Aside from new releases, there are very few patterns left at Sew Over It that I haven’t tried to make. The Rosie Dress was one of those patterns. Despite purchasing the pattern quite a long time ago, I just never had the opportunity to make it up. In June, I decided that it would be a delightful dress to wear to my work end term party. I had gotten some really great fabric at the SOI store in London in April and I bought it with a Rosie in mind.

Long story short, I never ended up wearing it to the end term party. In fact, this was a project that fell by the wayside for quite a while. I got distracted by other projects, both sewing and non-sewing, and I just didn’t have time to finish the dress. I had chosen to include the boning, and then found I didn’t have any (originally I thought I had some leftover from some long ago costuming project). Then, I had to learn how to insert the boning (turns out, I’ve been doing it wrong…), and that took some time (but I was majorly proud of myself once I had accomplished it!).

Once the boning was done, the rest of the dress was a dream to sew up. As is the case with most SOI patterns, I found the instructions easy to work with, and the pattern itself very simple. I realize that I find myself saying this about almost anything these days, but the truth is that with many years of honing my skills, there’s not a ton that gives me pause when it comes to sewing anymore (though we will definitely have another story on our hands when I finally tackle a coat or a tailored blazer!).

This is the first Sew Over It pattern that I have had some small fit issues with. I just could not get the straps the right length right off the bat and had to adjust them after the dress was finished. I actually didn’t finish the day wearing my new Rosie dress when I had planned to take it out for a spin. However, in the grand scheme of fit issues, this one is an easy fix.

The overall verdict? I love my finished product but I don’t know if Rosie is one I’ll make over and over again. It seems like it will end up being more for special occasions rather than an everyday number. I love the style and it certainly wasn’t fussy enough to prevent me from having another go at the pattern. Next time, however, I think I’ll leave the boning out, and use my new strap length as a guide for the next ones.

Now that I’ve fixed the strap issue, I’m looking forward to taking this dress on its first official outing next week to a Marvelous Mrs. Maisel exhibit!