Here is the Ruska Knot Dress from Breaking the Pattern “hacked” into a tee!

Maybe it’s a Ruska Knot Dress Tee. Or a Ruska Knit Tee with Tie. Or Ruska Knot Top. Tee, top, tie, knot. Whatever it may be, I kind of like it!

In my recent post about the LB Pullover, I waxed lyrical about some wonderful linen knit I bought from Meter Meter. I purchased it in three colours and this lovely soft pale rose was the final one that I got around to sewing up.

Ruska Knot Dress as a Tie-Front Knit Top

I’ve sewn the Ruska Knot Dress before, so I don’t really have a lot to say about this Ruska tie-front top, construction wise.

This Ruska Knot Top, like my earlier dress, is a size 6. In addition to, obviously, chopping off the length, the actual Ruska Knot Dress uses two complete layers of fabric at the front, the dress, with the knot front overlay. Whilst I wasn’t against doing that for a tee version (and, indeed, this could be useful for transparent fabrics), I didn’t have enough fabric. (If memory serves me correctly, I think I had 1.2 metres to play with)

So what you see here is simply the overlay pieces of the Ruska Knot Dress (i.e. the parts with the knot), attached directly to the back piece. Here I’ve just used the knot front piece at its original length.

I think it works pretty well for a cropped basic tee with a bit of extra interest. And as a canvas for showcasing this linen knit beauty.

Linen Rebirth

One word of warning, this fabric is listed as being “stretchable but not elastic”. Which is an entirely accurate description.

The thing is, the Ruska Knot Dress actually has a pretty tight neckband! And, ummm, this almost doesn’t actually stretch over my head.

Granted I have a kind of oversized head so this may not be a universal problem.

But, the lesson, who would have thought, is that when a fabric calls for proper stretch, you’d be safest delivering it.

No harm done though, I just feel like I’m having a little rebirth every time I put this Ruska Knot Tee on.

Ruska Knot Tee: At Arm’s Length

Oh and another tip – I discovered the laziest possible way to make a “faux cuff” on a tee-shirt sleeve.

I finished of these sleeves with the grand old method of fold up (to the outside) by half an inch, then up by a full inch. Then I lazily just top-stitch along the top fold and pretend that the exposed part I’ve simply folded outwards is an actual cuff.

If your fabric has a pretty inside no-one will ever know.

Our secret.

Oh and speaking of arms, in case you’re wondering what kind of arm length I’m going for here…

I like to call it “I want long sleeves but this is the maximum length that I can cut with the piece of fabric I have”. Please tell me I’m not the only one somewhat familiar with this ummm “length”!

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