I’m telling you, Madrid in July and August are brutal. The temperature is sky high, the sun is merciless, and the best way to survive is to arrange your day to take advantage of the cooler mornings and evenings. No one goes out at mid-day if they can help it.
The only place worse, in my opinion, is New York. Which is where I somehow find myself for a week every summer. I can’t avoid it–it’s my beloved city and I want to see my dearest friends, so somehow I always seem to pick one of the worst weeks of the summer to be there. The temperatures are also high, but they aren’t as high as Madrid. The problem, however is the humidity, which means the temperatures don’t drop much at night. Morning and evening are nearly as hot as the rest of the day.
So what do you you? You made and wear a white cotton gauze Chacarita Wrap Dress, of course! Surprisingly cool, I’ve found!
I had sort of forgotten how nice gauze is for the summer until I saw it in the fabric store last summer and it reminded me of growing up, when gauze was a very popular fabric. The open, lightweight weave means it breathes, dries quickly, and it’s quite forgiving in terms of wrinkles because the fabric itself is inherently wrinkly but the wrinkles tend to sort of release when you wear it. I’m not sure why it fell out of favor, but I’m glad it’s back!
One trick I found for sewing it: when I used the gauze to sew the blue gauze Tomigaya Dress I made last year I learned that you need to press the fabric immediately before you cut it. If you let it relax for a day or two the fabric tends to bounce back and gain a little body and wrinkle, which means that when you wear it the fabric grows a bit. This time I pressed the fabric immediately before I cut it and I’m much happier with the fit. It’s more accurate for the sizing.
Beyond that, this is a very quick sew! I eliminated the pockets–I just didn’t want them or the bulk, I decided. So that made it even faster to sew! Almost as fast as putting it on, in fact.
In any case, pack it if you go to NYC. Or to Madrid. You’ll need it.
The Chacarita Wrap Dress is available in paper and in digital format. I also love style this in the yellow linen I also used for one of the first samples I sewed, and I keep forgetting to photograph it. I guess that will have to wait for another blog post?
You look fabulous in your white wrap dress! Thanks for the tips for sewing with gauze. I have worked with it a little in my art quilts, and it is tricky to work with. A little starch might help too.