Stitch Samples :: Roscoe Dress from True Bias

Kalle is on the blog today sharing some stress-relief sewing she’s done recently – in Liberty lawn, no less!

Maker: Kalle

Pattern Used:

I was inspired by this ready-to-wear dress I recently saw advertised on Instagram.I thought that with just a few tweaks to The Roscoe Dress from True Bias, I could get pretty close. Even using Liberty, my dress comes in waaaay below the $290 price tag on the inspo dress!

(This pattern is available in print in sizes 0 – 18, and as a pdf in sizes 14 – 30.  If you purchase a pdf, we can print it for you on our copy shop printer – learn more about our pattern printing services here.)

Fabric Used:

Liberty of London Tana Lawn in the print Serpentine A.

(We only have one yard of this print left, but click through to check out all of the other gorgeous cotton lawn we have available!)

Did you make a muslin?

I haven’t had much garment-sewing-sewjo for the past few months, so when the mood hit, I wanted to run with it! I didn’t make a muslin, and I also didn’t prewash (!) – a first for me. I was so eager to get to sewing, I just crossed my fingers and went for it. I’ve worked with Liberty Tana Lawn pretty frequently, so I was fairly confident it would not shrink much after washing. Fortunately, I was right!

Additionally, I have made the Roscoe Blouse before, and there is a very generous amount of ease. I actually sized down one size, and there is still 10” of ease at the bust. So I wasn’t concerned about fit issues. 

Did you make any alterations to the pattern?

To make the Roscoe pattern more like the inspiration dress, using view C, I omitted the ruffle at the bottom of the dress, lengthened the neck split by 1”, and added 4” in length to the dress front and back. 

I also added patch pockets to the Roscoe pattern; since there is no waistband, I didn’t want to do inseam pockets as they tend to flap around and make me crazy. I spent a fair amount of time attempting to pattern match the pockets, but those serpents are tricky! I could not find the perfect match on the scraps I had, and didn’t want to cut in to more yardage just for the pocket pattern matching. In the end, you can barely see where the pockets are, so it all worked out. 

When sewing the pockets, I cut them out on the fold – the fold became the top of the pocket. I then sewed around the rest of the pocket, leaving an opening for turning. A tip: when you have to turn something like this, sew from the seam line to the edge of the fabric on either side of the opening. This helps the opening to fold in nicely. I then just topstitched the pockets to the dress, and that closed up the opening.

Did you learn any new techniques/skills?

Yes! I tried a new way of gathering, and after a few false starts, it worked really well. I learned the technique from an article on Threads, by Susan Khalje, called Couture Method for Even Gathers. The gist of it is, you sew three rows of gathering, using the smallest stitches you can gather (after some trial and error, I used a 3.0 stitch length). You sew one of the gathering lines on the seam line – this was a first for me! It worked really well, and made tiny, even gathers. I will definitely use this technique in the future.

Do you have any tips for construction?

I stitched the bindings down by hand for a nice, clean finish. I enjoy a bit of hand sewing, so it didn’t bother me at all. The instructions provide guidance for how to finish on the machine, if hand sewing isn’t your favorite.

What did you like about the pattern/fabric?

I love this fabric! I’ve had my eye on it since it first came in last year, and was just waiting for it to tell me what it wanted to be. I think this pattern is the perfect match for this fabric.

The dress came together really quickly. The gathering and hand finishing of the bindings took a while, but other than that, it’s a quick make.

Would you make it again?

I will definitely make another! This dress is so comfy to wear, and even with the longer sleeves, it is cool and breezy, since the cotton lawn breathes well.

For the next one, I plan to exaggerate/widen the front V neck to be more open, more like the inspiration dress neckline, or maybe make the binding wider, similar to this blouse. I’ve got my eye on this fun cotton lawn from Lady McElroy for my next dress.

Stitch Samples is a blog series that gives you a closer look at the samples made by members of our shop gang.