Dress Up this Town Blog Tour Seamingly Smitten Swing Dress

It’s me again on the Dress Up this Town Blog Tour hosted by Sewing By Ti.  Its an honor and pleasure to be a part of this Blog Tour.  Please see the links at the bottom of the post to check out all of the beautiful dresses these ladies are making for the tour. Also we have some wonderful sponsors and another GIVEAWAY!  Giveaway is listed at the end of the post.  Look at all the wonderful prizes you can win:

$20 Made For Mermaids
3 Patterns from Peekaboo Pattern Shop
2 Patterns Seamingly Smitten
3 Patterns Sew House 7
$15 shop credit to Tie Dye Diva

Just Wow! I wish I could enter!  You can see my first stop on the tour when I made Matching Mommy and Me George & Ginger Drama dresses.  They were so much fun!!  Today though, I get to share with my new favorite dress I have ever made for myself.  I mean EVER!  But first, let me show you how I got there.  It all started with an instagram photo of reversible sequins.  I knew I needed some and then I scoured pinterest for some inspirations and then found this dress.  I had to make a similar dress.  I originally wanted to make the dress for our Anniversary last month, but I just could not find the time.  I thought the Seamingly Smitten (one of our sponsors, thank you!) Swing Dress would work perfectly, however it was a knit pattern, but can also used as a woven pattern. So, I started off making a knit version of the dress to gauge my sizing, but what I needed is the woven version.  I also took the front pleat out of the dress. I ended up right on the edge of a Medium and Large, so I chose a Medium, since I have been working on my fitness and have lost 13 lbs since February.  Woot Woot!  Only 15 more to go!  It is all in my Mommy Pouch and derriere.  Those spots are always the last to go!  Luckily this dress is prefect for the Mom bod!  You don’t see my pouch at all!

I loved this dress so much I ended up wearing it for our Anniversary.  It is so shiny and fun!  I bought this metallic knit fabric at Joann Fabric.  It is quite sheer, so I did fully line this dress.  You have the option of lining just the top or the entire dress.  I did not fold the hem in, as I thought the dress was a little short on me, so I just serged the ends.  Not the fanciest finishing, but it was super quick and easy.  Speaking of quick and easy, this dress was fast!  From putting the pdf pattern together, cutting and sewing, it was super fast.

Per the pattern instructions it recommends I size up two sizes for a woven pattern.  I made it with just cheap fabric I bought from Walmart, so it has no drape.  Which was okay, because my final dress is a heavy fabric without a lot of drape.

I was happy with how the front turned out, however I had issues with the side gaping.

You can see the gape a little bit on this size.  I have not done it yet, but the designer recommended “Then take it in from underneath the arms by 1/4 inch on each side? That would reduce it by half inch on each side where it is too wide. Try it on inside out after you redo the straps, pin where needed then sew!”  She is always so helpful and quick to respond!  Before I asked for help for my final dress I decided to try to do just one size up and see how that works.

Isn’t it cute?  I bought the Eiffel Tower fabric at Walmart.  Again it does not have a lot of drape.  I made this one is the petite length, as I am only 5′ tall.  This Mom is not used to wearing dresses anymore, so I thought it was a little short on me, although it probably is not.  LOL. Instead of folding the hem under, I serged the hem with black thread and topstitched black lace to the bottom of the dress.  I had lengthened the straps a bit with the woven, however it wasn’t enough.  I feel like the bust sits a little high, maybe that is why the dress feels short…  So my idea for my final dress was to use elastic ruffle premade straps.  I measured them to the finished length of the knit dress straps and adding a half inch on each side.  I think it gave me the look I was trying to achieve.  What do you think?  Do you like my final dress?

I love it!!  I thought it would be hard to work with the reversible sequins, but it was not.  I only broke one needle and it was at the end when I doing the hem.  I have a few little tips on working with sequins, comment below if you would like me to do another post about sewing with sequins.  I bought this iridescent mermaid sequin fabric from fabric.com

And here is a look at the back of the dress:

Thank you so much for stopping by, please please check out all the other ladies on the blog tour below:

Week 1: July 1st-8th
1- Sewing By Ti (Intro) ***You are here. 😀 and Stitching At Night
2- Me Made
3- Tenille’s Thread
4- Sewing By Ti
5- Seams Sew Lo
6- Anne Mari Sews
7- Sea of Estrogen
8- Lulu and Celeste


Week 2: July 9th-15th
9- Living in Twinado Valley
10- Ma Moose
11- My Heart Will Sew On
12- Seams Sew Lo
13- Kate Will Knit
14- Creative Counselor
15- Sewing With Sarah


Week 3: July 16th-22nd
16- Stitching and Making
17- That’s Sew Lily
18- Sprouting Jube Jube
19- Auschick Sews
20- Anne Mari Sews
21- Lulu and Celeste
22- On Wednesdays We Sew


Week 4: July 23rd-31st
23- Stitching At Night
24- Sewing Curves
25- My Heart Will Sew On
26- Indulging Mum
27- That’s Sew Lily
28- Adventures With Bubba and Bug
29- Capture, Craft Cook
30- Sewing By Ti
31- Sew Like a Sloth

And of course the good part!!  Who wants to win some prizes??? Enter Below and Good Luck!!
a Rafflecopter giveaway