 Hi you guys! Welcome back! It is time for another Sew Along. Believe it or not, this is my summer 2023 Sew Along and we are going to be working on the Seamwork Leanne dress. It's the dress that they released in June of this year and I'm going to be showing you every single step of how to sew it. This is kind of like episode zero, like the pre-sew along, where if you need help with fitting, fabrication, and any other little tidbits that I come across as I am preparing to sew, I go over all of those in this video. So you're going to need the pattern instructions because we're going to be going over the fast fit worksheet. If you don't have that already, go ahead and grab yours. You can download it from the link in the description box, but I'm going to be using that to help us figure out the fit of the bodice here. It seems pretty straightforward, but there are a little bit of tricky bits. So without further ado, let's get into picking your size, assessing fit, and any alterations that you're going to need. All right. So let's talk fit and a few pattern adjustments. First, we're going to talk about picking our size. So we're going to go to page five, the pattern and fit details. As you can see, there are two size ranges. We have a double zero to 18 and then 12 to 30, and you can see there's some overlap. So size is 12 to 18 overlap. They appear twice, both in this sort of straight size range and then this curvy size range. So if you are someone that has like a big difference between your bust and your waist or your waist and your hip and you're always having to do, you know, full bust adjustments or full seat adjustments, this curvy size is going to be best for you. If you have, you know, somewhat smaller curves or you're like straight, like a ruler, then you're going to want to do the double zero to 18. Obviously, you're outside that size range and you're going to want to come over here. So as you know, I have the Fast Fit Torque Sheet. You can find a link to this in my description box. I use it every single time. I'm going to make a new pattern and it helps me analyze the pattern's ease against what I like to wear, what's comfortable, all of that kind of stuff. Seamwork provides the ease. They already did all the math for us. So in theory, we could just come to this page five here and be like, oh, here's the ease. I'm good. I'm good. I'm good. And then just go with our size. However, this zero inches of ease in the bust and negative almost two inches of ease on the curvier size range makes me very, very nervous. This is not a knit dress. This is a woven dress. So having zero or negative ease at all is just really confusing to me. I've never seen that before. I'm almost curious if it's just like an error or somehow. But I did double check their math and it's correct. It is a negative seven eighths inch, one and seven eighths inch of ease in this curvy size range in the bust. So instead of doing what I would typically do for my fast fit worksheet, I'm going to kind of, oh, I also want to point out that this line drawing is missing a style line. There's actually a side front skirt panel. So the skirt is actually a center front panel and then two sides and then the back is split into the left and the right. I'm going to do the curvy size. So my bust is 39 inches. So I'm going to write down the size 12 equals 40 inches. And just because I'm a little bit nervous about that negative ease, I'm going to go ahead and write down the 14 as well. And that is 42 inches. And then my waist is 35 inches, which is a 14 exactly. But if you saw again in the finished garment, I mean the ease chart, this one to one and seven eighths, still I'm not in love with that. I want mine to be more like this just because I know I like a looser fitting dress. I'm going to go, I want to aim somewhere around three. So I'm going to go ahead and take down the body chart size for a size 16 as well. Just so I have that information. So the body chart size for a size 16 is 37. Our hips are pretty much negligible, but for the record, I'm in between a 12 and a 14. And so I'm going to write down 14 and that's 46 inches. Okay, now for this pattern only, I'm going to skip sections three and four. And I'm going to go to intended fit because I know how I want this to fit. I know that I want two inches of ease in the bust and three inches of ease ish in the waist. So that means if I want that, I've got to add that to my measurements. So that would be 41 in the bust and 38 in the waist. Now, how do I get there? Right? So now we're going to back into it a little bit. So in order to get 41 inches of ease in the, I'm sorry, 41 inches in the bust, I need two inches of ease and to get 38 in the waist, I need three inches of ease. Okay, so now we're going to go to the finished measurement section of the chart, which is right in the same chart as the body measurements. And I'm going to find where the finished measurements are close to these measurements and this ease. So that bust is going to be not the size 12. That's 38 and an eighth. That's nowhere close to 41. 40 and one eighth is a size 14. So size 14 equals 40 and one eighth. That's close. 