The weekend before my birthday, I was trying to decide what to make my True Bias Roscoe blouse out of and posted a poll on Instagram stories:
On the left is a gauzy mesh knit and on the right is a textured cream chiffon with a red and faint green leaf design. They both came from the South Bay Orphan Fabric StoreTM, SAS Fabrics, which means they cost $3.49 per pound. Gotta love buying lightweight fabric for pennies!
One of these fabrics is easier to work with than the other. However Instagram didn’t care about that, they voted for the difficult fabric. But I was up for the challenge!
This is my second True Bias pattern, as I’ve made the Ogden prior to this. Or, many Ogdens, as it were.
The PDF is $12 on the True Bias website, and you get 3 versions of the Roscoe:
– View A is the blouse
– View B is the shorter dress (the blouse with an 8″ ruffle attached)
– View C is a longer dress that is 20″ longer than View A
The instructions are superb and illustrated with excellent line drawings, PLUS Kelli provides a very nice, picture-laden sew along for it on the True Bias blog. You’re getting a lot of value for the price tag. It also includes fabric requirements for 45″ and 54″ widths for all 3 versions, plus finished garment measurements for the bust and length of each version. You’d think finished garments would be a given with all patterns but they are sadly NOT. Good job, True Bias!
The PDF itself, though…there doesn’t seem to be a standard across the indie PDF companies about how patterns are plotted on paper. I know this can be a function of the drafting program used, but I’m a huge fan of layers for different sizes, having each size in its own color, and trimless pages as well. Unfortunately, this pattern lacks all three. This is not, in and of itself, a major bummer just more like “nice to haves.”
That said, the pattern is situated so you don’t have to print unnecessary pages just to catch the little corner of a bodice or something stupid like that. And the layout does nicely illustrate which pages you need based on your version. Since I was making the shortest version, I saved myself 15 total pages. Yay for not wasting paper!
The pattern is drafted for a C cup and has 1/2″ seam allowances. And even though it’s very roomy, I still did a 5/8″ FBA, which upon final review was probably unnecessary. But the cool thing is that I rotated the dart up to the neckline and left it open to be gathered. Since there’s already gathering being done in that area, what’s an extra inch?
I even made a muslin out of this cute daisy plaid flannel I’d had stashed for 2 years. Because it was so narrow, though, I could only get short sleeves out of it. I had forgotten to shorten the front and back my standard 3″, so this one is more like a tunic. My husband liked it so much I decided to finish it, though here’s a shot of it in progress on Dorie:
The blousiness that required a belt should have been a clue this was going to be a very roomy top.
When it came time to work with the very shifty cream chiffon, I totally cheated and serged it together because I couldn’t be bothered with French seams. I was also on a clock because my birthday was Thursday and I didn’t start this until Wednesday afternoon.
But it got done! And I was so happy with it. I even hand sewed the collar closed, but lost my patience when it came to the sleeve cuffs (those were done by machine).
And it’s beautiful! But I think it’s just a little too big. I’m going to take it in a few inches on the sleeves and side seams (technically it’s just one seam). Hopefully that will fit better.
And here’s a shot of me trying to catch the sunset over Hermosa Beach. You can see the neck is really large. I’ll probably size down next time.
Pattern Recap:
Pattern: True Bias Roscoe Blouse (View A)
Size: 14
Fabric: cream chiffon with a red and green leaf motif, from SAS Fabrics
Modifications: 5/8″ FBA, 3″ removed from length
Notes for next time: start at size 12
