If you’ve followed my work for the last two decades, you’re familiar with Ruby Redfox. She is an amazing model, animal lover, professional make-up artist, fashion expert, and even more recently, a fashion show event organizer. We’ve shared a great relationship both personally and professionally, including trading a custom dress in exchange for modeling. In 2019, Ruby sent me a photo of a dress she wanted for an Indigenous Regalia, but then COVID happened. Last summer, she asked about the dress again, and I knew it was time to design and make it happen. As for the dress, it’s a ribbon dress loosely styled after the traditional jingle dress.

I hope you enjoy my process of designing and constructing this dress. After estimating the yardage and suitable types of fabric, Ruby chose a print from Spoonflower in her favorite color scheme. I always prewash and press the fabric. Ruby also bought a few various colored ribbons to test. I drew the design for her approval.  If changes need to be made, a v-neckline, short sleeves, etc… this is the time.

I drew a flat of the custom dress a second time and built in her body measurements. These measurements include the basics: bust, waist, hips, neck circumference, length of back to the waist, length of the waist to the knee, bicep and wrist circumference, and arm length. Phew, that’s a lot of math! I also needed to find out how much ease (wiggle room) she likes. I like to draft a flat pattern on Alpha numeric pattern drafting paper and make a muslin for the first fitting. A muslin is a simple draft with no finishing. This is to check fit and ensure we’re on the same page, a third time, with what’s being made.

Once we have the muslin approved, the fun starts! I laid all the pieces out with the ribbon selections on top. From my photo, it was easy for Ruby to pick her favorite color. As you can see, there’s a lot of time, work, skill, and money invested into making custom clothing. The hardest part of this dress was not the mitered cheveron corners; it was all the measuring for their placement.

In the end, it makes me ever so happy to see her truly love something that we collaborated on so closely and I made with my own two hands.

Follow Ruby and her first Indigenous fashion show here in Dayton. She is amazing!

 

Behind the Scenes

Be sure to follow me on Instagram to see more of my current work and please stay tuned for my upcoming blog about this dress. ↓↓↓

Thank you for reading,

Tracy McElfresh

Dream it! Sew it!

 

Tracy McElfresh
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