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The Ash Dress Sewalong is a step-by-step video series designed to guide you through sewing the [pattern], from choosing your size to finishing the final details.
In this sewalong, Erica walks you through each stage of the process in short, focused lessons. You can move through the videos at your own pace, pause as needed, or skip ahead if you’re already comfortable with certain steps.
The Ash features a subtle V-neckline at the front with adjustable straps for a customizable fit. The upper torso is lined for a clean, polished finish at the neckline and armholes. The dress is designed with a French dart, ensuring a smooth fit. Practical side slits at each side seam add a touch of ease and movement, while the center back seam completes the streamlined silhouette. The Ash dress is your go-to piece for effortless style and comfort.
To follow along, you’ll need the Ash Pattern. Seamwork members can download it as part of their membership, and non-members can purchase it individually in the shop.
Here's what we'll cover:
Getting Started
Fabric recommendations: Look for lightweight or medium-weight woven fabrics such as linen, chambray, batiste, lawn, clip dot, double gauze, rayon challis, rayon crepe, cupro, silk, and Tencel.
Fabric qualities to look for: When choosing a fabric for a slip dress, it's important to consider the drape of the material. Drape refers to how the fabric hangs and flows on your body.
For a slip dress, you want a fabric that will softly contour to your body, so fabrics like silk, satin, or rayon are ideal because they have a fluid drape that will create a relaxed silhouette.
On the other hand, quilting cotton tends to be too stiff. As a result, it won't fall and flow nicely on your body. So shop for fabrics with plenty of drape.
Seamwork members, take advantage of your member deals this month! You can save up to 20% off your order here.
Prepare to Sew
This lesson covers all the basic things you need to know to get started with this sewalong. If you’re a beginner, this will be really helpful to watch!
If you feel like you already know how to get your pattern and fabric ready for sewing, go ahead and skip to the next lesson and you'll learn to do some helpful fitting adjustments.
You're going to learn how to:
- Select a pattern and reference its skill level
- Select a size
- Prepare patterns and fabric
- Cut and mark fabric
Fitting Adjustments
In this video, you’ll learn some helpful fitting adjustments for the Ash dress.
Shoulder Width
The straps are designed to rest at the widest part of your shoulder. You can increase or decrease the shoulder width to suit your preference.
Dart Placement
You can raise or lower the dart to make sure it's pointing to your apex.
And here are some addition fitting tips if you need them:
- Follow this tutorial to lengthen and shorten a sewing pattern
- If you need to adjust the armhole depth, use this tutorial.
- If you want to blend between sizes, use this video tutorial.
- Here are tutorials for small bust adjustments and full bust adjustments.
- If you prefer videos, there are bust adjustment videos in the Hansie sewalong here
We created a free downloadable PDF called the Four Height Zones to help you gather the information you need to make adjustments to your pattern where you need it. We recommend printing it out and writing your height measurements on it to keep in your sewing journal.
Compare these measurements to the corresponding landmarks on your pattern pieces, and you'll know how much you need to shorten or lengthen that part of the pattern.
Sewing Instructions
The PDF instructions will be your main guide as you work through this pattern, but we've created this video to walk you through the trickiest steps in detail. If you need help on a step not shown in this video, check out the Community Group Sew, where other Seamworkers and staff are ready to help out!
The trickiest steps for this pattern are:
- Sew bust darts
- Attach straps and lining
