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Sunday, January 8, 2017

Finished: McCall's 7538 Dress *AND* Top!

It's luuuuuurve.



If you recall I'd planned on making M6612 in a solid over my vacation. I made the print one and thankfully started looking for another "interesting" knit dress in the stash. Well, I found it!

I scored this heathered knit in one of those pre-cut fabric deals from Fabric Mart. It's a lovely jersey. Nice weight and drape, great recovery and completely opaque.

This photo shows the fabric well. I am normally quite lazy about hemming knit sleeves; I turn up and stitch. Well, I ended up measuring up 1 1/4" while the sleeve was flat, and using the chalk mark I folded up and pressed then turned it under for a double fold. It's so neat! I won't be lazy anymore!!



I cut the pattern with a size 14 neckline and shoulders and a 16 for the rest. I'd posted on IG when I saw that the front and back skirt were the same. I knew I needed an adjustment in back or else my skirt wouldn't be level. Shout out to Ebi of Making the Flame for the suggestion...I like shortcuts and she mentioned adding directly on the fabric. I added 3/4" at the center back grading to nothing about 2/3 of the way to the side seam. Win!


I also did a 1" full bicep adjustment and ended up sewing the side seams at 3/8" after getting the front and backs assembled. I should also note I did not hem the dress.

The front crossover isn't really a crossover after all! So you get the waist definition without any extra bulk. The front bodice is 5 pieces - sewn together to mimic a cross front. Takes a little more time but it works. There are two back views - a 'crossover' and solid. The solid back has one less pattern piece but the lower portion mimics the front.

With the pattern pieces having such interesting shapes I cut everything out, left the pattern piece with the cut fabric and "assembled" the front and back flat on the cutting table before sewing anything together. Also, mind all of your notches! It all goes together just perfectly.




If you look closely here, you'll see the seam cuts right across the lower portion of my bustline. I added 3/4" on the pattern piece on the entire lower front. And then cut out the top! :)

paired with S1322 skirt

All fabric from stash. The black is the burnout jersey I made my Swoon cardigan with. The brown is the wool jersey I made my Jalie pleated cardigan with and the grey was a cut of jersey I had in stash. I had another one that would have been more in line weight-wise with the other two but I wanted this color. I should've chosen the other one! This fabric wasn't fun to hem. Sheesh.

I am really happy with both of these and if you were considering this pattern I say GO FOR IT!!