I finally completed my Swing Dress early last month after much struggles and worries. For those who have not come across this dress pattern, it is a 1940s swing dress pattern inspired by an original Hollywood design, circa 1942. You can purchase the pattern from ‘sense and sensibility’.
Many obstacles faced for making of this dress. I first bought the e-pattern which my printer simply failed to print to the right size. So, I have no choice but to top up and buy the paper one and wait patiently for it to be sent over.
But when the paper one arrived, I really scratched my head hard when trying to digest the part on the shoulder and facing sewing. But luckily, I remembered there’s a previous sew-along of the Swing Dress by Casey. Her sew-along posts have been extremely helpful. But, I still take awhile to understand the shoulder facing part and ripped off once to fully able get what Casey was trying to illustrate. After the shoulder, the rest is quite a breeze to sew through. And I tried Casey’s vintage method of installing the normal (instead of invisible) zipper. I loved this beautiful method though is a bit for work.
I love how the dress looks. But would have loved it even more if the fitting was better. I chose a size which fits my bust and waist almost exactly and adjust for a bigger hip. However, it still turn up that the top was too big for me. I should have shorten the upper bodice a little. And if you are going to attempt this dress, do make sure you heed Casey’s advice to adjust for the set in sleeve as I chose to skip that and true enough, as like what Casey cautioned, the ease for the sleeve was far too much and there’s unsightly puckering for mine.
My husband however think that this pattern looks too old on me and the fabric was also too old fashioned. But I told him, it’s supposed to look vintage. Ha ha. All in all, I think it’s a beautiful pattern from ‘sense and sensibility’ but I think that instruction and illustration could really be improved on. I would definitely not recommend this pattern to a beginner given this fact. But should you choose to attempt, read Casey’s sew along posts and it will be good to do up a muslin to check the fitting for this pattern. Hope you enjoyed my review of this ‘Swing Dress’ pattern.
And lastly, also to share with you the Japanese Linen pants I made for my son using the same linen that I made for my blouse few months back. Both patterns are from Japanese magazine (Cucito if I didn’t recall wrongly).
This was the first time I made something of same fabric for both of us and I thought this was really cool as it is not easy to find a feminine top for mummy of same print as her son’s clothes. Thats the advantage of learning to sew! I am in process of making a dress with a parachute print which I intend to use it to make a top for zachary. Maybe for chinese new year next year.
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