Summer Dress With Ruffle Hem

Yesterday was the day 27 of Me-Made-May challenge on Instagram and I took the opportunity to wear my new dress. We went for lunch at the local restaurant for the first time in the past three months. What a joy! My son also back to school on Monday and I hope that things will be better in the future. 

Sewing and baking were two things that entertained me a lot. I managed to make my basic pattern blocks and baked delicious breads. Besides, the quality time with husband and son during this time, it brought us even closer 💗

Well, let's talk about the dress 😊
I finished five days ago and glad it turned out as my plan. The dress has a round neckline, short sleeves, four darts at the front, two darts at the back, invisible zipper at CB and ruffle hem. The neckline finished with facings, I used 1.5 cm seam allowances, 2.5 cm sleeve allowance and 1 cm hem allowance.

The pattern was self-drafted based on my basic pattern blocks, I followed the book "Basic Pattern Making" by Lucia Mors de Castro that I bought a few years back when I visited Bangkok.


So happy that I finally made my basic pattern blocks to create this dress and for sure I'll be making more in the future.
I was planning to do this for years but always distracted by other things. I made my first basic patterns in 2009 when I started sewing but obviously, the patterns were too small for me now.

The fabric I used, a cotton-linen blend from the local shop. I bought 6 yards and still have leftover enough to make two more garments.
I decided to sketch my dress and I used a free body template from Kim Dave Designs as a base and then I drew the dress and hair. It was fun 😊

The progress started by making the basic pattern for the top, as shown below. I carefully took the measurements and drew the patterns according to the instruction from the book. I think I did it right but the shape of the back piece was a little weird at the waistline. I suspected because I have a large waistline 😏😄 So, I have to make diet as soon as possible 😄

I made the first modification on the pattern, shorten the sleeve, slashed and moved the darts at the front and back pieces. Also, removed the second waist dart at the back piece. I liked the look of the patterns and the fit was okay after I made the muslin.

And then, I made the dress pattern by lengthen both pieces until above my knee and cut the bottom pieces because I wanted to make ruffle hem. The size of the ruffle hem was 25 cm wide and 180 cm long. 

The sewing process was according to the usual manner and the cotton blend fabric was easy to handle. I sewed the bodices together followed with sleeves and the invisible zipper at CB. And then, I used neck facings to finish the neckline, pinned - sewed - clipped and hand-sewed the final facing.

I sewed the bottom pieces together, gathered and attached to the body.
And the last two parts, sewed the sleeve hem 2.5 cm and hem allowance 1 cm. Done! 

That's it for today, this dress is my entry to #sewyourwardrobebasics May challenge with theme "Dress" hosted by Stefanie @seaofteal 

If you are interested, you can pop over her blog to find more details of this fun challenge. 

Happy sewing!