Pattern Testing: Striped Swallow Designs - Harbor Knot Dress

Rusty. Rusty is the word of the day. I'm blogging rusty, I'm fabric rusty. At least I'm not sewing rusty. You know the age old saying. "Like in sewing, once you learn to ride a bike, you always need to wear a helmet." That's how it goes, right? Close enough.

So I was gone. No one probably cares and that's legit. So here's the quickest recap I can muster.

Twitter style: I moved 2.4k miles, started a career in sales, left a 9 yr relationship, fell in love, and am getting married May 20th! #JerrySpringer

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Nothing motivates me more than a deadline... so Blam-o I saw one of my favorite designers put out a testing call for a cute dress and that was it. So here I am.

Let me introduce you to the Harbor Knot Tee's sexy sister, the Harbor Knot Dress from Striped Swallow Designs. :)

If you can't already see, let me tell you why this is an awesome dress. It is form fitting, curve hugging, leg showing, awesomeness. It can be dressed up with some statement jewelry and a blazer for a night out or thrown over a bathing suit and worn to the beach with flip flops. (Also, I received no less than 7 "wow" comments from my fiance... that's a winner to me.)

The Harbor Knot Dress features

-Long sleeves

-3/4 length sleeves

-Short sleeves

-Layered printing

-Sizes XS to XXXL 

-Video tutorial on knot

It comes with sleeve options, too. Short, 3/4 length, and long. If the knot looks intimidating, it kind of is before you do it once! However, Mandalynn makes it really simple by including a video tutorial linked directly through the pattern and voila! Suddenly it's as simple as pi.  

The Harbor Knot Dress was a very quick sew. It took maybe 1.5hrs after it was cut. (I sew slowly, especially because I haven't sewn in awhile. I'm extraterrestrial careful.) I could probably sew a second one in 50 minutes if I had a place to hook up my serger. Damn you, small apartments.

Something I love about all Striped Swallow Designs is that Mandalynn includes layers. So that means I only had the print and cut the XS size. Thank you lawt.  

It always helps that I had one hell of a photographer. Thank you, lover. :) He was all "stand up straight, look that way, POSTUREEEE, SMILEEEEE. It was really cute and obviously effective. :) One last thing you'll love to know, this dress is running around safe! I could bend over and the wind was blowing but there was no butt cheeks to speak of. It's so form fitting, the dress gives your booty a nice little all-day-long hug and doesn't let go. It's a simple design with a twist! I love patterns like these because I could make a million of them and they're not so "distinct" that everyone knows I have 4 of the same dress. 

Details

Pattern Striped Swallow Designs Harbor Knot Dress = $9 

Poly blend knit from Joann's - $12.99 @ 40% off - $7.80 / yard for 1.5 yards = $11.70

Notions

Thread = $.50

Estimated total cost = $21.20 less the pattern = $12.20
I received this pattern for free in exchange for testing before it's release.

This dress is one sale for $7 for it's release!

I included this picture because I feel like storm and like I'm going to smite people. Pretty rad. 

And this one, obviously, because I like to complain about being cold, or being embarrassed while having my photo taken. Isn't taking pictures in public while people walk by the worst? Also, Washington is still really cold in March, folks. I didn't sign up for this s***.

So glad to be back sewing! Also, very glad to see some new, sexy patterns coming out. Moar sexy dresses, please. I love to sew what I'd already buy. ^^