My Sheer Evolution

This is my first sheer dress made around 2000. It has major construction issues as I had no idea how to turn at the waist for a sheer. The fabric was oh so comfy. The skirt support was prior to me figuring out how to get better poof off my hips. The collar is too wide for 1861-4. (I have a eyes closed problem with photos.)

Here is my second sheer, made the same year or the next as the grey. This one does have a cotton strip folded into the turn. I put it under the fold…. It slipped…. I learned. This fabric had a very loose weave and snagged on everything.

I remade it to fit a significant weight gain, when we were unemployed. The remake was done on an air mattress.

Sheer dress three was the dress I wore for mourning Dad. (Yes, I now know sheer cotton may not be supportable for mourning. It was real mourning. I had little money. I was numb. Live with it.) This was a private gathering for just a few of just a few of us.

Jump forward many years….
The next two sheer dresses were from my green stage in 2013. They were the first dresses I made in what felt like a long time. The green plaid is a cotton lawn; soft, comfy, airy, easy to wrinkle. The green print is a loved gift, a block print from the V&A. It is also very nice to wear. It can not get wet.

The following year, in 2014, I made the matching fabric dresses for Lily and I that we wore for the GCV Mother’s Day fashion show. This sheer cotton shirting was easy to work with and forgiving. It does feel a tad heavier than the white & green dresses. These got hem tape.

The next sheer is an earlier dress. The fabric came from a friend. It is lovable both for the ease and the wear. I want to make new undergarments to truly benefit from the lightness of this dress. (Photo by Eileen Hook)

I’ll admit, I’ve loved wearing sheers so much, I have a hard time wearing some opaque cottons because they feel heavy to me. I have a couple more sheers in the stash. They seem to draw my attention so much more than the period prints.

Hmm. A couple more photos….