My Ruby Peony

I'm a huge fan of the show "Once Upon a Time."  Ruby, aka Little Red Riding Hood, is one of my favorite characters. Not only can she turn into a wolf, but she pulls off this fabulous ruby red wardrobe.  The shade of red that's her staple matches the red of my dress, and so I've named my dress after her character.  Wearing this dress makes me feel like I belong in a fairy tale or in a ballet...I can't decide which.

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First Impressions
The Peony isn't one of my favorite patterns by Colette due to the skirt.  Aesthetically speaking, it just doesn't inspire me.  It's too 1960's, which isn't my favorite decade.  I'm more of a 1940's or 1950's kind of gal.  The bodice, on the other hand, is a whole different story as I find the boat neck very elegant and feminine. 

Fabric

I chose a red cotton sateen blend.  It's a thicker drape with just the slightest touch of stretch in it and has a lovely sheen.  The biggest issue the fabric gave me was making sure I had the right sides together.  One side has the sheen, and the other side is dull.  Multiple times I had to rip stuff out because I had one dull side and one sheen side together.  The stretch didn't give me any issues whatsoever when sewing it up, and it causes it to fit the body beautifully.  The thicker fabric makes the circle skirt more pronounced, which I really like.

Franken-Patterning

In regards to the pattern, I did the short sleeve version, and decided to wait on the belt.  I drafted my own circle skirt, and left out the pockets.  I didn't have enough fabric to do the length of circle skirt I wanted so I made the circle skirt shorter, and then cut out several long strips of fabric to add a ruffle to the bottom to make it longer.  I felt very true to vintage methods doing that just because it was common for women to piece their fabric together to get the most out of what they had instead of getting more yardage.
I had quite a few fitting issues, which is nothing new with Colette Patterns and my body type.  Thankfully, I already knew this would be the case going in to this project because of making the Crepe dress a while ago.  Due to that past experience the muslin making of this bodice was a lot less of a hassle. 

Here's a simple overview of what I had to do: lengthened the torso, moved the darts down and out, a tuck along the chest to remove excess fabric, slight widening of the back upper darts, widening the armhole, deepening the sleeve curve, broad shoulder adjustment, and re-extending the neckline.  My best friend throughout all of this was the book Fit for Real People.

Doing all of that was completely worth it.  There's maybe a couple of minor fit issues still left, but they're barely noticeable and the bodice looks amazing.  I'm well on my way to getting a sloper out of this where I can get countless looks out of this pattern.  What makes me happy is that I don't need to wear a belt with this dress to make sure it defines my waist.  The amount of ease in the whole thing is perfect.

New Sewing Skills

I learned how to install an invisible zipper, draft a circle skirt, and set in sleeves.  I used Colette's picture tutorials for the sleeves and zipper, and used Gertie's instructions for drafting a circle skirt in her book.  Everything I used was easy to understand and I was happy with how smoothly I accomplished those new skills.

Sewing Experience

This was my first big sewing project after over a year of not sewing.  All-in-all I'm very happy with how it went.  There were some issues along the way due to needing to review things I'd learnt in the past, but I wasn't pulling my hair out over them.  The most involved part was re-drafting the bodice pattern several times and making two muslins.  After that, sewing it went together really well.  The facings did give me some issues even after understitching them.  As a result, I hand picked them down, and took my time to make my hand stitches very even.  The finished product looks really nice, and I like the subtle detail of my handwork around the neckline.  Another touch was doing the hemming by hand.  I'm going to let you in on a little secret.  I love sewing by hand.  I just popped in a movie, my cat came up and napped next to me, and I was in hand sewing heaven.  I feel very bizarre being one of those people who is undaunted and looks forward to hemming a full circle skirt by hand.

The Belt
Due to a combination of time constraints and wanting to possibly play with embellishments on the dress, I decided to not make the belt that came with the pattern.  When I put the finished dress on my husband said he wanted to see me wear it with a gold belt so I'll either be on the look out for the perfect gold belt at thrift stores, or I'll make one.  Ironically enough, when he said that we were watching Elizabeth with Cate Blanchet and it was during the coronation scene.  He decided the best belt for the dress would be one that looked like her coronation necklace.  I figure it might take awhile to save up a small fortune to afford something like that.  In the mean time, I do have a couple of belts I really like with the dress.  The zebra one being my favorite.


Pardon the goofy shot.  I was using my self-timer, and it caught me mid-prep.  Then my camera proceeded to die.  This is the only decent shot with the zebra belt.

Sustains and Improves
-For the future I'm thinking about getting a sloper out of this bodice as this is the closest I've come to a perfectly fitting bodice.  I'd like to tinker just a touch more to get it really spot on.  Maybe it's time for me to finally work all the way through Fit For Real People.

-After trying the dress on I realized that the solid red is a great canvas for embellishment opportunity.  In particular I'd like to do something with the joining ruffle seam at the skirt bottom to make it look more intentional.  Any ideas?

-I'd love to make this dress with a pleated skirt or dirndl skirt.  I love how the bodice can go with multiple skirt styles, and I'd like to play with the neckline shape of the bodice some too.  I just don't know if I'll ever make the dress with the original skirt it calls for.  We shall see.

Conclusion
Working with this pattern was a pleasant surprise, and a very enriching experience for my first project after a long stint of no sewing.  It was a good review, just challenging enough, and I learned a lot about trusting myself and the pattern.  Certain spots in the creation process made the dress fit weird, and I had to trust the changes I'd made would work out once everything was finished.  When it all came together at the end it was brilliant, and I am so happy with the finished dress.