Rowan Dress Hackalong PT2 - The Basics

April 05, 2021

Thank you for joining us for the second part of our Hackalong! I bet you spend the weekend sketching up some amazing Rowan Dresses and I can’t wait to see them - do share with us in our FB group or on social with hashtag #misusuhackalong! Today we’re going to cover some of the basics, so let’s go!

Here's what we'll be covering in today’s post:

• Pattern supplies
• Sewing Supplies
• How to pick a size
• Size blending
• Lengthening 
• Trueing the hem line

Pattern Preparation Supplies

Rowan Tee pattern  - Most importantly! You can download the Rowan Tee pattern for free here! The A4/letter pattern prints 5 pages across for the first 3 rows and 3 pages across for the last 2 rows. The easiest way of assembling is by trimming only the bottom and right side of the pattern blocks and sticking them together with a glue stick or tape! I personally prefer to print the pattern with all it’s layers turned on and trace the sizes needed for my current project. But after measuring your child, you can also only print the pattern sizes you need using the layers option and go from there!

Design template - If you haven’t done so already, I encourage you to start off by sketching out some of your ideas on our design template. Are you going to follow the Hack-Along and make the colorblock as is? Or are you going to get creative and design your own colorblock? Are you going to add something else? Lengthen the skirt? The sky is the limit! You can find the design templates in the files section in our FB group.

Ruler, paper scissors, pencils, tape and pattern paper  - All your basic supplies for tracing, lengthening/shortening and adapting your pattern pieces!

Sewing Supplies

Ball point or jersey sewing needles - If you're sewing your Rowan Dress on a regular machine, using a ball point or jersey sewing needle is highly recommendedderside will be zigzagged. If you decide to use a twin needle, make sure to use one designed for knit fabrics. Alternatively you can finish your hems as described in the tu great opportunity to potentially use some of those beloved scraps in your stash. So I urge you to have a good browse through!

Waist elastic - To create the cinched waist, we’re going to add an elastic band to the inside of the bodice/skirt seam. I’ve used a 15mm (½”) wide elastic band. 

Your favorite cutting tools - fabric shears, pins, cutting mat, rotary cutter, paper weights…

Fabrics and matching thread - This is the fun part, right! Colorblocking creates a great opportunity to potentially use some of those beloved scraps in your stash. So I urge you to have a good browse through! Just remember, when you're making the circle skirt dress, you need quite a bit more fabric compared to the A-line version. As a general rule of thumb, your fabrics needs to be twice the length of the circle skirt long. Depending on whether you're going to colorblock your skirt or play with stripe directions (like I did), you might need more or less.

How to pick a size

Body measurements - If you haven’t taken recent measurements of your child, pull out that measuring tape! The Rowan Tee is designed with a generous oversized fit, which we’re going to take advantage of in creating the cinched elastic waist. But it’s still best to select your base size on your child’s chest measurement & hip measurement and lengthen/shorten to accommodate for height. We’ll talk you through blending sizes in a bit! 

Mark down the following measurements:

• Chest width
• Waist width
• Hip width
• Top shoulder to natural waist 
• Shoulder to desired dress length 

Now take a look at the size chart and determine the pattern sizes matching the chest and hip width. If your child’s measurements fall in different pattern sizes, you can blend between those sizes. 

Size blending

By now you’ve determined which pattern size or sizes you’re going to work with. Print your pattern in those sizes or trace your needed pattern sizes with the desired style options. The Rowan Tee has 2 side seam options - a straight and a slightly A-line side seam. For this dress hack, select the A-line side seam.  

Take the front bodice and back bodice pattern pieces. Start at the smallest part of the side seam of the front bodice, below the sleeves. Start and follow the line in the pattern size that fits your child's chest width best and gradually blend into the pattern size line that fits your child's hip width best. 

Measure the back length - keeping the 1cm ( ⅜”) seam allowance and 2,5cm (1”) hem allowance in mind (here highlighted in mint) -  and determine by how much you need to lengthen for your dress. Also, mark down your child’s natural waist placement (based on your child’s shoulder to waist measurement from the top of the shoulder down.

Lengthening

Normally, when lengthening the bodice we cut along the size blending line and extend the upper and lower parts of the bodices the desired amount to lengthen. But in this case we’re going to add the additional length needed at the hem and extend the A-line side seam, creating the A-line skirt. Tape a piece of pattern paper behind the bottom part of your bodices, from the waist down. Add the desired length, keeping  the hem allowance in mind. Extend the A-line side seam until the new length of the dress.

Trueing the hemline

Right now, we have a straight hem line. When you line up the side seams of the skirt part, you can see this will result in a “pointy” hem at the side seams. But we obviously want a nice rounded hem! To do this, we have to “true” the seams. 

From the side seam, draw a little line out on a 90 degree angle. Continue that line with a slight curve towards the center front and back. Add a bit of length to both the center front and back (approx. 1,5-2cm ½”-⅝”) to accommodate the curve. Make sure the hem at the center front and back is on a 90 degree angle as well.

When you line up the side seams now, you can see you’ve created a pretty  rounded hem. Yay!

Finally, finish your base pattern by adding back the all seam & hem allowances. 

And that’s it for today! You’ve successfully chosen your child’s size and made the necessary adjustments! Your base pattern is ready for the color blocking adventure in our next chapter. Make sure to write down some notes for yourself so that when you come back to the pattern, you know what adjustments you have made. If you haven’t decided on your colorblock design yet, try visualizing it with the help of our Rowan Dress Design Templates! Also, make sure to start pre-washing the fabric you’re going to use! If you have any other fit questions, please ask them in our Facebook Sew & Tell group!

Happy sewing!
Elles

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