Wrapped In A Rainbow For a Costume Makers Ball.

Sometimes, I make a garment and immediately know what I'm going to say about it. Obviously, I will tell you about the fabric, about the pattern and my review of it. If there's a wonderful backstory, some struggle with my kids who want to claim, or of my husband's confusion of my choices. I am reluctant to do that with this dress. After making this, I was at a loss for words. As a kindness to you, I will pull myself together and give you all of those details. In truth however, if it was solely up to me, this post would simply be various pictures of me twirling in circles screaming, "I love my new dress!"

When I selected this fabric from Riley Blake's Costume Maker's Ball by J. Wecker Frisch, I chose it because I liked the idea of wearing measuring tape fabric.

There is lots of Fall color in this collection. With my neutral choice, I wanted to bring some Summer color in with my project.

Measuring Tape Black

From my previous post, you may remember I had a bit of dress envy. After the one I made for Little Miss, I wanted a tiered dress for myself. I recently found Butterick 5878 at my local Walmart. It appears to be out of print at other sources, but you may be able to get your hand on it.

I made view B, with the substitution of piping in the seams and added a tie belt. Making and installing the the rainbow piping was a time-consuming yet rewarding process. 

To make it,

• Cut various lengths of piping (I eyeballed it and cut about 1 package per color)
• Open out one end and fold the end down
• Trim the cording inside by .5in.
• Lay a new piece of piping on the open end 

• Fold over and pin in place
• Stitch overlap with a zipper foot
• Repeat ad infinitum (seemingly) until you have continuous multi-colored piping  

I made the pattern per instructions with no adjustments beyond my embellishment and simple tie belt. The piping is applied to the fabric edges that are not to be gathered. To do it, baste the piping in place, right sides together, raw edges even, using a zipper foot. After gathering the corresponding fabric pieces, baste the gathers in place before stitching them to the piped fabric. Again, using the zipper foot, stitch the piping trimmed fabric to the gathered panels. 

Where the piping ends meet, like at the shoulder, I trimmed the cording inside down, to reduce bulk.

Because I didn't want the fun to end, the dress is hemmed with piping that is faced with bias tape.

At a recent sewing gathering, I pitched this black and white stripe, tiered rainbow piping, dress idea to my sewing friends. I asked if my plan was "cuckoo bananas" and wondered if I would look clownish. The response was a resounding "maybe"! I love that kind of encouragement and felt the gauntlet thrown! 

I delierated stripe placement, piping color choices, and piping location. After that work, I see nothing cuckoo here, it's just bananas!

Happy Sewing,
Bianca