Swing Dress Tutorial

This weeks Fashion sewing project was inspired from a previous post a few weeks back for those who wanted to recreate my DIY Swing Dress look… I wanted to make this available for any size so I thought this tutorial would be most adaptable for ALMOST everyone or any size and length!

All patterns will line up differently and this won’t be an exact science, but seeing that we are working with knits, there is a little wiggle room when it comes to fit… Get as close as you can with each step and I will stress the important stages. Don’t worry about using the EXACT pattern top, any knit top pattern with suffice.

With that said, the top is your most important piece alteration wise… Meaning this will require NO alterations except for the addition of seam allowances for the center front and back lines – which I will discuss in the tutorial. NEVER alter your armholes, or shoulder seams for this dress, instead, we will alter THIS DRESS, McCalls 6954 to attach to the existing top/shirt garment of your choice, like this (ditch the peplum), this, this, or this.

Making the dress, starting with the front:

Line up your dress and desired top along the center front.
Move the side seam of the dress and match the bottom of the armhole of your shirt to the bottom of the armhole of your dress; at the same time, still keeping your center front in line. See picture below, center front lines align and the bottom on the armholes meet up, if they do not match up any place else (like neckline and shoulders) and THAT’S okay!
Pin the center front together and fold the shoulder and neckline of the dress behind the shirt pattern – still keeping the base of the armholes for both patterns in tact.
For the extra width seen on my dress pattern, I will fold the dress pattern along the side seam so it can meet up and blend to my shirt armhole.

If there was more shirt than dress on the side seam, then I would blend the dress side seam into the shirt side seam because I do not want to alter the armhole. My front dress pattern looks like the picture above; basically I am using the armhole, neckline, and shoulder seam of the shirt pattern with the addition of the dress length.

Back pattern, same idea:

Align center back.
Have the base of the armholes meet up, still keeping center back in line.
Fold away the dress neckline and shoulder behind the shirt pattern.
Blend your dress side seam to your shirt side seam.
Then, cut your fabric and sew your dress!
Make any necessary alterations and TA DA!! You are done!

Okay and this dress is soooo RAD!

I LOVE it because the silhouette and the hemline is current for fall trends as seen on the runways (see Christian Dior’s Fall RTW2014)

annnnnnnd it makes this a very practical go-to dress option for mommies who want to look stylish yet comfortable enough to get on the floor, ready to play or pick up at a moments notice!

It’s like sweatpants but in dress style! ha!

So for my seamstresses out there wanting to recreate this look and alter those patterns THIS is for you!
Or make a really fun sew along night! I used to have a girls sewing night in my last area and help my friends make a simple sewing project with me. The could sew straight lines (never sew looking at the needle!) and we would go through it step by step. There would be music and dancing and laughing and it would last until 2am sometimes but oh so fun!

Yes people, the life of a domestic diva living in the LA suburbs is an exciting one, for sure… hehe!

Give it a try, let me know how you love it, and contact me through one of my social links and contact me if you run into problems… assuming I have my phone with me – who doesn’t?! I am still an unknown and unimportant little blogger so use me while you can! hehe

Have a glamorous day and as Tim Gunn would say, make it work!

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