nani Iro Encounter dress

Hello!  I’ve made a new rather beachy little dress!

I bought this beautiful fabric over two years ago, the last time we were in Japan and Yoshimi took us to her favourite craft store; Yuzawaya in Kichijoji, it’s quite close to the Studio Ghibli museum and we popped in on our way.  It is a nani Iro double cotton gauze”Encounter”; and it’s so pretty! but in a sparse, painterly way that I think it’s not too pretty for me.

I used a pattern from the Stylish Dress Book by Yoshiko Tsukiori; dress F which I have made several times before.  It’s my favourite from the book, because it is so subtly stylish in a very quiet and cute way without tipping into too cute (for me).  My favourite thing about it is the shaped, open sleeve design, with little ties.  I squeezed in seam side pockets, of course;  and actually used up practically every scrap of my 2m of fabric.  I have enough left for a face mask but didn’t get around to making that yet.

I’ve been dreaming about finally wearing this beautiful fabric for so long, finally cutting into it and making something that I know I am going to love was a joy; I almost feel like I’m cheating on my “use30” pledge?!  But of course it’s not really cheating.  Adding this 2m to my current tally of 8; and I’m up to 10m for the year… 20m to go!!

For the facing, in the past I’ve just tended to overlock the edges of a facing like this… however I’ve often found an overlocked, interfaced edge to be quite irritating when it’s rubbing against soft skin all day long.  So this time I went to the effort of finishing off the facing with a strip of self bias-binding.  I can already attest that this tiny little innovation is a huge improvement!

I also added a fun new label, that I bought to treat myself at the beginning of this year…  the idea of a time stamp on my clothes just took my fancy!  Yes, I am indeedy a bit of a nerd about things being orderly and documented/tallied in a well organised fashion – obviously! What is this blog if not just a further manifestation of my obsession?! These cute labels are from Kylie and the Machine; the coolest of cool label makers out there. I don’t mind being cool occasionally, if it fits my current fancy.

This is the first outfit in my “make 12”.  It’s a bit quick and casual, but I’m so happy I finally cut into this precious, very loved fabric; plus it could not be more perfectly suited to my current lifestyle, so all is good.  I hope to be making more exciting and involved things for future contenders.