i am Cassiopee dress + some ice dye

 I've really wanted to make a second Cassiopee (first is here) and maybe cut down the sleeves.  In silk.  I bought some lovely flowered silk.  Not enough.  Drat!!  This dress is so wide, I think optimally a super light fabric will be amazing but I have to quit my habit of buying 1.5m of everything.  It's easy to think a simple dress doesn't take up much fabric, but these huge raglan sleeves consume, and any gathered skirt always needs more than you think.  It would be possible to narrow this pattern by taking out some of the side seams of the skirt and sleeves, but it would be quite a major change to the pattern pieces.

Cue my new ice dye obsession.  White jacquard cotton from The Fabric Box (along with so much other white fabric!  White is not safe!  Ice dye it all!) Colours are fuscia-navy-cobalt which according to the Procion colour chart should create a mixed dark purple.  I purposely added different amounts of the dye to different parts of the dress by cutting out all the pieces, overlocking all the edges, then dyeing them, and then sewing it!  (triple the work!!  Plus I am not sure you can even tell!)

 

So of course this is not really a lighter fabric than my first attempt, but at least it has pockets (did you need to ask? Bardon pockets.)  When I made the first dress, my love for Orla Kiely was outweighed by my annoyance at oversized things and I gave it to a friend who wore it as a tunic over leggings.  Now I'm looking at it and it seems all the great oversized fashion of NOW, so I was just ahead of the trend.  I don't know how this particular version of the dress will go but I'll give it a chance in my wardrobe, might try layering it over a silk slip or something. I also might chop down the sleeves at some point.

Still want to make a short sleeved one in silk.  I think that's really where this pattern would shine!