Aloha and Happy New Year By Hand Babez!

We start the year with excellent news - it's Georgia Dress Sewalong time - and it's gonna be a good one (if we do say so ourselves)!

Hell yeah, I’m in! Tell me more…

The first post will be going up on MONDAY 27th JANUARY, so if you haven’t already, you still have time to get your pattern and supplies. We’ll be publishing two-three posts per week, aiming to have our Georgia Dresses finished by mid-end of February. Could there even be a more perfect Valentine's dress than this?? The excellent news is that we'll be featuring a bonus strapless variation, exclusive to the sewalong! The Georgia Dress is a surprisingly quick and easy make, but due to her figure hugging nature, the key to pulling off this knockout of a dress is all in the fit. We'll be delving deep into the world of pattern adjustment, showing you how to alter the Georgia Dress for both fuller and slimmer figures, giving you the tools to create a made to measure dress that fits and flatters.

How do I get involved?

Really all you need to do to get involved is just sewalong with us! Obviously, we love nothing more than seeing your By Hand London creations, so if you’d like to share your progress with us and the rest of the world – sharing is caring after all – please feel free to post on your blogs, show some love on our Facebook page, tweet us or Instagram @byhandlondon using the hashtags #byhandlondon, #georgiasewalong and/or #georgiadress or upload your pictures to our Flickr pool.

How will the posts be broken down?

• #1 – Choosing the right fabrics and notions for your Georgia Dress
• #2 – Finding your size, tracing the pattern and the benefits of making a toile
• #3 – Pattern alteration - FBA's, SBA's, FAA's & SAA's (that's Full Bust Adjustments, Small Bust Adjustments, Full Ass Adjustments & Small Ass Adjustments in official BHL sewing lingario!)
• #4 – Layplans and cutting your main fabric
• #5 – Assembling the bodice - all variations
• #6 – Assembling the skirt
• #7 – Joining the skirt to the bodice
• #8 – Zippers, hems and finishing touches
• #9 – Round-up party!

*If there is anything we haven’t covered here that you would like us to include, please let us know as soon as possible!*

I can't wait. What do I need?

• The Georgia Dress pattern.
• Fabric. Please check the fabric requirements on the back of your pattern folder or on our product page for advice on how much fabric to buy. We’ve recommended medium weight woven fabrics with a little stretch: cotton sateen, twill, drill, poplin, upholstery cottons, denim, courduroy, stretch satin, wools, silk noil, brocade, jacquard etc. Be sure to check the fibre content of your fabric before you buy - if it has a small percentage of Lycra or Spandex, you're golden! For the lining, we recommend 100% cotton lawn or voile. Please make sure you pre-wash your fabric before cutting! Nothing worse than spending all that time making something beautiful only for it to shrink in the wash… Been there, folks. Never again. We will be going into more detail concerning fabrics in our first post, so don't panic if this is all sounding like gobbledegook to you!
• Boning - but only if you're making the bonus strapless variation - 1m of any easy-sew polyester boning will be ideal.
• A couple of spools of matching thread – it’s always a good idea to get this when you get your fabric (or bring a swatch of your fabric with you) to get a good colour match. You may need two colours if you choose to fully line your dress and the shell and lining fabrics differ in colour.
• A 16 inch invisible zipper.
• Various dressmaking supplies: a sewing machine, fabric scissors/rotary cutter, paper scissors, tracing paper, pens & pencils, pins, a hand sewing needle, a tape measure, tailor’s chalk, an iron.

We cannot wait to get stuck in - it already feels like an age since we got to knock ourselves up some new party dresses! The most exciting part however, is that we've been invited to choose the fabrics for this sewalong from none other than New York City's droolsome designer fabric mecca that is Mood! If you're reading this, thanks guys!!

http://byhandlondon.com/pages/sew-alongs#georgia-dress

Please help us to spread the love and encourage one and all to get involved by grabbing the official Georgia Dress Sewalong badge – simply save the image above to your computer and attach the link to the image in your blog layout. Clicking on it will swiftly take you to all posts in the sewalong.