How to sew a Freya dress with a frill in cotton jersey

I am usually pretty good at finishing my sewing projects on a timely basis. I don’t like to have too many ‘UFOs’ (Un-Finished Objects) hanging around. But my Freya dress with a frill sat cut out and unsewn for nearly two years, much longer by far than any other garment I have made.

In this post I’ll tell you why I took so long to sew this dress up.   I will also explain how to sew the Freya dress with a frill in cotton jersey. 

Let’s start at the beginning: the Freya pattern

I love the Freya top and dress pattern by Tilly and the Buttons, it is my most used sewing pattern in my collection. The pattern comes from the book ‘Stretch!’ and I fell in love with it right at the beginning of my dressmaking journey. I made several Freya tops and dresses in quick succession. I made the mock neckline and cowl neckline, I hacked it by combining the skirt with the Agnes top (another Tilly and the Buttons pattern), and so on…. And then I decided to make my Freya with a frill.

The ‘pleated ruffle’ Freya, as it is described in the ‘Stretch!’ book, is a variation of the classic Freya with mock neckline.  For the pleated ruffle variation, Tilly recommends using knit fabrics that don’t curl up or unravel, such as ponte di roma, as the edge of the ruffle is left raw. 

I am not a big fan of ponte, a double knit fabric, as it typically has a high polyester content and I don’t get on well with polyester, particularly its lack of breathability.  In any case, I didn’t read about the fabric recommendation when I was planning my Freya with a frill.  Instead I bought a purple cotton jersey to make my version.  Although cotton jersey doesn’t typically fray, it does curl at the edge and would not have given a good finish on the ruffle. 

When I realized that this fabric would not work so well for the ruffle, I set this sewing project aside and put it off.  I was fairly early in my sewing journey and I was not really sure how to overcome this unsuitable fabric obstacle.

Picking the Freya with a frill back up

I decided to revisit my Freya with a frill this winter.  I have been wearing my Freya tops and dresses a lot and it seemed silly to have a version cut out but sitting in a pile, unsewn and unworn.   Ruffles are really trending right now too, with popular ruffle patterns including the super popular Sagebrush top by Friday Pattern Co.  So I thought it was time to try to make my Freya with a frill work.

Having a bit more experience of sewing, I got to work.  There isn’t a pattern piece given for the ruffle in the Stretch! Book, you have to create it yourself.   The book talks you through how to calculate the length of the ruffle and then recommends you decide how wide you’d like your ruffle to be (it gives an example of 7cm). 

Calculating and attaching my ruffle

As I was using cotton jersey, I decided that the best way to give a good finish would be to hem the ruffle and then turn under the top edge too before stitching onto the dress.  As I would be turning under both the top and bottom of the ruffle to give this clean finish, I knew I would need a bit of extra width on my ruffle. So I made my ruffle 8cm wide. 

I then hemmed the ruffle before I attached it to the dress, using a 1cm seam allowance.  This would give a smart finish to the bottom (loose) edge of the ruffle. 

Before attaching the ruffle to the dress, I turned under the top of the ruffle by 1.5cm and ironed it in place.  I then applied the ruffle to the dress and sewed it on using a straight stitch (as it shouldn’t need to stretch too much and I thought a straight stitch would give a cleaner finish). 

This meant my ruffle ended up 5.5cm width – a little thinner than Tilly’s ruffle, but I wanted a slightly more understated look.

I also decided I just wanted the ruffle on the front of the dress (instead of all the way round the front and back as the book suggests).  I therefore decided to change the order of constructing the dress. 

The book recommends sewing the ruffle on after you have stitched up the Freya top/dress up to and including the shoulders.  Instead, I sewed the ruffle on to the front bodice piece as the first step (before sewing the shoulder seams).  I then sewed the ends of the ruffle into the shoulder seams.  This made the shoulder seams slightly more bulky, so I graded them to reduce the bulk.  But it meant a nice clean finish on the ends of the ruffle too. Whoop!

Final touches

Once I had got the ruffle finished nicely, pleated and sewn on, the rest of my Freya with a frill was a very straightforward sew. 

Size-wise, I made a size 2, my standard size for Tilly and the Buttons patterns.  My measurements are 32-26-36. 

I really like my Freya dress and I love how the pleated ruffle turned out.  I’m so glad I finally picked this project back up and got on with it!

I hope you find this post useful if you would like to make a Freya with a frill in cotton jersey too!

I also talk a bit more about this Freya with a frill in my YouTube vlog.