Sew Colette: Swayback Adjustment

Remember my croquis from yesterday? My swayback was quite noticeable in my side view:


Swaybacks run in my family and are quite common in the sewing community, too. Ali, of The Wardrobe, Reimagined, is a fellow swaybacker and has talked about her personalized croquis here.

Colette Patterns Swayback Adjustment

Sarai outlines very clearly in the handbook how to make a swayback adjustment using the simple pivot method. On the Coletterie, you can see a more in-depth approach with regard to trousers, but like all of their tutorials, is easily be adapted to suit dresses and skirts.

Now, I tend to sew dresses that have separate bodice and skirt pieces, making the sway back adjustment quite straightforward. However, one of my planned sewing projects this year is a classic Jackie Kennedy-inspired sheath dress from Famous Frocks. How am I going to go about it for all-in-one pattern pieces?

Source: buzzybeesworld.blogspot.com via Sarah on Pinterest

Enter clever Sherry, writer of Pattern, Scissors, Cloth, in sunny Auckland, New Zealand. She has written a terrific post that covers a variety of swayback adjustments, including ones for all-in-one pattern pieces. Now I need not fear making sheath dresses any longer!! I have the SBA, Swayback, and Full Derriere techniques in my arsenal, so bring it on!

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Have questions? Please feel free to post here, in Erin's blog, or in the sew-along Flickr group. We're here to help!