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Ruska Knit Dress By Named Clothing - Breaking the Pattern
In this post, I will walk you through one of the patterns from the book "Breaking the Pattern" - The Ruska Knit dress #thehemlineeclectic #namedclothing #ruskaknitdress
Disclaimer: This fabric was gifted to me by LA finch fabrics in exchange for this post. All opinions are my own.
The Fabric
When I first saw this beautiful argyle sweater knit from LA finch fabric I absolutely loved it. It screams the 90s. It is a blend of Polyester, Rayon and Spandex and is around 7.5oz/yard. It has a lovely drape for both sweaters and dresses. Since it is slightly on the heavier side, it was very easy to work with and did not get eaten up by my machine. (BONUS)
The color is fully saturated and beautiful. I think it would suit many skin tones. I am already dreaming a top in this with a red or a yellow skirt! :)
I highly recommend this fabric for your next knit project.
The Pattern
I absolutely love "Breaking the Pattern" book by Named Clothing. Named Clothing has beautiful and simple aesthetics that would appeal to everyone and would easily fit into many wardrobes. I absolutely love every pattern in this book and I am slowly working my way through them. Keep a look out for more posts!
You can purchase this book on the Named website, but I purchased it second hand through amazon. I really believe pattern books are a great investment to a sewist and especially a book like this where every single pattern is amazing. When each pattern costs around $14-16USD (Indie Patterns), to get almost 15-20 different patterns for all of $30USD is a great price.
This pattern is called the Ruska knit t-shirt/tunic and dress. This same basic pattern can be made into a simple T-shirt, a tunic length knit top with a beautiful front slit, a knotted dress and this beautiful knit dress. There are 2 different sleeve lengths and 2 different neck bands to mix and match with.
Here is the sneak peak into my other Ruska makes, I will post them soon :)
For this post, I chose to use the neckband, as weather is getting warmer, and hacked the long sleeves into an elbow length sleeve.
I love how this turned out. The pattern is so beautifully drafted to be so very flattering, it give you both style and elegance in a simple dress.
Sewing the Dress
I love knit projects. I was able to draw out the pattern, make adjustments and sew up the dress all within 3 hours. This kind of quick satisfaction can be achieved only while sewing knits.
Why? Because you do not have the finish the seams. Knits do not unravel. I do not yet own a serger. I use the stretch stitch in my sewing machine to sew up knits. I will one day invest in a serger.
In this book, my size falls right at size 3. So I cut out a straight size 3 for this pattern.
The pattern is drafted for someone considerable taller than me. I absolutely love it when pattern designers make notations on the pattern as to where your bust, waist, hips, knee, elbow etc should fall. This allows for very easy adjustments.
You basically lay the paper pattern over your body (remember to stand up straight) and then check where your body parts lie with respect to the pattern.
In my case
1. I raised the waistline by 1inch
2. I raised the hipline by 1 inch
3. I raised the vent notch by 1 inch
4. I raised the hemline by 1inch.
This brought the hem of the dress just below my knee, just where I wanted it. The slits are pretty deep in this dress, you may wish to lower the vents if you are not comfortable.
For the sleeves, I cut the pattern at the elbow line and then used the same sleeve hem shaping at the elbow line and grated it to the sides. I used the same hem allowance for the sleeve.
Once I made the dress, I found that the back armhole was too bulky and needed to be taken in. So I sewed the back armhole from the back double notch to the shoulder notch with a 1/2inch seam allowance. This made the sleeve fit much better.
Furthermore, I have pretty skinny arms and so the sleeve and the armcyse under my arms was loose. I sewed the sleeve seam and the armpit seam with 5/8in seam allowance and graded to the original seam allowance around 1-2inches below the side seam.
This gave me a much better fitted dress overall.
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