Hi there! This is Manda from Sewing Ambi. Today I want to share the True Beauty Dress with you. Last summer when the pattern released and I tried it on, it became a favorite to me! I love the look and the way it looks on almost every body type.
This is my lovely sister (in law) Leonie, that shows the True Beauty Dress that I've made her to you all. She gave birth to a beautiful babyboy just three months ago. I wanted to make her a dress in which she feels spectacular, but very comfortable aswell. This dress has it all. Leonie chose short sleeves (long or 3/4 sleeves are an option aswell) and the knee length. Leonie wants to share a special feature of this dress with you. Since she is nursing, it’s important to be done easily. And this dress makes that happen. The elastic casing at the shoulders provides much room to move around and nurse piecefully. Ain't that great!
So lets get started! You can chose the knit/jersey you love, and print the pattern. After printing and pasting you'll start to cut your fabric. I've started with the sleeves, watch out to cut the pieces on fold! In the steps above, you can see how little patternpieces are used to make this great dress: only six. After cutting you start sewing the sleeves to the front and backpart. I use this clips instead of pins, I love them!
Then you sew the sides of the sleeve and the body together with the wrong sides together. And there you have your body almost completed.
After sewing the two skirtparts together at both sides, we move forward with gathering the skirtpieces. I use my sewingmachine for this task. I set the tension as high as possible, use a straight stitch, and set the stitch length to 5. When you start to ruffle don't secure at the beginning and end, otherwise you can't adjust the gathering afterwards. I sew a single row at 3/8 inch from the upperedge of the frontskirt and I do the same for the backpart. When you start to sew, the machine does all the gathering for you! When you are ready, you follow the instructions and adjust the gathered skirt front and back to fit the bodice. You can sew or serge both body and skirt together, using the tips that are provided to you in the instructions.
When sewing the casing on top of the body, you leave a gab where you can insert the fabric. When you use matching thread, the casing will almost be invisible. In the pictures above you see the fun tool I use: a bodkin. I totally love this tool, since it makes it so easy to insert the elastic. The best way to choose the length of the elastic is to measure your shoulders and take this number minus three inches. This is the moment to get your own nametag in aswell, you can enclose it before you sew the gab.
And then you are all done. Look at that: a beautiful True Beauty Dress. A classy dress to wear at a night out or to feel comfy in at your own home. During fall you can add long sleeves or wear it with a cute cardigan.
I hope you will be inspired by reading this blog, thank you for joining me on this sew and I wish you lots of fun sewing your own dress or any other great EAM pattern!
Pattern: True Beauty Dress
My blog: Sewing Ambi
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With sewing love,
Manda
