Me Made Monday: McCall’s 7351

Well, it’s been a few weeks, hasn’t it?  I’ve had this one done for about that time, and even photographed, but haven’t had access to my computer.  Now that the boy is pretty much done with school for the semester and starting to slowly resume his regular working schedule, I have the computer and Photoshop to myself once again.

I am a bit disappointed in my sewing self that during all this ‘free time’ I have only made two dresses.  I do have an excuse, the sewing/computer room has been occupied, but besides that, I haven’t had the motivation to sew.  I think it’s finally coming back!  As I spent a good amount of time browsing fabric online yesterday and starting to fill up my shopping cart.  Let’s see if anything comes of it.

Today, I will tell you all about my newest make and it’s a bit of a departure from my normal.  I made a shirt dress, with a collar!  The first successful collar I think I have ever done, besides a peter pan collar which is a little bit different.  This was McCall’s 7351, and I tried to make view D, but ended up with view A, minus the pockets.

View D has a full skirt, my fabric was directional due to the print so I did not have enough to make it like that, so the skirt from view A it was.  I tried to make this with sleeves also, but they never fit well.  Why do sleeves on my dresses never fit well?  They are too snug and when I lift my arms, the whole dress goes up.  Is it only me with this problem?  Anyway, I was expecting that this would be sleeveless from the beginning so I just moved on and binded the armholes as instructed without sleeves.  Unfortunately, none of the pictures I took without the sweater came out any good, so you get to see the dress how I most often will be wearing it anyway, with a sweater.

Here is how it looks hanging up.

It really was a joy to make, and I got to make button holes for the first time on my new machine and guess what?  My machine also sews the buttons on.  Oh, happy day, not to have to sew buttons on by hand!!!

Excuse the wrinkles.  I like the length and my only modification was to gradually cut out up to 1/2 inch from the back side bodice seam to the center back for a sway back adjustment.  This is a new issue of mine, that pesky sway back.  Think it has to do with my current shape, and I am hoping it’s not a from-now-on adjustment.  If it is, I am going to have to come up with a better way to modify future pattern pieces.  Also a note on my pattern, I folded a 1/2 inch out on the ‘lengthen or shorten’ lines.  Maybe doing a little more to the back next time instead of cutting out the taper may help?

Not my usual fit and flare style, and the different fit took a bit of getting used to.  There wasn’t that defined waistline that I am used to, so I did feel a little self conscious the first time I wore it.  This can be remedied with a belt and while wearing a sweater, it’s not noticeable at all.  This is how I looked when I wore the dress out for the first time.

The best pic I got, and I am pulling on the bottom, so sorry for the weird wrinkles.  This was last Sunday when Stephen and I went to Crown Winery for pizza and wine on the patio.  Those clouds you see in the distance ended up being a really big storm.  We came home in it and it was pretty bad.  One of two storms from last week, and this one blew the neighborhood trampolines over, and sent one into the trees, plus it knocked out the power at our property for a week and many trees around our neighborhood.  It was crazy, but my dress was hit!