The Return of the McCalls Shirtdress

7.16.2015

Two sewing repeats back to back? Tsk, tsk. Someone needs to plan my life better so this sort of thing doesn't happen. In fact let me just get a ghost blogger so I can focus all my attention on my real loves, cake and toy frogs. :)  But not toy frog cake because that would be weird.
Anyway, let's just blame Roisin for pattern repeat number 2 and move on.  She's been cranking out McCall's 6696 like clockwork and with every post my desire to sew another has increased. There was even a moment where I thought, "My wardrobe really needs a M6696 sewn in Liberty Carline," forgetting that I'd already sewn one. Derp. To be honest though two Carline shirtdresses would not be a bad thing.

Not having any other colors of Carline in the stash, I did the next best thing and chose a Liberty Lawn in a different print.  It's name did not lodge itself in my head, but it's the one with all the different colored pears. When purchasing this fabric I thought, "OOOOHHH FRUIT PRINT ON SALE!" and grabbed 3 yards. This probably would have been more than enough fabric for most garments if a. The print wasn't directional and b. The pears are set up in stripes so you have to stripe match if you don't want the garment to look like a pile of dog poop. I did luck out was able to fussy cut most of the garment correctly  One button band had to be squeezed out without any regard to pattern placement, the inside waist facing is pieced and my skirt side seams aren't perfectly aligned. But the center front looks pretty great which is what's really important...right...right? *twitches slightly when looking at sideways pictures*
This dress was cut out at the end of May, a few days before we took a trip to my in-laws.  The plan was to get most of the machine sewing parts done and then do all that tedious hand sewing at their house. No machine no problem, I'm still making garments!!!  Well the fly in the ointment is that my hand sewing is slow and even with the assistance of audiobooks,  incredibly boring. At the end of that weekend only half of the sewing was done. The stash busting contest started in June and this poor dress sat around in a tote bag for most of that time.  I finally picked it back up during/after? our long term power outage and finished up all the fiddly handiwork. 

There are a few minor pattern alterations to this version. After pulling last year's dress out of storage and putting it on, the bodice length felt too short.  I went back and removed my bodice length alteration of 1/2" and sewed this one as drafted.  The waist hits where I want it now, but it seems like this change makes the back puffer.  That's my current theory anyway since the fabrics are exactly the same.
My preference for skirt length as also changed in a year, so I added 3 3/4" to the pattern to make it 27" long. This change was also made to the button band because you want all those pieces to fit together. ;)  On this dress I gathered the edge to ease in the extra fullness and catch stitched a 1 3/4" hem.

In any future versions I'd tweak the back gathers a bit. They may just need to be distributed over a larger area since I do like the feel of that much ease across my broad upper back. I'd also make the pockets bigger, a change that had to be skipped on this is dress due to fabric yardage concerns.
All in all it was a good stash busting project to crank out since I didn't need to buy a thing to sew this dress. Isn't it nice when all your hoarding pays off in the future. There was even a pear brooch already lurking in my collection. (Somehow not surprising thanks to my brooch addiction.) Though I'd like to go back in time and tell past Heather to buy these sandals in navy too. Still kicking myself about that years later.

In parting I'll leave you with a picture from a different location in the park.  The house in the background is an office space for some of the local government employees, but hasn't lost any of it charm....if we ignore the AC units. It might also amuse you to know that a family found my photo taking entertaining enough to stand around watching for about 10 minutes.  In truth watching me try to climb up this wall before the camera stopped responding to the remote probably was hilarious. Climb overly dressed women, climb!

37 comments:

  1. Yessssss, the wall photo!!!!! You are my hero for attempting that with an audience!
    As I was reading the post, I was thinking, "Oh twitchy Heather, you didn't really have to line up the coloured stripes of pears!" but as I look at the full length shots, I think "Yup, you sure did." Thank goodness your brain did the cutting and pattern matching, not mine! :)

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  2. This is such a pretty dress, I love the pictures.

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  3. This is so lovely ! I have to say that your love of shirtdresses (or maybe your shirtdress itch) has transferred over to me, and I have made a lobster printed one of my own ! Okay, so its crabs, really, but they're still adorable. And I definitely wear it out of the house. So thank you for the inspiration and the witty banter you post !

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  4. You have made such a beautiful dress! The fabric is fun too.
    www.sewplus.blogspot.com

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  5. Funny how our tastes change from one season to another! Then, I understand why your neighbors wanted to watch. Your look splendid in this perfect outfit. Shirt dresses are heaven!

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  6. How cute this little pears are. They pop in the black background and make a bright and happy dress.
    Love the wall adventure, I'm sure you all had fun with it.

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  7. I have thought about using that Liberty print in the past, but the thought of strip matching made me twitchy as well. I'll practice my stripe matching on something less expensive, thank you. Love how your dress came out though. Makes me wish I had the constitution for matching stripes.

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  8. This is super, duper pretty! I love it!

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  9. Great dress. I am still frustratingly waiting for the McCall's patterns to go on sale here so I can nab myself a copy. Question about the back? I am thinking when I finally get around to making it I will mash together the back bodice with my TNT back bodice piece (with darts) to eliminate the gathering. Do you think this will work?

