The Swing Dress Sew-Along

When I decided to resume sewing as hobby, it was only after finding various crafty oriented blogs and following them with far more anticipation than I, well, anticipated.

I loved Grosgrain's Embellishknit Month, in which she would remake thrifted sweaters into new and fun reinterpretations. I also was following various blogs trying to figure out actual techniques or other ways to upcycle clothes. It started to drive home how little I knew about fitting and improvising patterns.

In my searches, I came along the "sew-along" concept, in which a blogger basically walks their audience through making a garment from pattern to finish. When Casey, from Elegant Musings, opted to do her own sew-along, I decided this was my chance. She went with this swing dress pattern from Sense & Sensibility, and has only just gotten to the final posts on finishing touches.

I was able to follow from the beginning, which I think has helped me carry through to these final steps, as others' work helped carry me through. Through this experience, I learned about making a muslin version to fit the pattern to me properly, and how to adjust the pattern to actually fit my wee figure. It's been super helpful!

Had I resumed blogging before, I would have helped you keep track of my progress earlier (that is, if you weren't following me on Facebook). So, you won't get to read me venting about fitting, sewing multiple versions of the same dress, confusion over sleeves that don't behave. Instead, I am just going to post some pics of my almost complete dress. And unlike one would expect from the last post, these pics are pretty sweet. The husband rented a fancy DSLR this weekend, so I was able to get some nice shots of my handiwork. I probably should have color corrected, but I'm lazy, I guess. I mean, did you see the beautiful detail?!?!?