took these photos before the weather turns cold and wet, so they are very hurried, but you get the idea.

I took Miss G to rhyme time at the library, and she decided she’d rather run up and down the stacks. I got quite a lot of exercise!