Fabric creped absorbent sheet with variable local basis weight

A method of making a fabric-creped absorbent cellulosic sheet, the method comprising: compactively dewatering a papermaking furnish to form a nascent web having an apparently random distribution of papermaking fiber orientation; applying the dewatered web having the apparently random distribution of papermaking fiber orientation to a translating transfer surface that is moving at a transfer surface speed; fabric-creping the web from the transfer surface at a consistency of from about 30% to about 60% utilizing a creping fabric, the fabric-creping step occurring under pressure in a fabric creping nip defined between the transfer surface and the creping fabric, wherein the creping fabric is traveling at a fabric speed that is slower than the transfer surface speed; applying the web to a Yankee dryer; creping the web from the Yankee dryer; and winding the web on a reel, wherein the fabric pattern, nip parameters, velocity delta, and web consistency and composition are selected such that: the web is creped from the transfer surface and redistributed on the creping fabric to form a web with a local basis weight variation, the web including at least (i) a plurality of fiber-enriched regions of a relatively high local basis weight, and (ii) a plurality of elongated regions having a relatively low local basis weight and being generally oriented along the machine direction (MD) of the sheet; and the process exhibits a Caliper Gain/% Reel Crepe ratio of at least 1.5.