16 is 42 and one eighth. Okay, so neither one of them are exactly 41. It's kind of pretty much right smack dab in the middle. So I know that I can take a size 14 with a seam allowance. And I've got, I think on the bodice, just the side seams. Okay. I don't like, there's a center back seam as well, but I don't like to take seam allowances away from where the zipper goes because zipper insulation is hard enough as it is. We don't need smaller seam allowances there. So if I've got the five eighths here, that gives me, and I go down to half inch seam allowances, that gives me an eighth on both sides. That's a half on one on my left side and then a half on my right side. That's one inch. So if I did that, then if I did that with a seam allowance of half an inch, then that would give me 41 and one eighth, which is really close to my 41 that I wanted. Okay. So that's good there. Now for the waist, I want to go to finished measurements and I want it to be somewhere around 38. So I've got this size 16 is 38 and five eighths. And that works because that would only be meaning I'm grading in between one size. I don't like to go between two sizes, between the bust and the waist, mostly because I'm short waisted and there's just not a lot of link there for me to take that drastic of a measurement or that drastic of a grade. So I only like to go one in between. So if I do the size 16, that'll give me 38 and five eighths finished. So that'll give me roughly three and five eighths inches in the waist and that extra five eighths is just fine. If it really starts to bother me, I can take it out of those two center front panels. So I wonder though, because sometimes I'd like to make my life a little bit easier, if I did the 36, okay, so wait, the 14 is 36 and three quarters. And if I did the same half inch seam allowance, I would have a same half inch seam allowance that's going to give me half an inch at each seam line. So that's going to be half an inch, one inch, one and a half inches, two inches. So then that would give me 38 and three quarters. Isn't that what the other one is? 38 and five eighths. Okay, okay, scratch this. I'm going to do a 14 with seam allowances of half an inch only because now my brain has to work less. Now I know that through and through, when I'm doing any vertical seams, I'm going to be doing a half inch seam allowance. I'll still keep the five eighths or whatever the seam allowances is for the hem facing for the straps, all that. But when I'm doing the side seams and the seeming for the skirt, I'm going to take half an inch. That way too, I don't have to do any grading. How about that? Okay, so that looks good. Now, past, once we get past circumference, right, and we're looking at length, one thing I want you guys to check is to put the pattern on your bodies and make sure that the empire waist seam actually does come up and over your bust and sits below your under bust. That's where an empire waist seam should be. Those of you that aren't super curvy, you shouldn't have a problem with it. But if you have a full bust, double check that. Now if you're someone who's like super curvy in the hip, but you have like an A cup, this cup here is going to be too big for you. So you might actually need to print out the cup or the bodice from the 00 to 18 size range and use that one instead because I think that's going to be an AB cup. And I guess it's a little bit flexible because these straps are adjustable, but still you want this to be hitting at the right place. You don't want it too high or too low. The other thing that I want to point out right here is that they give you exactly what each of these models, what size they're wearing, their measurements, and any adjustments that they made. Like this is, I love that they do this. This is so helpful if you're a visual person. So you can see that Maya, this one here, is wearing a size zero. They were able to grade hers to a size four at the waist. So she's zero here and four down here. This seam here is not her waist seam. That's her empire waist. That's her low bust, high waist. Tell everyone to look at it. Her actual waist is down here somewhere. So they graded to a four at the waist and then added two lengths, two inches to her skirt length. And she's five inches, five feet, 10 inches tall. So she needed that extra length. But Frankie, who's more petite, as you can tell by where their heads are, Frankie is only five, six and a half. And they added three quarters of an inch to hers. But you guys need to take that into consideration for yourself. How tall are you compared to these girls? And where do you want your skirt to land? And make the appropriate length adjustment on that. Okay, I got my bodice cut out. I went ahead and put the little plates in and kind of like tissue fitted it on my body just to make sure that the cup size was going to be okay. Mine was definitely too long. This is a very common thing for me. Like I said, I'm short waisted. But when I put it on, this hits like right underneath my armpit like it should. And this hits right underneath my under bust with the seam allowances, you know, included. So I got extra space there, but it's not coming down to my belly button like it was before. And when you do any alterations to the front, just make sure you true up the back. So that means that the widths of the front and the back have to be or the lengths of them, I guess, should be the same. So when