Rainbow Twirl Dress

Rainbows have recently started showing up in Little Miss’s drawings and she often tells me she likes all the colors, except black and so making her a rainbow dress just seemed like a good idea.  I saw this dress on craftster years ago (okay, I just went and looked, 2007!) and have been wanting to make it ever since.
Vegbee (craftster name) has a free tutorial on her blog indietutes for the rainbow twirl dress. She also a ton of other tutorials that are on my must sew list (check the full list on the left hand sidebar).  She also offers a more detailed version in her etsy store SweetShop with the bodice pattern piece and exact number of patches to complete a finished dress.  I opted to purchase the pattern, cut and sew without math was completely worth $4.00!  The pattern is very detailed and easy to follow and the results are fabulous.
I really want to make one using scraps, but this time I wanted the rainbow and sorting through my extensive stash to find a rainbow was NOT going to happen!  I bought a batik jellyroll from W-mart and supplemented it with a few extra 1/4 yard batik cuts.  I needed a lot extra of purple and yellow batik is hard to find.I sewed the strips together and made alternating patchwork in the designated lengths.  I wish I had a serger, it would have made the process much faster.  I used my handy cording foot to zigzag over dental floss to gather the layers up.  I honestly would not recommend trying to gather this up in the traditional way, with two rows of stitching, pulling the bobbin threads.  She suggests using elastic and I’m sure that would give you a nice, even gather.  I like using denatal floss because it’s cheap and it slides easily through the zigzags to make gathers and it is impossible to break, once each layer was sewn together I removed the floss and then finished all the edges.Here’s the finished dress all laid out in a circle.  That purple tier took forever, it was over 12 feet long.  This is great beginner pattern, really, it’s almost entirely straight sewing, except for the curves on the bodice.  Seriously, I LOVE this dress and now I want one in my size.  I’m not kidding, I’m going to be sorting through my massive stash and cutting squares as I go, but first I need to do some math (ugh) and figure out how many squares and tiers I’m going to need. Here are the action shots from yesterday’s egg hunt.  There was a lot of spinning.  I really need to make her some matching bloomers to wear under this, she is not very lady like ;)