Fit to Flatter at Sew Inspired in Simsbury

I have always wanted to learn how to sew my own clothes, however it always seemed so intimidating!  But this story has a happy ending.

You know that I listen to a lot of podcasts and I was trying out a new podcast when I heard Lindsey Rae chatting about her business: Sew to Grow and the class she teaches: Fit to Flatter.  She lives in Australia, so I was mostly daydreaming about attending one of her classes while I was listening to the podcast and then she said it: I'm coming to America on a teaching tour.

Yay!

I e-mailed her to see if she was coming anywhere near me and it turned out that she was teaching in Connecticut.  Well, I booked the class and a hotel room and marked the dates in my calendar.

Class was great.

Lindsey taught us how to customize pattern pieces...

...so that the clothes really fit our unique bodies. This was super exciting to me!  I can now make a dress from any pattern because I learned how to size it up and make adjustments to the pattern.  How awesome is that?

We made muslins of our dresses and adjusted them and then we stitched the dresses together out of our choice of fabrics:

We stitched and we serged...

...and we all ended up with fabulous dresses!

All five of us used the same pattern:

Both of these ladies used the same pattern (as each other, but different from the one above):

And then a few women made dresses from patterns that no one else used:

Lindsey was a great teacher.

I have to give major props to both Lindsey (below left) and Viv (right), owner of Sew Inspired.

Sew Inspired is a wonderful shop and Viv was a super gracious hostess.  The shop is in Simsbury, CT and worth a visit.

In the meantime, I'm going to wear this dress every single day...or until I make a new one!

Thanks for stopping by!