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Get ready for our first Rooibos Sewalong, starting next week!
The Rooibos dress is one of my favorites. It has a very flattering and fitted shape, but a nice short length gives it more of a 60s vibe. The magic is, of course, in the details: The pretty scalloped pockets and the tiny little contrasting collar.
Aside from that, I chose Rooibos because it’s a great transitional piece. You can make it in cotton or linen for the current summer temperatures, or try wool for a warm Fall dress you can wear with cardigans and tights.
Rooibos is one of our most popular patterns, with a flattering cut and an endless variety of details and fabric combinations you can use. Learn to do a bust adjustment with multiple darts, grade a pattern for larger hips, finish curved seams, install an all-in-one facing, and sew some optional piping.
It’s time to start planning for our dresses! There are multiple ways to customize the Rooibos. First of all, you can easily combine up to three different coordinating fabrics: the main fabric, which forms most of the dress the contrast fabric, which forms the collar and facing the optional piping, which you can purchase or …
Hi, Caitlin here! How’s your Rooibos Sewalong planning going? Today I’m going to talk a little bit about fabric and interfacing choices. These are just some general guidelines to consider for this project, not hard and fast rules. For some more info about different types of fabrics, check out the fabric series I wrote earlier …
Since Caitlin just covered some possible fabric choices for the Rooibos today, I thought I’d chime in with the fabric I’ll be using as we go through the sewalong! My main fabric is a strawberry-colored chambray. I just love the color, and I think the chambray will be a nice, casual choice. For the contrast, …
Let’s talk muslins. A lot of sewists are hesitant to make muslins because it takes time. It seems like you’re making the same garment two, three, maybe even four times. But really, muslins are way faster than real garments. You can omit facings and closures, and that alone saves a ton of time. You don’t …
Today, we’re going to have a little Rooibos fit clinic. We’ll be covering three of the most common pattern adjustments, including full bust, small bust, and large hips. We’ll start with one of the most popular, doing a Full Bust Adjustment (or FBA for short) with the Rooibos pattern.
Now that we’ve covered the full bust adjustment, this second part of our Rooibos fit clinic shows you how to make a small bust adjustment, or SBA, for the Rooibos pattern.
Our final pattern adjustment for today will be grading between sizes, perfect for those of you with larger hips. The idea of grading between sizes is actually useful to any of us who don’t have the average proportions of a pattern size chart. In other words, your one size in one area (like the waist) …
It’s time to get sewing on our Rooibos! I timed this for a Friday, so that you have the weekend to cut your fabric and get started. Today, we’re going to be putting our bodice together. I’ll show you a trick for dealing with the fussy curved seams of the midriff, and we’ll talk a …
In our last installment of the Rooibos Sewalong, we learned all about curved seams and finishing. Now it’s time to install the all-in-one facing. We’ll also talk about adding the piping, and I’ll show you some clever tricks for getting it just so.
It’s time to make some pockets! This is really the last tricky thing you need to do for the pattern. And it’s not actually very tricky. We’re going to be making pockets with the optional piping in this post. As usual, you can feel free to omit the piping if you like. Let’s get started!
We’re almost done with our Rooibos Sewalong! Today we’ll cover the last of the sewing for this dress. Luckily, there’s nothing unusual about the remaining steps, so we should be able to get through it pretty quickly.
I’m excited to show you my completed Rooibos! I really love this combination of fabrics. The tiny floral works so beautifully with the subtle texture of the chambray. Pretty cute, huh? Also, these may be the last photos you see of me with long hair! I’m getting it cut today. I may in fact be …
Wow! What a fun collection of Rooibos dresses y’all have made. Way to go everybody! I know many of you are still working on your dresses, so here are just a few completed ones. Lladybird What’s Up Cupcake? Emilie Thanks so much for joining the sewalong and for all your feedback on the posts. Fitting …
