Pleats, Patterns and Holes

Going through my stash last month I came across this piece of material, which has been sitting in the cupboard for a few years waiting for its time to come.  I used it as a test piece a few years ago to try out a gathering foot (which didn't work - the gathers were inconsistent) so I rammed it back in the cupboard and forgot about it.

Earlier this week I spent an afternoon carefully unpicking five lines of machined gathering so I could start a project.     

I have long wanted to make a little girl's dress with tucks, where the tucks are sewn first and then the pattern piece cut out afterwards.  However, the design of this material worked better with pleats, because I could keep the white grid, but hide the columns of empty squares in a pleat and end up with horizontal rows of cherries.

Once all the pleats were machine stitched into place, I sewed a piece of ribbon to give extra strength at the bottom on the lines of stitching, and a decorative touch for when the dress is finished.

The paper pattern is ready, prepared from this outrageously complicated sheet from a pattern book I bought in Spain.  

Having started this little dress, now I have to stop.

A fortnight ago we had an eventful morning.  A rather large patch of ceiling plaster fell down, landing on my husband's chair by the table.  He was in the adjacent room, and I was upstairs, so there was no blood, just dust.  Next week we are expecting the plasterer, and shall have to empty the whole room.  We are in for a chaotic few days.  So no sewing for a while.  I shall be in the front room with my knitting and surrounded by cardboard boxes.