Ruffled fabric tube skirt

A few weeks ago I had a wonderful day with a Pattern Review friend shopping for fabric in San Francisco. I call her a PR friend because I met her at the May Portland PR weekend but we had followed each others reviews for years. It was so exciting to meet Harriet and get acquainted in the real world. She had a trip planned to SF which is about 90 miles away from where I live. So we got together. I showed her my favorite fabric haunts. One of these is FabriX which is a tiny shop with a chaos of discounted fabrics. You never know what will be there. This time I fell in love with several pieces before we even got all the way inside the store as they have barrels with good stuff spilling out the doorway. This is one of these..... a knit backing with knit ruffles already applied. I've never seen anything like this. It appears the ruffles are knit in, not added. I quickly decided to make a tube skirt, wrapped the fabric around my bum to see how much to buy, and made off with one yard at $9.99. I had thought it would be a ten minute project with one seam and elastic serged on for the waist. But as I fiddled around with the fabric I realized I would like the seam sewn to the outside to create a cascade of ruffles. This took a bit more fiddling to figure out how to do this. I started and stopped each part of the seam under a ruffle to keep it flapping free. At the waist, after applying the elastic I stitched down the top part of the ruffle to keep it flat. Fun don't you think.

McCall's 5752 The Perfect Knit Dress

This very popular pattern deserves its reputation and title as "The Perfect Knit Dress", so dubbed by Pati Palmer. It lives up to the suggestion that it is flattering to everyone and easy to sew. I had hoped to finish this before attending the PR weekend so I could wear it on the Pati Palmer day. I didn't quite get it done in the hectic weeks before the event but here it is now.

My pattern was size BB which is 8 - 14. It is also available in size FF, 16- 22. I made 10 in the shoulders and neck, and 14 at the sides. This is my usual combo. I found this fit better than most without additional tweaking or FBA. I lengthened the skirt 2 inches. In the photo I have knotted the front drape but it is constructed just as the pattern shows.

There are extensive instructions on how to alter. I did change the order of construction as suggested by Barbara V in her review on Pattern Review. I see that others have done this also.

I love the ruched waist that hides body issues, especially in the back. I love the cross over that doesn't gap or reveal. I love the soft drape in the front which also helps hide body issues. Maybe I'm dillusional but it does seem to flatter. I think this is a rayon knit, perhaps blended with cotton as it is very soft and cotton-ey feeling. I purchased this 6 years ago from Fabric.com for less than $10. From that I have made this dress plus a maternity top last year for my DIL. What a bargain! I would love to have more of this type fabric.

I really like this dress. It is so comfortable to wear and goes together easily. No wonder many have already made this dress and reviewed it favorably.