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! 

i am Cassiopee dress in Orla Kiely stems

I'm in love with this fabric and for once found a great showcase for it.

The fabric is some Orla Kiely remnants, from the etsy shop Saved Fabrics, and the idea that I'm also saving this great fabric from the landfill is a nice perk.

The company i am patterns is new to me - I discovered them right before I left Arizona, and bought a bunch of their patterns to try.  I made the Cupidon (here) and found it to be very simple and consisent with what I expected.  They have a fun aesthetic and I'm excited to try more of their stuff too, eventually.  I really appreciate that they have English translations.

I cut a size 36.

I have a large length of stems and quite a bit of the yellow hatched fabric, which is slightly denser and with an almost water-resistant feel although I believe it's still 100% cotton.  For that reason I used it for the skirt, and also to keep the pattern less busy.

This was no. 1 of my dress project: goal is to find 2 dress patterns that I really like and want to keep mixing/matching/working on to finally attain a good fit. As you can imagine this pattern isn't in the running for that.  It is cute in this fabric but it's too simple to be really interesting and it's not a shape I'd like any more of.  However, it was so very fast to make and it's pretty foolproof for a variety of body shapes; as the pattern remarks you could also use any fabric - something thick and furry for winter might be nice, although I'd probably narrow the skirt so the gathers don't become overwhelming in a heavy fabric.

It's hard to have more to say.  I used french seams on the body, but didn't on the sleeves and I top stitched them down, and because of the gathers I didn't attempt french seams on the waist.  It was a super easy, fast sew and I know it's shapeless, but I think that the cool fabric makes up for that. Plus it's really nice for layering!

However I didn't shorten the skirt.  So if you are average height or above and you don't want a tunic dress, you might take that into consideration. I'm 5'4"!