Tilly & the Buttons Rosa Shirt dress in Liberty Needlecord

I was so excited when I saw the Rosa shirt dress by Tilly & the Buttons.  It had my name all over it - love the suggestion to use piping and contrasting neck band etc and I m a sucker for a princess seam!

I had this Liberty needlecord in my stash for quite some time and had been waiting for the perfect project- and decided this was it.

The trickiest bit of the make was the cutting out.  My own fault- I thought I had 2 metres of the fabric but it turns out, I only had 1.5.  Doh.  but I m a stubborn type so I was going to make it work.  I had one hell of a jigsaw going on to make it work.  Outside of the main dress body pieces I was rather flexible on using the grain and just made things fit.

First sewing step is to stitch the front & back pieces together.  It suggests 3 steps - sew& trim, over lock, then top stitch.  I followed this but not exactly - as I wanted to do some fitting fine tuning before overlocking & topstitching.  So I sewed the pieces that make up front & back together down the princes seams, then tacked the other seams together on the largest setting on my machine so I could check the fit.    I have to admit that when I sew princess seams I don't pin- I just pin at the notches, sew with the most curved fabric on top and ease it into position between the pins as I go.  I then put it on my dress form and played around with it.

 I was seriously happy about the fit at the back without any alterations, but the front looked a bit loose, so on the reverse I pinned the seams further in and on the front from the bust to the hip.  I noted the side seams also looked like they needed some alterations, but I ll fine tune that later.

I made my adjustments to the fit, then I overlocked & topstitched.  I would highly recommend not diving into finalising those seams until you refine the fit.  The reason I love princess seams so much is you can get such a great fit with them, so I would definitely allow yourself the opportunity to do that. For topstitching I used Gutermann top stitch thread in navy.  I sewed closer in than the 10mm suggested, probably more like 6mm.

My adjustments to fit...

 Overlocking...

And topstitching.

I was quite happy how my top stitching was looking! I only went for 1 row as I felt the fabric was quite busy enough!

I decided to add some piping too- I decided down the front, at the cuffs and across the back 'v' shape of the yoke.  I've never done piping before so I read a few tutorials on line and had a go.  I discovered my 'stitch in the ditch' foot as I call it was perfect.

For the button band down the front, I did this differently to the pattern,. I put the facing pieces on the front, not the back of the main fabric so I could do the piping and have the contrast button band showing.  For the piping, I sewed piping on the top of one piece first, using this foot:

 I then pinned the other piece on top, turned it over so the previous stitch line was visible and sewed using the foot, on top/just inside the previous stitch line so I knew I was close to the piping.

 I then ironed it the right way and stitched in the ditch to keep the insides folded in the right way.

 The V was a challenge- I really didn't know how to do that- to be honest my only criticism of the pattern is that it doesn't given any tips at all on piping, which is shown on the cover and therefore I assumed that would be included.   I did the same on the V but cutting into the piping to make it go round the curve.  I know this looks a bit of a mess.

 Overall it is ok.  Its a bit puckered right below the V (really don't think my technique was right) and the  inside of that bit looks terrible.  Would love some tips on how to do this better.

Really happy with the neck and front binding though...  I used scrap denim from my refashioners project and love the contrast.  I had a small issue with the neck- the collar was smaller than my neckline- I clearly either cut the collar small or the neckline stretched, which I think is the likely reason. I added in 2 small darts to overcome it and actually I quite like them as they give a nice fit on the back (but look awful on the hanger)

I put binding on the cuffs and used a bit of scrap fabric to go on the inside, as per pictures below.

 And then I sewed the sleeve down to the hem seam, capturing in the cuff lining I had made.

The finished sleeve with piping on the edge.

 Last job, buttons - or in my case snaps.  I love these Prym jeans snaps and I hate sewing buttons so easy choice!! I used the Prym 15mm Antique Brass Anorak snaps with the Prym vario pliers which I highly recommend.  This is how I use them for perfect results.

First up you use this little piece of metal in my fingers  and give it a hammer in the right spot to cut out a hole for the snap to go through.

Put the snap piece in the pliers.  One side holds firmly in place so put that one on top.

 Push it through the hole you made in the fabric, and squeeze the pliers really tight.  And repeat!

 And there they are!!

I finished off the hem and I was all done, Rosa was ready.  Some pictures of the finished dress  below.  I'd highly recommend this pattern.  I wore my dress yesterday and its super comfy but feels very stylish too.  I love the fit-  there will be more of these for sure!  Top tips would be to ensure you plan in fitting of the princess seams and I'd also double check length in case you want it longer - I really wouldn't want it any shorter, I only did a hem of about 5mm, next time I may cut it fractionally longer to give myself a little more room for hemming.

Thanks for reading,  Any tips on getting my piping better are most welcome
Messy Essy Makes
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