True Bias Roscoe dress

This new make is the True Bias Roscoe dress. I exchanged patterns with Kelli after the release of my Roberts pattern and have been sitting on it until I found a fabric that I thought was suitable. The pattern itself is just my style and I have a couple of trusty dresses in my wardrobe already which have a similar vibe to this, so I knew I would make this at some point!

The fabric I used is a cotton lawn from Fabworks mill shop and is super quality! I have recently discovered this place and I have been happy with everything I have ordered from there so far. The pattern calls for silky fabrics mainly, but I like this more casual fabric and with a slip underneath is fine with tights for the winter as well as cool for the summer!

I am sounding pretty cool about this dress so far, which is for no reason really because let me tell you I LOVE IT!!! I have taken indoor photos that are pretty ropey because I just needed them taken already so I can wear it now (I am by the way). Worn with a belt that I made from the very last scraps it is nice and shapely and feminine without being too dressed up. It makes such a welcome change from the dungarees I have been constantly wearing and I feel preeeetty.

I stuck to the pattern throughout making view C, but it turned out too long for me. I had added the ruffle already as I couldn't decide whether or not I would like it, so rather than unpick and shorten I just tucked up the amount I wanted to shorten and sewed along the original ruffle seam again. I then chopped off the excess, overlocked and topstitched the seam down. Doing it this way did mean that I ended up with four layers of fabric in the ruffle seam allowance, but this cotton is so fine it is not bulky at all. In total I removed 12.5cm (5") from the bottom of the main dress. In my case I was being a bit goldilocks. The long dress was too long and the short dress was too short, so I wanted something in between!

The only other deviation was to add elastic to the hem of the sleeves rather than the sleeve bands. I find with non stretch ends on gather cuffs they get stuck somewhere up my arm and then I have to tug them down, whereas stretchy ends are much easier to re-adjust. You can see the sleeve on my right arm (my most used arm) is caught up in every photo. If I made this again I might make full length sleeves to prevent this!

 I think I will only ever wear this with a belt, as it has just the right amount of volume to not have too many gathers, but it does not look good left loose on me. Probably my fabric choice more than anything!

Fabric's a funny thing really. In the above photos, when the dress is belted, the cotton has just enough structure to support the shape of the sleeves and skirt. It is just perfect, but then below it does not look great at all!!!!

The verdict is that I really hope to use this pattern again and I shall wear this at least once a week until it starts to fall apart.

I don't know why I took photos with clogs on. I have actually just been wearing it out with some burgundy clumpy boots, which is much more me. Not truly representing myself here! Ta ra x