This dress is the one of the last things I made before our European Cruise vacation. I really wanted this dress to have for when we went to dinner at the end of the day on the ship. It’s also doesn’t seem overly formal to me, so I thought it would be great for an everyday kind of dress too.
I started with the Tessuti Ruby Dress (with ~15″ added in length), but after sewing the side seams, it felt very tent-like, and I wasn’t digging it. I wanted the dress to be really long, but it just felt like a lot of fabric and not a lot going on below, design-wise. I recently made the Ashton Top, so I compared that to my Ruby pattern pieces and decided that I had enough room to add bust darts and taper in the side seams a bit.
I added the bust darts and before I did regular stitches, I basted the side seam and slits to where I liked it. The side seam is A-lined all the way past the hips, and then I just cut a line straight down since I was adding the side slits.
The Ruby instructions were pretty good, but I made a few changes to fit what I wanted and what I had on-hand. I didn’t have the Vilene shield (like tear away interfacing, it looks like) that they suggest using for the neckline and armholes. I just staystitched since that’s what I did for the Ashton Top, and it worked well.
The instructions also show you how to do visible binding around the neckline and armholes, but I didn’t want my binding to show, so I added some width to the straps before cutting out my fabric and then folded my binding all the way to the inside when I was sewing it together.
The instructions tell you to do a thread chain for the button in back, but I wanted to do a fabric one. So, I used the Bondi Dress instructions (also purchased from Tessuti) to make a fabric loop, and it worked really well! (To honestly, that pattern might have worked better for this fabric.) I had beautiful purpely colored buttons that matched really nicely, and I was excited to use.
I really like the design on top and think that it’s cool. The neckline is smaller, and the armholes are bigger than the Ashton Top. I like the back closure, and I think it turned out really nice. I even added a little ‘radiate positivity’ label in the back (shown below).
This fabric is really cool. I loved the color and print. I think the design is supposed to have the stripes going horizontal, but I really wanted them to be vertical, and I like how it looks. The fabric was wide, so I didn’t have any problems fitting the long pattern pieces in that direction. I also have quite a bit of it leftover, so I’m trying to decide what I should make with it now, since my 5-year-old decided that she doesn’t really like it.
I feel like a constant problem that I have is picking the wrong kind of fabric for new patterns. Not always, but with this one, it would have been better suited for a rayon or silk, something with more drape and flow. But I had a vision, and I was set on it, so I was glad that I was eventually able to get it the way I wanted it to look in my head. It’s always a relief when that happens, right?
Pattern & Fabric Details
(no affiliate links)
Ruby Dress by Tessuti Fabrics +
Printed Textured Cotton from la Tissuthèque LR
Label from TheCosyClubHandmade on Etsy
Thank you for reading today’s blog post and happy sewing! xoxo
