McCalls 5576

I have finished McCalls 5576 in View A. I was a bit ambivalent while I was making this dress. I love the fabric which is a Michael Miller Cotton called 'Dumb Dot'. It is a beautiful quality cotton and I never realised but if you use a good quality cotton with a high thread count it doesn't crush so much or need so much ironing. I will certainly be keeping an eye out for more fabrics like this as they wear so well in our Australian summer.

I had to take the sides in by 1.5 cm (5/8") on each side. It just looked like a 'house dress' otherwise. There is heaps of ease in the dress (well it is described as 'loose' but it was too loose for my taste).

If I make this again I will make an adjustment for sway back. You can see the creases reaching from my waist. You can also see by the back shot that I can't really go down a size as I need the width across the shoulders.

The sleeves are lined and I found that a great way to make them. The finish is very neat as there is no edge finish showing on the sleeve. It also makes them very 'pouffy'. If you had a softer fabric this would also be good, but not so necessary in this cotton.

I wore it out for the first time on Sunday afternoon when I was spending some time with the girls. I am showing this photo as I want to show the cute shoes I wore with it. I am looking for a yellow bracelet to complete the look, but have had no luck so far. I wish I had thought of that when we did our road trip down the hill the other day. There was heaps of bracelets at the Craft & Quilt Fair. (The shoes are yellow btw, it is not so clear in theis photo.)

After wearing the dress (and getting some lovely feedback form my mates) I do like it more. When you have problems with the fit I think it can put you off an outfit but I believe if I wear it as soon as I can, I usually overcome the doubts.

Yesterday I had a free afternoon (after rounding up the dust buffalo in the house). I started on New Look 6807 in View B. I thought it would be an instant gratification type of thing but did not get it finished. I ended up having to hand sew the neck edge after a disastrous attempt at doing it by machine. It looks much better now but took a while so I still have the hem to go. It is a bit bland in the off-white jersey I choose but I can picture it with some chocolate brown linen pants I am making soon. Hopefully I will have it finished by the next post.