Among my other interests, I really enjoy sewing.  I do a fair bit of embroidery (read: monogramming), but I think sewing, especially garment creation is interesting. Oddly, one of the first things I ever created was a skirt (with my sewing fairy godmother and friend, Leigh), but I’ve never made anything else for me until this month.

I’ve had the Miss Ruby Tuesday pattern (from 1Puddle Lane) for a couple of years without giving it a try, which I completely regret now. It’s such an easy and relatively quick sew, and it yields my kind of dress: as my sister describes it, ‘fitted on top and flowy on the bottom’ and it’s such an easy dress to wear. I tried it out a couple of times with fabric I had in my stash (a/k/a fabric horde) and then I was ready to cut into the good stuff.  It’s a pattern designed for knits, which is handy since it requires no zippers (I’m not ready to tackle that quite yet).

For my serious dress fabric (a/k/a the real deal), I used some spectacular Tri-Blend from Sly Fox Fabrics: it’s called Impetuous in Denim*.  I can already tell it will be glorious for the summer- while it’s very soft and stretchy, there is still enough cotton content to make it breathable and not sweaty, which is critical here in the Lowcountry. It was easy to cut and to sew and I found myself wishing I had about 40 more yards of this Tri-Blend in every color. I definitely have my eye on the Seafoam for another dress.  I hardly used my regular sewing machine for this dress- mostly just for hemming the skirt and finishing the sleeves. Otherwise, I relied on my serger. It made the process go so quickly and gives it a more ‘finished’ look. I probably had the whole thing done in about an hour and a half or two hours, which I felt pretty good about. I obviously made some adjustments to the pattern- I graded an extra small/small and added length to it. After looking at the photos, I think I might take out some of the extra length in the bodice to bring the line where the bodice/skirt meet a little higher, but I’m generally really happy with the outcome. I love being able to adjust the dress pattern to fit me precisely and the more I work with it, the better the fit becomes. 

I will definitely be building more of these dresses to wear around so you might see them on me.  I’d love to know what you think, so feel free to share your ideas!

I used my serger a whole lot for this project, it helped me be a lot less intimidated by the knife (which has been a little rough for me). Sly Fox gives away a serger every month and you can enter to win it here (no purchase necessary). If you’re interested in sewing with knits, you can certainly do it on a traditional sewing machine, but a serger makes it SO much easier.

Have you ever sewn anything? Tell me about it here!

*The lovely ladies at Sly Fox Fabrics sent me two yards of this fabric for free for me to make anything I wanted and share my experience. I can’t wait to do it again.