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06/12/2007: "pattern review"
I can't think when the last time was that I made myself a dress. On Saturday, I was at the fabric store and they had a sample of this one made up, which reminded me that I bought this pattern at some time or another. They also had lovely printed eyelet fabrics on sale, so I decided to see what I could do. The pattern is this one: McCall's 5137
Rather than shorten the whole thing, as I am not what you would call tall, I decided to just skip the contrasting band on the bottom, so I bought about 3/4 yd of the contrasting fabric rather than the 1 1/2+ that they call for. Otherwise I pretty much followed the directions. With McCalls, I usually find whatever size it says for my measurements and then go down one. They build in a lot of ease and I don't care for that. When I got to the point of trying it on, I had two problems - the armhole openings were about 2 inches too big and the decolletage was too low - more of my bra showing than the world really needed to see. Easy fixes - I hand stitched last 2 inches of the sleeve openings together. The top is basically a rectangle with a fancy neckline, so those sleeve openings are straight lines. For the low v problem, I stitched a piece of vintage lace trim in to the low point of the v. I debated about just throwing a tank top underneath, but the point of a summer dress is cool, not two layers. I also had a little fun with the hem since I had just a bit of my contrast left over, I made a little bias strip and stitched it on as I hemmed. I also decided that the butt bow with the belt was so much improved by a little wrap around and tie in front - obi style. The cream fabric is a paisley print which is over-stitched in a swirly pattern with a few eyelet holes. The green is a light gauze with a little openwork kind of stripe.
