I lied.

I lied.  It was a terribly difficult job.

When I did the last dress out of my bright Madras cotton, I did not as I suspected, do the gathers using a string method.  I did them the more usual way by sewing two rows of basting stitches and then gathering.  I checked.  It went effortlessly, of that I am positive.  However...

The problem is that this lovely blue fabric is a lot thicker, heavier in weight than a Madras cotton which is almost gauze like.  It is even slightly heavier than a good basic cotton poplin. The two rows of basting stitches was not a good idea for this fabric.  Not at all.  I did try doing a zigzag over a strand of crochet cotton but that still left the basted stiches pulling till they broke.  I ended up doing some hand basting with a fine weight crochet cotton and that may well be my good to from here on for all the cottons but fine very light fabrics.  I worked nicely.  This fabric was great for it.  I could easily keep the same number of stitches in the tiny plaid like grid.  

And then it was done.

It is exactly what I hoped it would be.  I wore it for a few hours on Saturday, just to see if the length is okay or if I wanted it shorter, but it is fine where it is.  It's mid calf on me which is a good length for when I am sitting and doesn't get in the way as I work around the kitchen.  It is wide.  Seriously wide.  I could cut the dress to a smaller size, two sizes down actually, but, what I found doing my muslins for fit was that for complete comfort, for the best cooling airflow, the wider cut of the Torrens patterns was better.  

I really don't need the skirt that wide.  If I wanted for fit, and for looks, I could just go with a straight skirt.  I know that this gathered wide cut does have it's level of the ridiculous about it, but that is the thing about this dress and my adventures wearing the first last summer.  It was ridiculously wide cut but cool.  It caught air under the skirts and made me feel cooler than in anything else I wore last summer.  

I have three more dresses to sew, each more or less looking like this one, but in very different fabrics.  

That won't however be the end of the Torrens-ing.  I have a couple summer Box Tops in my plans too.  

I am gradually getting to a point where knitting and sewing are fitting comfortably in a day.  Tomorrow, I will show you my knitting progress on one project for sure and possibly on two!