{Tilly and the Buttons} #rosasewalong - The Reveal

This post should've been up days ago but as soon as I was ready to take some photos, the glorious weather turned to crap and the light was gone... Typical! I finally managed to take some photos this weekend and here is my shiny new Rosa dress!

As you may already know, Mel and I made our Rosas together during the #rosasewalong so we could wear them at the Knitting & Stitching Show this past weekend. The sewalong was a lot of fun. We had a few other ladies join us and there were some really lovely dresses made. I had never taken part in a real-time sewalong before but I loved it! It was great to see everyone's progress and things taking shape as the weekend went on.

I've made the Rosa before. I've actually made it twice but I never blogged my second one - which was a needlecord one, also yellow. 😊 The pattern is great, as we've come to expect from Queen Tilly. The instructions are clear, there are some interesting details and it looks good on everyone. I made my usual size 3, without any alterations and this one is probably my favourite, thanks to the fabric. 

I got this babycord from Sew Me Sunshine last summer. Harriet no longer has this one in stock but she does have other options, including a lilac and a minty one. I was going to make Mila dungarees with it but when we started talking about making our Rosas I knew this would be perfect and I was right. The fabric is quite stretchy and dreamy soft! I had a bit of a nightmare with sewing this fabric. I don't know if the stretch threw off my machine or what. I tried ALL THE NEEDLES, walking foot, everything I could think of. In the end, I had to get my old machine out and that sewed up no problem. I still have no idea what the problem was as my other machine is working fine otherwise.

My topstitching always looks dodgy on needlecord, no matter what I try. So I was forced chose to topstitch in regular matching thread and, in fact, I'm very pleased with the result. The topstitching is still visible but subtle. 

Once I got sewing, it was all going very well. I didn't even have to unpick anything - which is unheard of for me. I will always have a brain fart at some point. 

However, as Murphy's Law dictates, "Anything that can go wrong will go wrong". And it did. 

I ironed a mark on my dress, didn't I? If you look at the photo above you can see, right by the hem, on the side. 🤦‍♀️ I was so annoyed with myself! But actually, when I'm wearing it, it's not really that noticeable unless you're looking for it. If you are, you can't really miss it. 😂 Go ahead and zoom in if you want. You can see every little steam hole from my iron...

I used the long sleeves option that Tilly has available to download on her website. I thought it would be a better option for a cold weather dress. It made sense to me as the fabric is not exactly summery.
The plackets are one of my favourite details of this pattern. I've made a few different sleeve plackets in my sewing life and this one is by far, the easiest. It's a faced placket. You sew the facing to the right side, make a cut through the middle and turn it over to the inside. It's scary making that slash through it but it's so much easier than fiddling with the continuous binding for example. Definitely my preferred method.

I also love the pointed yoke! On my first ever Rosa I really struggled when it came to sewing that up. Mostly because I kept *thinking* it would pucker rather than waiting until I'd sewn it to check. The second side can look as if it is going to bunch up and pucker but trust the instructions, follow them exactly and it won't. Funnily enough, I think heavier fabrics are easier to control when it comes to puckering so this version was a breeze.

I love this pointed yoke so much!

To minimise bulk, I used leftover scraps from this dress for my sleeve placket facings, inner collar stand and undercollar. I probably should've done the same for the button bands but I didn't have enough fabric for that. My button bands are a little denser than ideal. 

My only deviation from the pattern instructions was to insert the collar. I do it a different way because it gives me a much better finish inside and I find it easier to attach the collar stand to the neckline if I don't have to wrestle with 3 different layers while trying to ease in excess fabric.

This is now the third shirt of my sewing year and I have plans for a few more. 2019 is definitely shaping up to be the year of shirts around these parts... What can I say? I love shirts. Always have, but I've never been comfortable wearing them until I started making my own. I need to make up for lost time.

I will leave you with my favourite photo of the wonderful day I had at the show on Sunday. I finally got to meet a few sewing friends in the flesh and they were an amazing bunch of women. I had unrealistically high expectations for the day - as a couple of them will attest to - and these were well and truly surpassed. It is cheesy but true: sewing friends really are the best.