you have your notches matching at your seam allowance, just make sure these are the same length and you should be good to go. So that's that. And then the only other alteration that I'm going to make at this stage of the game, I don't foresee making any other ones, but I, this is the pocket piece. Okay. This is what I lovingly call a floppy pocket. And if you've been around for a minute, you know, I don't do floppy pockets, but it's so, so easy to redraft the pocket so that it anchors into the waist seam or the empire waist seam, whichever one you've got. This one looks a little bit elongated because it has to go all the way up to that empire seam. But for me, it's so worth it to use this extra fabric to get this pocket to stay toward the front and get it to lay flat. This is a super simple adjustment. If you want step by step on how to achieve this, I'll have a link in the description box for a video tutorial. Coincidentally, if you found me from the PBS show, it's so easy. This is one of the tutorials I taught on that TV show. So if you're like, this seems familiar, that's why. But if you want to do this, head to the link, go ahead and pause this video, head to the link in the description box. I'll walk you through this. It takes two seconds and you'll never go back to floppy pockets again. All right, let's talk fabrics. So the pattern recommends light to medium weight woven fabrics such as linen, chambray, batisse, lawn, rayon, chalet, cupro, and tinsel. Tinsel is just a brand name of rayon. So from my stash, I pulled out some options that I can illustrate for you kind of what some of these mean. So the lighter option is a rayon. They recommend rayon chalet to me. Rayon chalet is a little bit too delicate and drapey. That's just me being super picky. Are you going to make it a beautiful dress out of rayon chalet? Yes. I, if I had the choice though, would pick something closer to a rayon twill like this one. Twill weave is the same way that they used to make denim. So it's a little bit more structured. It's a more tightly woven fabric, but it's still rayon. So it's still lightweight and drapey. And as you can see from this one, it is just really luxurious while still being, you know, a little bit structured. The skirt of this dress is not lined. So you want to make sure it's opaque, which I think rayon twill achieves more often than rayon chalet does. Okay, next we have the midweight woven like linen and chambray. Now remember, not all linens are created equal. Okay, you can't just like go online and just pick a linen because that could be like curtain weight linen. And then you'll be like, you know, looking like the Von Trapp children. But this is a really pretty lightweight linen. Wash your linen a couple of times to get the full effect of how lightweight it is going to be. I think I got this one from Joanne. I can't remember my stash is deep and it goes way, way back in time, you guys. So I can't remember, but they do have a lot of pretty linens there. A linen blend would also be great. That's going to be like a linen and rayon or linen and cotton. Those are also really nice because they don't wrinkle as much. Then we have our good friend chambray. All of you are probably very familiar with chambray. Again, not all chambrays are created equal. So keep in mind that you could end up with like denim, like jeans, and just be mindful of that. And then the last thing that I'm going to mention, because they didn't, and you know me, I've always got to think outside the box, because our skirt pieces are rectangles, right? Nothing is on a curve of any kind. I think it would be most excellent to use a border print like this one. So border prints do not work on circle skirts. They only work on rectangular gathered skirts. So I got this one in New York, I think from fabrics and fabrics, actually most definitely from fabrics and fabrics, and if I have enough of it, this is what I'm going to use. I have been waiting for the perfect project for this for so long, and this just, this might be it. So border print is another really, really great option. But obviously still, if you're using a border print, still pay attention to the weight and drape, right? Like that is the most important thing. Like the look of it comes secondary to the weight and the drape. So you want to make sure that it's going to be structured enough, but still have the flowiness that you like. You may only like the structured flowiness of a linen or a chambray. If you like something a little bit draper, something a little bit more elegant, you know, go for something silkier like this one is. Here are four fabric options for you guys that follow. I mean, I think the recommendations that they made are great. Light to medium weight wovens, rayon, linen, chambray. This is some kind of blend, I don't know what, but border print, all over print, solids, whatever. All of those are going to be really, really great. All right, now we're going to get cutting and I'm just going to follow the cutting layouts. They have them all broken down for us, really simple and straightforward. Just find your size and the width of your fabric and follow the instructions for that. I will be back with our very first day of sewing. We're going to start with the bodice. I'll see you guys soon. Bye!