I'm such a sucker for Striped Swallow Designs patterns, and it's really not difficult to see why. All the patterns are super trendy little things to sew for your girls and although I resisted for about six months before buying my first one, I don't hesitate anymore and I now own the Wanderer Tunic, the Coachella Shorts and the Soho Maxi, although I bought those patterns in the middle of winter and am only now starting to think that maybe I should light a fire under myself and start sewing them up!


I've sewn the Wanderer Tunic up before, but I'm yet to get photographic evidence of it (hopefully this post will motivate me to pull it out of Eddie's washing pile and slip her into it!) but it's one of those garments that when it is clean I will put her in it because I just love it so much.


About a month ago, on the Striped Swallow Designs fb group, there was a Wanderer Dress sew-along & tutorial. It showed you how to change up the tunic slightly to make it into a dress and since I really wanted to sew this pattern up again I thought i'd do the right thing by Edison and make her another dress. She's growing, so I can justify sewing for her still because at the moment the kids just have WAY too many clothes (when did that ever stop anyone though am i right?).


The fabric I got from my Pattern Revolution sister Nicole as a gift because she's sooo damn sweet and I'm so lucky! It's a Joann's fabric print, which was exciting because you know in Australia we just don't get that ahah, so it was amazing for me!



It's a tattoo-style print, with mermaids, roses, butterflies and swallows - all that good stuff. For contrast I just used a black with white polka dot drill still in my stash. I did have a pompom trim between the bib front and the main fabric, but I was trying to be edgy and the brilliant orange pompoms looked no bueno so they had to go! I hate unpicking, but I wasn't going to deal with that crap on her dress so sayonara pompoms! Hopefully they'll make an appearance on something else. I've been buying all my trim and elastics on big cards off eBay, it's easier, cheaper, and I like getting parcels!



I love the hem of this dress, like a men's shirt, I love the wave. You need to only make it a tiny hem with a shaped hem like this otherwise the fabric goes cray. i remember learning that at fashion school and it just revolutionised my life basically, haha.



The pattern is a dream, I really love Striped Swallow Designs patterns and I've only been able to sew up this one (twice now!) so far. I've got the coachella shorts printed out on my desk (for the second time because the first time I lost half the pieces wooo go me) and I've got the soho maxi queued up. I've learned to pace myself, i cannot SEW ALL THE THINGS no matter how much i might feel like doing it at the time, and I hate having several garments cut out all over my desk because then when I come back to them I'm like, "I really don't wanna sew this nowwwww....." and give it the side eye. And then I feel bad and they accumulate but THIS YEAR I have made myself a promise and I've started to give my studio a big makeover, and a lot of my fabric, sewing books, buttons and trims and general crap that I was hoarding in there in case I made something from it has been turfed to the op shop! We've been living here for two years now and a lot of that was stuff I had kept from before Tim and I were even married. Yikes.



It's been a while since I've posted a blooper so here you go. Edison and our pup Bellamy Bacon!