Finding a use for all of that leftover tulle . . .

I have been holding onto this toile de jouy cotton print for years.  I chose it because I loved the print, and never really thought about what I would do with it.  A few years ago, I decided it would make an adorable set of pajamas, but dress patterns kept distracting me, and the pajamas got pushed to the back burner.

But last Fall, I came across the yardage while hunting for some other fabric and decided that it would pair nicely with Butterick 6484.  The pattern is made for border prints, so my 45" wide horizontal print needed a layout modification and an extra seam in the skirt center front, but I was determined to make it work.

The pattern also calls for a ruffle to be added to the skirt lining for an extra bit of poof, and I have made a couple of vintage reproductions with an attached petticoat.  Theoretically, this is an awesome idea.

In reality, they end up taking a whole lot of space in the closet (no surprise, there!) and they are a lot more challenging to wash with all that extra bulk.  These days I prefer to keep my full petticoats separate from my dresses!

So my first thought was to forget the added ruffle.  However, I had a bunch of leftover tulle from some past project that was taking up space in the sewing room, so I decided to add it to the dress since this is on a much smaller scale.  I like to stitch my petticoat ruffles upside-down first, then flip them over and finally topstitch through the seam allowances.  This keeps the lightweight tulle from flipping up.  A little more in depth info about that process may be found here.

I lined the bodice with muslin I had on hand, which means the entire dress was made from stashed items!  I love it when that happens!

I had a bit of a fitting issue with the shoulders.  The sleeve is shaped with a very small dart at the shoulder.  As drafted, this makes the dress stand out from my body at the top of my shoulder.  I added lingerie guards which keeps the sleeve from sticking out, but if I make this again, I think I will mess around with the size and length of the dart and see if I can fix the issue.

But overall, I am so glad I rediscovered this fabric and the dress pattern!