Flower Chantilly Dress

YES, I finally have a finished project I can show off. I've been working on a lot of things lately, but just haven't gotten very far. This is the chantilly dress from Colette Patterns, made up in this gorgeous peony print cotton gauze.I think it's a peony, but it also looks like a hydrangea. I can't decide.  I also lined it in a thicker cotton gauze. 

I've been eyeing this fabric up at Fabricland, since I started teaching there. I knew it would be a perfect chantilly dress, but they had just under the amount of fabric required. I decided to take the risk and see if I could squeeze the dress even though I had about a half yard less. I don't know how I did it, but as you can see I did it! 

This cotton gauze is SO lightweight, it was really difficult to hem. I wanted to use my new narrow hem presser foot, but the gauze wouldn't fold, and the the weave is so loose it would just unravel. So then I tried the rolled hem on the serger, which didn't work either, any time the hem was off the straight grain the roll wouldn't catch the edge. It was super annoying, I had to do it so many times I was afraid it was going to have a mini dress. I finally sprayed it with some press starch, ironed it and then it worked. PHEW. 

The only tricky part about this pattern is topstitching the neckband down while evenly catching the lining neckband. Other than that, it went very smoothly, and now I have the springtime dress!