This was written by An from StraightGrain for the Miss Matatabi Makers series.

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Hi everyone, I’m An from StraightGrain, and I’m here with my second Miss Matatabi Makers post.

I’ve worked with double gauze fabric a lot before, but never with a solid version of it. For the dress I’m showing today, I used a beautiful chartreuse double gauze from Frances’ shop. I combined it with a left-over of triangles fabric from my stash.

The feel and quality of the fabric is comparable to that of Nani Iro double gauze. Ideal for a hot Summer day, but not too thin for colder days.

The design of this dress is a bit of an experiment. I used the pleating detail earlier in a dress for Norah’s baby sister, and decided to check out whether it would work for a 4-year old too. I think it does. The dress is a bit too long and wide, but that can easily be changed in a next version.

The idea for the pleats was a pure case of serendipity, by the way. When I made the baby version, I actually had something entirely different in mind: box pleats of only an inch long. But the result was terrible: the pleats created volume in the wrong place (just below the shoulder). So I undid them so I could make new, longer pleats, which would create volume underneath the chest. However, I accidentally drew the lines to make the pleats on the right instead of the wrong side of the fabric, and as I was to lazy to draw them again, the box pleats became regular pleats. I like the result much better. The logical conclusion here is, undeniably, that laziness is the key to success.

I will surely be using this fabric again, together with the coordinating pink and aubergine solids which are also part in this line. In a baby quilt? A dress? Cushion covers, perhaps? What do you think would be a nice project for these fabrics?

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Thank you so much An! Connect with An on her blog, instagram, facebook, and pinterest.