Back again after a lovely break in Spain, having spent time in both Barcelona and Valencia. Back to reality a bit now, but I have since finished a repeat of McCall's 6696 - a purple linen shirt dress, this time the sleeveless version with a straight skirt.
As this is my second make of this pattern I'll try not to repeat myself too much. After finishing my pistachio dress I was so damn thrilled with it I immediately started all over again. The purple is a cotton-linen blend which I thought might be interesting to underline as it was a little flimsy and ever so slightly see through. It's underlined in a plain white poly cotton - the result of which has made it totally opaque but also much stiffer. As a result it's turned out more formal than I originally imagined however it's already proved a great dress for work - goes well with boots and tights and also easy to slip a cardigan over my shoulders as well.
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| Sorry about the string. It's to keep the hanging basket facing the right way! |
Needless to say, purchasing just half a meter of the liberty fabric more than doubled the price of the project immediately. Oh well, it will get a lot of wear so I'm not bothered, and got to use liberty tana lawn for the first time without breaking the bank. Plus I love the extra interest the contrasting fabric gives the dress - a detail you'd rarely find in shop bought clothes, which is a big part of why I started sewing in the first place :)
I made a few silly mistakes that meant the construction took a while. On the previous dress I pretty much ignored the hip measurement, knowing that the full pleated skirt would fit anyway. I neglected to do that with this version, and just cut the same size for the skirt that I did for the previous one. Big. Mistake. The thing wouldn't do up over my bum and I'd already trimmed the side seams!! So I did a bit of unpicking and squeezed another quarter inch out of each side seam, and also used less of the seam allowance for the front of the dress where you attach the button band. As a result I think it has gone off grain at the front and the hem doesn't quite line up at the bottom - but as that was very close to being unsalvageable I'm not too bothered.
Moral of the story - don't trim your side seams until you're sure everything fits! At least I've well and truly learnt my lesson now.
I also found the collar a struggle. With the pistachio dress I found both collar pieces waaaay to large and shortened them both to fit. I transferred the changes to the pattern and cut out shortened pieces and guess what? Way.Too Short. In the end I had to re cut the collar pieces (including the underlining and another piece of liberty fabric!) and used the original collar size which worked fine. Clearly I messed up the collar the first time round.
I'm glad I persevered though (taking a break to start and finish the Flora dress helped) as once again I'm pleased with the outcome - M6696 really is a fantastic pattern and I've learnt an awful lot from it with these two makes. I particularly like the buttons, even though I was doubtful at first. They have a nice pinky purple sheen - and as the colour of the dress is quite bold the fact that they're quite large buttons means they don't get lost in it all.
Time to put this pattern to bed not (to be honest I need a break from buttons, buttonholes and collars!). I'm just preparing to cut my fabric to join the Yaletown sew-along with Sewaholic Patterns which I'm really looking forward too. My fabric is lovely, I'm excited about the pattern, and it's my first sew-along - I can't wait to sew at the same time as everyone else!
Are you joining the Yaletown sew-along? And what's else is on your sewing table at the moment?
