Dotty Ruby Dress

I’m in love with Ruby!

Of course that’s me in the photo; I’m talking about the Ruby dress by Simple Sew.

I started making it early last week and finished it just in time for the weekend, when my lovely mum gave my partner and I the night off and we spent it in 4* luxury in Gloucestershire. I’m sure you understand that I needed a new dress for the occasion!

I fell in love with Ruby as soon as I saw it in the ‘coming up in Issue 5’ feature in Love Sewing magazine. It’s my kind of style dress – the high neckline and fabulous flouncy circle skirt.

[Image swiped from lovesewingmag.co.uk]

And, luckily, it hasn’t disappointed me.

For a start, I looooove the skirt. I’ve never made a circle skirt before, but know this is going to be the first of many because I just love the shape of it. It took hours to hem because I decided that I wanted to make a good job of it; so blind stitched it. I thought that if I machine stitched it, it would have been very visible when the stitches ran through the white dots. Of course hemming was the last thing to do and I was really happy with the dress to that point, so I didn’t want to ruin it!

Now, back to the beginning. I cut a size 8 based on my measurements. Of course, I didn’t make a toile. Luckily I did think to try it on as I went along, though. I forgot to take photos but I found the bodice to be too big in the front after I had inserted the darts. So I quickly thought on the spot and put it on inside-out; pinning the excess fabric to continue the waist darts up quite a bit further, taking in the excess fabric. I basted the new elongated darts in place, and found the fit to be a lot better. The waist darts almost look like princess seams now; although they don’t go all the way to the neck. It ruined the effect of the polka dots a bit, but I guess I can’t have it all!

I also cut down the neckline as it was almost choking me! I took my time on this and I’m glad that it paid off; you an see the dots are pretty damn symmetrical!

I wonder if you can see the one little thing I’m not happy with?

The dots at the waist seam (in the middle) do not quite match up. I’m annoyed about this because I cut the pieces to have the spots perfectly running down the middle. But when sewn, they moved a tad out of line. I might unpick and try again, but to be perfectly honest, I probably won’t get round to it! I might make a little bow belt to cover it, instead… we’ll see.

The back isn’t too bad, but, again, I did cut the pieces to have the dots joining up over the seam so that they run vertically. But when I tried the dress on before adding the zip it was nearly too tight, so I decided to lessen the seam allowance a little when I inserted the zip. So my careful cutting went to waste.

Nevertheless I’m happy with how the zip went in, and I quite like the v-back! At least it fits!

I was going to lengthen the bodice and skirt like I have seen others do, but forgot until I’d made the bodice – so I just lengthened the skirt an inch or so (actually I just cut the size 18 length). And I’m really happy with it; the bodice length is fine! 🙂

One of my favourite things about the dress is that I made French seams for the side and waist seams (the centre back seam has the zip so it’s just zigzagged). I love this finish; French seams look so neat, with all the raw edges enclosed. I’m so happy I thought ahead to do it; the pattern doesn’t tell you to do it and I’m [usually] a sucker for following instructions!

This is such a comfortable dress; I will definitely make another when I come across the right fabric. I bought this fabric pretty cheap on eBay but it’s very nice and feels like lawn. I’m glad I have about a metre left to make something else with 🙂

Right, I’d better go and do the school run…

Beth x