McCall's 7780: Just Keep Sewing

I saw this pattern and went completely ga-ga. I actually love most all of the variations! View D is far too long but the other 3 are so cute.

I wanted a cool white summer top!!! I had a cut of white handkerchief linen in stash - or so I thought. When our sewing group met up at Sewing Lounge I was considering buying the linen for a Burda top and ended up going with a cotton lawn. Once I pulled it out the fabric, I decided it wouldn't really work for the McCall's top. And THEN I saw the call for contributors on the Sewcialists blog for "Sew Style Heroes" and decided I needed ivory fabric and to SR Harris I went!

I checked in the linen section, but no dice. The Burnsville location of SR Harris is slightly more organized than the main location and lots of stuff is actually labeled. I grabbed this bolt and it just said "lightweight woven". It had a linen-like weave and the weight felt pretty good. I took a chance and grabbed 2 yards...figured $12 wasn't too much of a gamble. When I got home I did a burn test and huzzah! It's either linen or a linen/cotton blend. The two perform very similarly in the test...but I also have a hard time believing it's 100% linen because they'd label it as such and it'd cost more.

Either way, it came out of the dryer wrinkled as all hell but presses very, very well and was a joy to sew (and press!!).

love.

The pattern is size 14. Because of the loose, oversized fit I didn't do an FBA but instead cheated a bit by adding some length at CF grading to nothing at the side seam. I did a swayback adjustment but I'm not sure if it helped much :)

I did not take into account how the top rests on the arms. Mine strains but look at the photo! It strains a bit on her too! doh. I also think that the shaping from the cut-on sleeve to the body is too tight of a curve.

Why 'Just Keep Sewing'? I got to the point of attaching the peplum and ruh-roh... I had sewn the front and back together right side to wrong side. I decided to unpick the CB seam because it's the back! Oh boy. Because the shoulder seam and underarm/side seam were already sewn and serged, it was actually the front that needed to be changed. So I had to resew the CB seam and open up and resew the CF seam. OY!

Got that fixed, got the peplum attached, basted my straps in...what the...that's weird that the front peplum is so long...WAIT A MINUTE!!!!

I'd decided to use D-rings - I actually thought they were included on the pattern until I saw a finished version and realized they were ties - and so the direction mattered. I'd basted by machine so I had to unpick those stitches and reverse the straps. I sewed my tag in...onto the front facing. I had to unpick that too. Once I was certain that I'd actually sewn the top correctly, I washed it and it came out of the dryer a MESS. It was so wrinkled and the seam between the top and the facing was unraveling. I'm not sure I had that happen before. I definitely don't want to serge it because the serging may show through. I will try pinking it. It took me forever to iron it and it will likely never see a w/d again. I don't dry-clean much but there are a few items in the wardrobe that I won't deal with.

WHEW. Sometimes you just have to persevere! I'd love to sew the 'drapier' version and I love the flouncy sleeved one too. Decisions, decisions.

This top was already planned and then catapulted to the top of my sewing queue for my contribution to the Sewcialist blog. Watch that space to learn more about my 'Sew Style Hero'