I'd seen several people who have made Miss Ruby Tuesday by 1 Puddle Lane and I loved it. Then Ann had a fundraising sale to help pay for her daughter's cancer treatment so who could resist a message like that telling me to buy the pattern. Plus one of my online sewing groups had a sew-along to help promote the sale.
Headed to the fabric shop hoping the Clearance Table Gods would favour me so I could a make wearable muslin without risking good fabric. They did indeed favour me and everything seemed to fall into place.
I decided on the extended shoulder/cap sleeve bodice option with the half circle peplum. After printing, I did a FBA because I know that's standard for me now and added a few inches to the bodice length. I'm pretty particular about where I like my waist seams hitting because the wrong spot can really accentuate my belly.
It still felt and looked too tight in the bust but the length seemed good. I just took some off the back length to fit into the curve of my spine better (it's folded up in the pic to where I wanted it to be).
I added more to my FBA but this made it look worse!!
It sat in the "I don't know" pile for a day or two.
I decided to return to my first bodice with the smaller FBA and press on. I attached the peplum and bindings. It wasn't love.
Attaching the skirt did pull the bodice down a bit so it became too long and the bindings have pulled the neck/armhole too tight. I'm guessing my fabric didn't have enough stretch in that direction.
I tossed it aside and there it sat for a month, until I decided it deserved a re-look.
I realised that when I had done the FBA, I had used the extended shoulder point rather than the actual shoulder point, so this may have affected my results. Will have to remember that for next time, but before then, it was time to look at the waist seam! That is one of the major factors of the silhouette of this dress. I decided to do some comparisons.
Note, these photos were deliberately taken with the light behind me to show the silhouette rather than the details. And the different waist heights are just roughly pinned up so don't give a smooth line but you get the idea.
Left is my finished product (above) that came out too long after attaching the skirt. Not a good photo, but you can see the shape.
Centre is when pinned up to my natural waist, and where I believe the pattern is designed to sit.
Lastly, I let some of the pinned section out, so it's about halfway in between the previous two. This actually hits me at the largest part of my belly, which is about 1/2" above my belly button. You can see this point in the first photos of this post.
Left looks nice enough, nothing wrong with it as such.
Centre looks quite cute I think, giving nice waist definition and shape. The 'skirt' is now a bit short and hits in a really bad spot, but could easily be fixed in future versions.
Right also gives me nice waist shape, the skirt sits a bit flatter/smoother over hips.
Now for side view, which is always what I dread:
Left: doesn't look bad, but it just feels a bit 'meh' to me.
Centre: The higher waist seam really pops the skirt out, giving a more 'maternal' look.
Right: It looks very similar to the centre one, but it's just a subtle difference of where the skirt pops out and how it hangs. I can still see I have a belly, it doesn't just go away, but it becomes less of a "feature"
Personally I think the last one is the best option, and was probably the length I was going for before the skirt weighed it down. It doesn't make the belly disappear in side view, but it does give a fairly smooth look. And from front view, there is still some really nice waist shaping.
Of course all these variations make the overall length different, so some skirt length might need to be added to maintain my ideal length for a peplum/top, but that's a separate problem. And so is the neck/shoulder puckering. I guess this one is still assigned to the "needs work" pile, but I've got the waist height sorted out! Next time I'll try a different fabric too.
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