Rebekah’s Ruska Knot Dress!

Hi Everyone, 

I hope you are well. It’s been a little while since I’ve been by on the Felicity Fabrics blog. Just been a few of those months where sewing took a teeny backseat but I still had my sew jo more than ever. When I can’t actually sit down at my machine I am forever planning my next make, lets be honest my next 10 makes! It’s always a pleasure to do a blog project for Caroline and Fliss. 

For this blog I chose a beautiful mid blue modal jersey with a bird print in orange, red and green tones. It is 150cm wide and I would say it is light to medium weight, closer to medium. 

Receiving a fabric package from Felicity Fabrics, it always feels like your birthday opening it. It is always very beautifully wrapped in tissue and a box. I love to reuse the boxes for storage or posting on.

When I opened up this fabric I was even more delighted feeling it in person. It is super super soft and the quality is fabulous. 

I had a few ideas of what I wanted to make including the Tilly and the Buttons Tabitha Drawstring dress from the Make It Simple book and the Wardrobe by Me Wanda Wrap Dress. Both of these patterns would have been great but the one I settled on was the Ruska Knot Dress from the Named Breaking the Pattern book. 

This book has been one of my favourite sewing books since I started sewing. I love the range of patterns in this book, one of my most made is the Ruska T-shirt. I think I’ve lost count how many I have made of those…but it’s great to find a basic tee isn’t it?

This fabric was perfect for the Ruska Knot Dress, it retains its shape while being so comfortable to wear. It feels such a luxurious stretch fabric. 

The pattern is so quick to cut out just like it is sewing it up. Depending what speed you work at, it can be cut and made in a couple of hours. I mostly sewed mine up on the overlocker apart from when I needed to do topstitching then I used my sewing machine. 

The instructions for this pattern were very clear to understand with some illustrations to help along the way. It’s a great pattern if you are new to stretch fabrics as is this fabric a good one if you haven’t sewn with stretch before.

For reference I made a size 4 from the size chart, I find this size suits me best. I’m normally a UK 12. As you’ll see from the photos I am expecting our number two, I did still make the size 4 seeing it was a stretch fabric and I want to wear this dress after baby comes.

So as I want to wear this dress after baby comes along I wanted to make this dress nursing friendly, I’m hoping feeding myself will work out okay again. I thought this pattern would be perfect to try a nursing hack on since there are two layers on the front and I’ve heard of it being done a couple of times. 

Once I sewed the shoulders together then I tried it on to see where I would need to create two access points for feeding. I marked two points with pins and then cut a line about 10 to 15cm that would fit me. To make sure it was neat and tidy, I did a simple hem on the raw edges and back stitched at the two sides. Hopefully my photos will help explain this too! It does look like it will work, we shall see in some time. 

I am glad to have made this dress nursing friendly as it is a lovely pattern and the fabric is so good to wear. When I don’t need the nursing access then I can just sew the holes up again. 

I’ll be sure to share some photos at a later time in a few months after I have had our little number two.

If you like this fabric or any other fabric on the Felicity Fabrics website, my discount code is Rebekah10 for 10% off your order. 

Thanks for reading 🙂

Rebekah