Ruby dress (the first)

I bought the Ruby dress and top pattern from Made by Rae, and posted about thinking about making a dress, almost a year ago.  At some point on Friday I decided that this weekend was the time.  I managed to sneak in a visit to The Fabric Store on Friday after work (only to find they had a sale on, bonus!), and by the time I went to bed I had this dress cut out and mainly assembled, with just the seam finishing and binding to do.

Can be worn with belt

I used a woven, textured, medium weight wool blend fabric.  It was lovely to work with - it had enough body to make sewing with it quite easy, and didn't fray very much at all.

I am terribly lazy and didn't bother making a muslin.  Based on my measurements, I made a size medium which worked pretty well in this slightly heavier fabric, and because I'll always be wearing something underneath it.  I've since cut another version in slightly lighter fabric - I used the size medium yoke pieces and size small body pieces, and I think that's going to be a little bit more flattering.  I also added about 2" of length to the body pieces - the dress still sits above my knees but the extra length means I can sit down and bend over without flashing anyone.

 

As I said in my original post on garment sewing,  I do have a bit of experience, but my previous garment sewing adventures were never that successful and usually a bit fraught.  I also haven't sewed any garments for nearly 10 years.  Sewing up this dress was honestly a breeze, and I really think that if you know how to make a quilt, you could sew this up without any real difficulty.

 

I recently bought a Janome 4120QDC (yes, if you're counting, that makes four), which has lots of different stitches.  I put it to good use finishing the seams of this dress with an overedge stitch and then stitching them flat.  I also used the blind hem foot and special stitch to create a blind hem at the bottom of the dress.

or without a belt

Anyway, I'm really thrilled with how this dress came out.  At first I was a bit disappointed that I didn't manage to choose a crazier fabric, but actually I really love the colour and texture of this fabric and I think I'll get a lot of wear out of this version (I'll be adding it to my work dress rotation just as soon as I buy myself a white shirt to wear with it - I'm wearing my sister's shirt in these photos).

 

I'm so not a natural at being photographed.  I feel quite uncomfortable in front of the camera and that definitely translates to how I look - I end up looking stiff and kind of grimacing instead of smiling.  Fortunately my sister is great at putting me at ease and telling me exactly what to do if I'm looking weird.  Sometimes though, I'm just a doofus.

Outtake for your amusement.

So, has anyone else made a Ruby dress?  Are you thinking about it?  As a demonstration of how easy this pattern is to follow, I have another version finished apart from the hand stitching around the neck and arm holes, and a third version cut and assembled but with none of the finishing work done.

I reckon I can sneak this in as a finish, even though it's not a quilt, so I'll be linking up to finish it up friday at crazy mom quilts.