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  10. super pretty! and there is no such thing as to many dresses, or is there?

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  11. so, so gorgeous! man, i love that fabric. and people are so weird... but you did get a cute photo, so that's a win. :)

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  12. Pretty pretty Heather! I applaud you for making this dress again....when I made this pattern I found the hand sewing so tedious and I do realize that my fabric choice contributed to my agony but I'm still not over it. Someday I will gather the courage to attempt it again and will likely be in touch for moral support!

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  13. Oh my goodness - 10 minutes! I so would have hightailed it out of there. I am not good with people watching me. LOL!
    This dress looks fantastic - I really need to make one already! I love that pear print too! Great photos as usual!

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  14. I have this pattern in my stash... I almost made it last month, but I feel like I need to level up a few times before attempting this behemoth. I love all the versions everyone else has been making! This is so much fun, though, I'm glad you persevered.

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  15. I have this pattern in my stash but have been putting it off, just because I loathe hand sewing. This is so cute though! Perhaps I should give it a go.

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  16. Hee hee! It helped that I was halfway through climbing up the wall before noticing there was an audience. They were far enough away I could pretend they were just looking at something else. ;)

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  17. Thanks Becky and now I want some pineapple fabric. You temptress!

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  18. Thanks Lori. It was nice to have a new spot to take pictures.

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  19. Thanks Regan. I'm jealous of your crabs shirtdress because that is too awesome!

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  20. Thank you Bonnie. :) This pattern is a lot of work but it has such nice design details.

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  21. Haa haaa! That's the best pun ever! I'll send Froggie over to take care of the little guy so you can get a little sewing in. He might even bring some chocolate to share.

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  22. I think you'll like this pattern Michelle, it has a lot of nice details to it. Eliminating the gathers in the back should also work fine. All you'd really need to do is remove the ease from the yoke seamline and convert the waist ease to darts. (Some ease might need to be removed from the waist as well, but you'd have no trouble with that.) Or you could sub in a back from a different pattern if you have something similar.

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  23. I'll have to wave my sale wand so you can get yourself a copy of the pattern. Presto chango! :)


    I do think you could use sub in the TNT back bodice piece or use it to modify the pattern. The pattern drafted like other yoked shirt dresses so it should work fine with darts. Just muslin it first just in case. (I always say that. )

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  24. Thank you! Figured it would be wrong not to give you a chuckle about my awkward climbing in front of an audience. It's amazing I didn't fall on my face and give them a real show. LOL!

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  25. Thanks Margo. I too felt highly traumatized by all the tedious hand sewing on this pattern the first time. Gonna admit it wasn't much better the second time. However any fabric you are going to use has to be easier so maybe you just need to do some TV hand sewing to get through it.

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  26. Thanks Nathalie! No thing as too many dresses until the rail in your closet breaks. ;)

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  27. Thanks Helene. If you'd asked me prior to this I'd say that my tastes hadn't changed at all. At least my preferences for shirt dresses haven't :)

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  28. Thanks Monica. :) Truthfully I had to work up to taking photos in front of people. Right now if they are far enough away I just pretend they aren't around.

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  29. Thank you Mayumi. It was fun having a new "prop" of a wall to mess around with. Maybe I'll go back there again for some other garment.

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  30. Thank man! Glad I got this done cause it's roomy enough to still fit after all my vacation eating. Oh waistline, how you've expanded.

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  31. Haa haa! Wise you are about strip matching, I'd say if I was Yoda. Print matching didn't cross my mind at all when buying it or I'd have thought twice. Glad there was enough fabric to make it work since past Heather wasn't too observant. :)

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  32. Thanks Lisa. What is it about people taking photos that makes other's gawk. We need some bodyguards to move people along. ;)

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  33. I have hightailed it out of other places when too many people started paying attention to my antics. This time they were kind of far away so it was easier to ignore them. Muhaaa!


    Make a 6696, dooo it, dooo it or froggie will steal your cookies. :)

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  34. This pattern does have a lot of pieces but it's not to hard skills wise. I can attest that the collar goes on real nice. However you might want to sucker someone else into doing all the hand sewing. ;)

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  35. I can empathise about not wanting to sign yourself up for all that hand sewing. On the good side it is a pattern that I really enjoy wearing once it's done. Maybe you just need to trick someone else into doing all that hand sewing. ;)

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  36. Hi Heather,
    I just finished reading your entire blog :) and I thought I'd say hi!
    Thank you for being very entertaining. And educating as well,
    even though I never wear dresses so I might not ever use half of those fitting and alteration lessons.
    I am new to sewing and it is great to read about what other people make, and it's nice to read that you still make mistakes too...
    Could I just say ask that you please don't mention the Jaws movie again; I had a horrible nightmare about sharks afterwards :).
    I had fun reading and looking at all your makes though.
    Out of all the things you made I think I love the Poppy dress best,
    such a work of art.
    Have a great summer, and I'll be following your sewing adventures,
    Astrid

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  37. I was in the city yesterday, walked past one of the big chain craft shops. 'Oh look, 50% off patterns. Husband, lets go in just for a bit.' And of course the sale was only for a few brands McCalls not being one of them. Hmph. Maybe it is the sewing gods telling me to finish off my UFO pile

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