Hello! It's been a hot minute, hasn't it?! More accurately, it has been 281 days since my last post. I'm sure I don't need to tell you how wild 2020 was. In my little corner of the universe, it's all been swings and roundabouts really - I started a new job in December, 2019 (I like it! It's good!), there was the pandemic, I had a big surge of sewing energy during the first lockdown in New Zealand, and then after that I started seeking creative comfort in other ways. I've done a lot of knitting this year, folks. My sewjo left the building sometime in May or June, and although I was technically still sewing, I was really only choosing to work on non-challenging, 'safe' projects that I knew would have happy outcomes. I didn't want to take any risks! I also wasn't terribly interested in blogging - although I suppose that's hardly a surprise.
I'm not exactly sure when the veil lifted, but I've had a rather renewed amount of sewing energy in the last month or so. At first, I was nervous it wouldn't stick - I started with a couple of slightly-more-unusual projects here and there - and then for the first time since April, I found myself doodling in my little notebook. That, you could say, is where the story of the Ruffle Dress begins.
I'm pretty sure I was thinking through a puzzling work problem when I drew this. Just a quick little idea, but particularly unusual because it was definitely not a 'need', and also definitely not pants! I hardly wear skirts and dresses these days. It had firmly planted itself in my brain, though, because I was still thinking about it when I got home. I decided to have a quick shuffle through the stash to see if there was anything suitable already around. I didn't have high hopes (I have a pretty big stash, but given this isn't the type of thing I normally make, I didn't think I'd have a suitably summery fabric) - lo and behold, the stash produced 3 metres of the most delightful foliage print, scattered with cockatoos and monstera and palm leaves. I was absolutely hooked! If ever there was a sign from the sewing godesses, this was it.
The dress is self-drafted, but it's really not a terribly complicated one. I knew I wanted to incorporate shirring, so it wouldn't need to have a zip or other closure. First, I cut a 20cm wide piece of fabric to make a shirring sample, so I could determine how much the fabric would shrink. I shirred it, and found that the width shrunk from 20cm to 10cm: Nice and easy to calculate! This would be different on different fabrics (as well as stitch lengths, and probably brands of shirring elastic), so I'd definitely recommend always making a sample (using a width that at least starts at a nice round number!) I was initially going to cut my back to accommodate the full doubled width (32" for a finished width of 16") but in the end I decided to cut it at 24" (finished width of 12") It's a bit of a squeeze to get over my head, but the resulting bodice is just the right amount of snug over the back, and it doesn't shift too much, which is lovely.
The pattern pieces are really quite straightforward: starting with my body block, I drew a neckline and armhole curve , and left the rest as-is. the back is a rectangle - 24" wide from the calculations above, and 11" tall - to match the height of the side seam, plus 1/2" to finish the topline. The skirt is two rectangles - front and back - that are 21” long by three times the length of the waist measurement, and then I added a 4" ruffle that is three times the length of the skirt hem measurement. I added side inseam pockets (also just rectangles) which are secured in the waistband. Overall, I used 2.1m of fabric. I think I'm going to use the 90cm left over to make a little top that ties at the waist to wear with it - I am imagining there are going to be some sunny occasions where I might like to have my shoulders covered!
The construction was also pretty straightforward. I started with the shirred back panel, folding the top down 1/4" twice to create a casing. I sewed it down, and then threaded through some 1/4" elastic to stabilise the top edge. Then, I hand wound my shirring elastic on to the bobbin (don't stretch it as you wind! The bobbin tension mechanism in your machine will do the stretching!) - and sewed parallel lines of shirring using the edge of my presser foot as a guide - this is about every 3/8". The trick to shirring is that in order to help your machine sew the next row evenly, you must stretch the previously-shirred section back out to the true width of the fabric. There are a lot of different ways to do this, I experimented to find a hand position that was comfortable for me. I quite enjoyed the slow, methodical process!
I cut two bodice front pieces, sewed the darts, neckline, and underarm seams, and then sandwiched the shirred back panel between the two layers of the front in order to create a clean finish on the inside. I really like the way this anchors the shirring! Next, I inserted the pockets (and understitched!) and then sewed up the side seams of the skirt. I gathered the front and back of the skirt separately - the front, to the length of the front-waist, and the back to the length of the back at its un-shirred length (so, 24") - that means that the back of the skirt is partially gathered traditionally, and also partially gathered with the shirring. After I attached the skirt to the bodice, I cut my strips for the ruffle, and finished one edge for the hem BEFORE gathering and attaching the ruffle to the skirt. It's so much easier to hem when it's still flat!
The last step - which I technically didn't need to save for last - was to attach the straps. Initially, I thought I'd fix the strap length, which is why I waited to attach them until the end, but after trying it on I realised I could raise or lower the back of the dress by an inch or two in either direction without distorting the front (yay, elastic!) so I decided to add rings and sliders to make it adjustable. This way, I can adjust the back of the dress depending on the bra I'm wearing. I also lined up the back straps to sit on top of my bra straps to keep the visibility to a minimum. This was accomplished via the highly scientific method of twisting my body around in front of the mirror to clip wonder clips to the point on the dress where my bra straps sat underneath.
Goodness gracious! All up, I started this project at about 6:30am on a Saturday, and - including pre-washing, drying, drafting, and a trip to my local shop to get more shirring elastic when I ran out - I finished it around 2 in the afternoon. It was such a fun day, and it's been so long since I've done a project like this! Additionally - and I suppose I should have realised this before I started - this dress is SO far outside what I have been considering 'my style' lately. Ruffles? The first dress I've made since the wedding, two years ago? A gathered skirt? Floral? Who AM I? As surprised as I am by this thing that's come out of my brain, I have to say, I'm really glad to be back. I suddenly have this avalanche of ideas and my notebook is absolutely full of little sketches and lists of wild things to sew!
I think the theme (of this post, and also of 2020, as it happens) was that I've been finding comfort in familiar things - familiar patterns, outfits, and styles, as well as habits and aspects of life in general - and it feels really quite good to break out of that familiarity, and into something that is equally lovely but also fantastically different. That, or I'm reading entirely too much into the meaning behind the ruffle. It's been known to happen. Whatever it is, I think one of my goals for 2021 is going to be to break out of this pattern and try some new, different things. Just to see - you know?
Of course, I also have a pretty massive list of things to catch you up on that I've been quietly working on lately - I've made two more pairs of shoes that I need to share with you, and a whole pile of other things! I make no promises for more regular blog posts because if we've learned one thing from this experience it's to expect the unexpected, but now that I've broken the hiatus I will be doing my very best over the coming weeks (months?!) to share everything I've made this year!