Ikatee Patterns Louise, Double Gauze Tips and Tricks

I’ve recently been on a “find-new-patterns” kick and have been so lucky to run across Ikatee patterns. I found them on Instagram, headed to their website and then immediately needed all of their patterns. Their look is a French take on classic children’s clothing and it is so fun! Immediately upon entering their website they offer you a free pattern (your choice of several,) and then they continue to impress with a HUGE variety of PDF and paper patterns for everyone in the family.

While I was looking through images of their patterns made up, it became abundantly clear that a lot of people use double gauze fabrics to sew them. I’ve always been intimidated by double gauze, it seems slippery, stretchy and hard to handle. After choosing the Ikatee Louise Mum and Girl pattern it became very clear that I was going to have to get over my fear. That pattern just needs a light, flow-y, summery fabric. I will, in a future post, review both patterns for you all!

I hopped over to Farmhouse Fabrics and was so happy to find the PERFECT fabric. I am a sucker for light pink and an even bigger sucker for gingham, so this double gauze fabric had to be mine. I then asked you all to send me any tips you had for sewing with double gauze and reached out to several friends on social media for insight. Here’s what I learned and how I interpreted it:

• Sewing with double gauze is a lot like sewing with quilting cotton, its two ply but the pieces of fabric aren’t as shifty as I had originally thought.
• When using a top stitch, 3.0mm length straight stitches seem to lay flatter and neater than my standard 2.5mm.
• The main issue most people have with this fabric is that it doesn’t seem to “hold its shape” as well as other fabrics (it stretches as its worn and then shrinks when it dries) because of this, I opted to use a zig zag (width 1.0mm, length 1.6mm) stitch for all invisible stitches. I also opted to topstitch the neckline and interface the bodice fabric for this reason.
• I was told a 70/10 microtex was a good needle to use. I failed to order the needles in time and I used my trusty Organ 80/12 needles they did just fine.
• As always, in places where I wanted my stitching to be extremely pretty (any topstitching) I placed stitch and ditch behind my fabric. This isn’t completely necessary but I find that it gives me considerably more control when sewing.
• I basted my armscye outer fabric to my lining fabric before sewing in the sleeves. I find this gives me more control when placing the sleeves regardless of fabric type.
• Double gauze is a fairly sheer fabric, because of this, I opted to line the Louise dress (which isn’t lined) much as I would a Children’s Corner Lee. The bodice was constructed almost exactly the same as I would a Lee. I’ll do another post on this at a later date!

Here’s a quick video of the fabric (yes ya’ll I am going to start attempting to make videos…woohoo!) Hope this helps with any double gauze questions you may have. If you have any better insight, tips you’d like to share, or questions, please use the comments below!