Rosery Apparel Rosa Dress review.
The finished dress. Look…pockets! And I really need to clean up my yard.
I’ve said it before, but I love Janelle and Rosery Apparel. I also love skirts and dresses with pockets, so it was a no-brainer when I saw her Rosa Dress pattern on her website. I knew I had to make it.
When I made the Clover Skirt I printed everything out on my printer at home and then faced the tedious task of taping it all together. This time I wasn’t going to make that mistake, and I got the A0 pattern printed out at my local Staples. Yeah, it costs more but it was so so so worth it.
For my fabric I chose a pretty floral cotton that I found in Joann’s (I’m so gutted about Joann’s), and for the lining I did a plain white cotton. I decided I wanted to make the skirt portion of the dress an A-line panel skirt rather than the gathered skirt that Janelle does, and because of my slouchy posture and naturally high waist I tried to pattern-hack the top portion of the dress to fit better. I’m still a total beginner at drafting to fit my own body, but the best video on making a bodice block from an existing pattern I’ve found on this is this video by The Closet Historian. If you haven’t checked her out, you should. She’s amazing!
The top stitching gives it a really professional finish.
So I guess this isn’t a 100% Rosery Apparel pattern review, but close enough. I love the video that accompanies the pattern - I’m a visual learner, and a beginner. If a pattern doesn’t have an accompanying video with it, I’m less likely to buy it.
This was a very easy dress to put together, although because I did the A-line and fitted-to-me thing, it took me longer to work out the dimensions, then sew it all together.
Not quite invisible, but good enough for me.
The biggest issue I had was the zipper. Janelle makes it look so easy in the video. I had to unpick it a couple of times. It’s hard to tell which way round it goes! Another issue was getting the sleeve holes to fit right but that’s my body shape rather than any problems with the pattern. Attaching the lining to the bodice was really easy, and that was a pleasant surprise because I thought it was going to be really difficult.
Overall, I LOVED this pattern, but I do need to practice attaching zippers. The pattern itself is really easy, true to size - if you don’t have an odd body shape like mine, that is. The accompanying video helps a lot. I do wish there was more close ups in the video of attaching the zip as it wasn’t totally clear in the video, but she does have another video with a zipper tutorial which I really need to watch.
This was my first time doing darts. I read that people don’t seem to like them, and I tend to agree…sewing and ironing the darts was soooo tedious, and I’m pretty certain I wasn’t sewing on the line. Oops. And repeat all that for the lining. My fabric was really forgiving so you don’t really notice, but I really enjoyed seeing the shape of the bodice coming to life. I tried to match the seams of the darts on the bodice to the A-line seams of the skirt but it didn’t work out.
Now for my fatal error that still annoys me to this day… Throughout the project I was using heat erasable pens. They’re great, especially when it comes to something like darts. To get my A-line panel at the front of the skirt even, I drew a line all the way down the middle of it in black…then to my horror, realised the pen I grabbed wasn’t heat erasable, just a regular old ball point pen. And so remains a thin black line going up the front of my dress. I hate it! But friends say they don’t notice it if I don’t tell them, and if they do notice, it just looks like a seam. I haven’t washed the dress yet, so I might try and get the ink off before I do put it through the laundry.
Ouch. That hurts.
Things I loved:
The dress was a joy to make. Easy to understand instructions (for the most part), and the accompanying video helps a lot. The finished dress looks really professional and I’ve had a lot of complements on it.
Things I hated:
I really wish I’d used a different fabric. I love the feel of the material, it’s cool but sturdy at the same time. But I do feel like a walking urine-yellow quilt, and that’s way out of my comfort zone. I’m a black top and jeans kind of girl. But I love how the dress makes me feel when I wear it, and it’s the only thing I’ve made that I’ve worn on a regular basis.
Things I would do differently:
I definitely wouldn’t draw a big long black line up the front, that’s for sure. I also wish I had practiced attaching zippers multiple times on scrap fabric before attempting this. That part was pretty stressful.
Next time I will make the gathered skirt version. It will be much easier than doing the A-line. I’d choose a better fabric. I’m still not good at choosing appropriate fabrics for projects. I’m hoping that will come with experience.
When I wear the dress in the future, I’m going to break it up by wearing a black belt which will really make it pop.
Rating: 4.5/5 But that’s only because of this lack of clarity over the zipper. I will go and watch her tutorial before I attempt the dress again..
Awesome dress, and I’m definitely going to make another, but maybe not in such a bright colour!
Gallery.
