Ruffle Tova Dress

Ruffles and black-and-white-gingham? It seems I've accidentally made a super on-trend garment. I promise it's purely coincidental.

Pattern:

Due to the need for breastfeeding 'access' I haven't worn a dress now for a year, and although I'm not normally a frequent wearer of dresses, I've missed them. So for this, my fourth project using the Wiksten Tova pattern, I wanted to make a dress version in celebration of almost no longer needing boob access during the daytime.  

As with all my other versions of the Tova pattern, I started off using the size M, blending to a size L at the hips. You may or may not recall that, for my denim Tova top (which I wear embarrassingly often) I altered the sleeves to be a little wider around the bicep. For this version, I took that sleeve piece and slash-and-flared the pattern from the bottom edge to add an extra 6cm width of fullness. I made the cuff piece deeper and, as I'm sure you've noticed, added a rather epic ruffle round the bib section. 

For the ruffle, I just cut a strip the width of my fabric and two times (plus seam allowance) my desired ruffle depth. After that the construction got a bit fiddly. The mid-section of the front of the Tova pattern is gathered into the bib. However, I was applying another gathered thing on top of the mid-section gathers before attaching the bib. A lot of tacking (basting) happened. Then, in the end, I decided to press the seam allowances of the bib under and topstitch it onto the prepared front dress-with-ruffle rather than trying to do the awkward corner pivots that are tricky enough without a ruffle involved. 

The only other changes to the pattern were to apply interfacing to the collar and cuffs, and make the bib panels double thickness to add weight to cope with the heaviness of the ruffle. Oh, and I added 7cm to the length at the hem, but I may shorten it a bit in the future.  

Fabric:

This black and white gingham is slightly heavier than your usual run-of-the-mill school summer dress ginghams. It's still pretty breezy, but hopefully this dress will still be wearable into the colder weather with thick tights, boots and cardigans. Plus, it doesn't seem to crease, which is great because I only ever get my iron out whilst I'm making a garment; my clothes never get touched by one again after they're finished!

I've had this fabric in my stash for years, and I'm so glad I waited until now to use it. These days, I'm much better at making garments that I'll actually wear a lot. I make sure they fit me well and suit my lifestyle (ha! As if I have a lifestyle!). If I'd used this fabric as soon as I got it, then I possibly would have wasted it by making an ill-fitting 50's style thing that I'd never wear (like this. Or this. Or this. You get the idea).

Thoughts:

As I planned this project, I was trying to channel 2000's era Built by Wendy. But when it was finished and on my dress form I feared it was a bit 1970's Amish. Then I actually wore it (to the Great British Sewing Bee live event on Sunday and I didn't have Frankie with me all day) and it felt fabulous. The shape of the sleeves could be a little more refined, and the cuffs narrower, and as I said before it might get shortened to sass it up a bit, but generally I'm coming down on the side of 'very pleased'.