1395 the third in Nani Iro

Nani Iro V1395

Here’s that third take on Vogue 1395 that I mentioned last time, fresh off the hand-sewing needle! As you can probably tell if you’re a fabric dork like me, this one is made in a super gorgeous Nani Iro double gauze.

Nani Iro V1395

I bought the fabric from Purl Soho in NYC. This pattern is called Spectacle; a sort of very abstracted painterly print of fields, bushes and clouds. It’s utterly beautiful – some of the white is thickly laid on to give it texture and there’s even some metallic mixed up in there. Cutting it out was a bit nerve-wracking, mostly because I only got 2yds and it’s quite narrow, so I really had to squish the pieces on a bit.

Nani Iro V1395

Nani Iro V1395

The print placement is quite lovely on the front but I had to make a seam up the back and it’s not quite so pleasing.

Nani Iro V1395

As I mentioned before, during the cutting stage I merged together the bodice and skirt at the waist seam and cut both the front and back as single pieces. I found on both my previous versions of this dress that the wraparound overlay doesn’t necessarily want to sit exactly over where I placed the waistline seam, so removing it completely means the tie can naturally find the right place to sit on my waist. You then can’t catch the centre bottom edge of the overlay into the waist seam at the back, so it’s hanging completely loose and only joined at the shoulders. I definitely didn’t do any photo outtakes where I flew around like Superman with a cape. Nope.

Nani Iro V1395

I treated the lovely fabric to a bit of rare hand-stitching: catch-stitching to secure the neck bias facing in place and to roll-hem the armholes and skirt hem. My patience didn’t extend to hand-rolling the entire overlay edge – that’s serged, folded back twice and topstitched as I did before. (Not purely laziness by the way, I also figured machine stitching is more secure for the area of the dress that gets stretched and knotted.) Making single fold bias binding is a bit of a nightmare with double gauze, by the way – I had a wobbly, distorted mess with the layers trying to separate themselves and frayed edges all over. But I did enjoy the catch-stitching because you can only pick up the inside layer of the gauze so it’s totally invisible from the outside. Mmm, satisfying.

Nani Iro V1395

I still don’t feel like I’ve got this dress out of my system – there’s 3 or 4 more fabrics in my stash I think it’d be amazing in. By the way, it is Minerva Crafts’ pattern of the week which means it’s 50% off right now… I’ve had a lot of people tell me they’re tempted to make their own now, and I can only encourage you.

28 thoughts on “1395 the third in Nani Iro

  1. liz

    Ooh I have some of this fabric, it’s amazing. It looks great in this dress, really shows off the fab print. I think mine might be destined to become a Papercut Flutter dress…

  2. sallie

    Love this version! I just can’t get enough Nani Iro!! And brilliant decision to omit the waist seam, I can totally see how that would be annoying – and unnecessary!

    1. Katie Post author

      I’m pleased it worked out! And now I sort of want one even without the overlay, just a big loose t-shirt type dress…

  3. sarah

    Wow — I’ve been eyeballing this pattern for awhile but was put off by all the parts and pieces. These changes are just enough to make it a little more palatable for me! And of course, all of your 1395s look great.

    1. Katie Post author

      Ha yeah, I tend to avoid patterns like that too and then end up hacking away to make them simpler. I can definitely recommend merging the bodice and skirts, it makes it a pretty fast sew.

  4. Gillian

    Oh Japan, why is your fabric THE BEST and the most expensive??? And so damned pretty. Your dress is lovely and I bet it’ll be perfect in your next heat wave!

    1. Katie Post author

      It was $18 a yard in Purl which I thought was really reasonable – it’s more like £18-20/m here. I should have bought a bit more!

  5. Noelle

    Invisible hand stitching is one of my favorite things about double gauze. And all the fantastic Nani Iro prints! Your dress looks lovely! And makes me wonder why I don’t have any double gauze dresses for summer…

  6. crab&bee

    Hooray for hand-stitching! And this dress is beauteous in double gauze AND it’s great without a waist seam. Maybe I’ll just wait for your next few versions so I can copy your improvements!

  7. Tracy

    What a gorgeous dress. I’ve got my second 1395 sitting in my ‘to be cut’ pile. I really like how yours sits without the waistband.

  8. Sheree

    What I love about this dress is that depending on shoes and accessories you could wear this to a wedding or as a beach cover-up. I have been looking round for an easy to put on dress that I can wear to the beach, but also looks nice enough to have lunch in ( not for me the see-through kaftan type). And thanks to you combining the skirt and bodice plus the offer from Minerva, it suits my needs perfectly. Thanks.

  9. Sheree

    Had to tell someone this. Pattern arrived yesterday. Had a day off today and spent all day making this up. Taking my time, being really careful. Well, it turns out not careful enough. Came to the part when you make the back tie piece and I couldn’t find the left hand piece anywhere. Yes, you guessed it – I cut the facings out of this “spare” piece of fabric. No chance of buying more fabric as it was in my stash for a couple of years. Sigh.

  10. Micki

    Am I the only one having difficulty figuring out how the overlay attach to the back??? I saw all beautiful three versions of yours. So fun. But I’m stuck trying to figure out the overlay to the back. Ugh!

      1. Micki

        The shoulders. But I think I finally figured it out. I just had to stop reading the directions and actually looked at the construction. Then it made sense! Those words in the directions drove me nuts. Sigh!

        1. Katie Post author

          Ha yeah same here. Actually now you mention it I do think there’s also an error in the instructions in terms of placing right/wrong sides together when sewing the neckline.

  11. Deborah

    I love this!!! I was just browsing the web for ideas for my nani iro fabric… The drape and fit are so great for the fabric. The seam up the back is barely noticable. The print helps hide it. :)

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