The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side

Look, Ma!  No sleeve finish!  I'll explain that later.

So, pretty much like everyone else, I've done up my own version of McCall's 5974.  This is View C, and I actually finished it back in January but hadn't gotten pictures of the dress until recently.  I made it out of this great monochromatic rayon jersey from Fabric.com.  It reminds me of a shattered mirror, all craggy and jagged.  I thought it would suit this pattern because of the more structured waist detail, but I'm not so sure.  It may be too busy for this pattern.  The great waist shaping gets a little lost.  If I make this again, I will use a solid colored fabric.

This was a fairly easy pattern.  The instructions are straightforward, and easy to understand.  As others have noted, this pattern runs large, particularly when it calls for a stretch fabric.  I made a 14 and had to bring the side seams in, and I could have made it even smaller.  This really hasn't mattered because of the wrap around waist tie.  I did not interface the waistband so that I could omit the back zipper, and I sewed the sleeves in flat.  This has created a problem with the finishing of the sleeves as they're too narrow to sew on my machine now.  Chalk that one up to experience.  For now, that limits this dress to wearing with a cardigan, which is okay in the winter, but I wanted a long-sleeved dress so that I could wear it by itself when the weather gets warmer, so that will have to be fixed.  I also didn't finish the edges of the waist ties.  They are hidden, and the fabric doesn't ravel, so the only thing finishing them would do is take out some of the stretch.

This is a Palmer/Pletsch pattern, so it comes with the fitting alteration lines directly on the pattern.  The only fitting change I made was to lengthen the bodice front in the center by 1 inch, tapering to nothing at the sides.  I may have to add more length if I make this up again because the waistband seam is clearly visible above the top of the wrap.

The one problem I have with this dress on me is the back view (then again, I don't know anyone who really enjoys their back view).  When I gain weight, it goes straight to my back, and the ties cut into the soft parts of my back.  As a result, I get this unattractive bulge between the waistband and the bottom of my bra (I know. TMI).  One of the other reasons why I'm currently limited to layering this under a sweater.  This isn't a comment on the dress itself.  I've seen it look super-cute on a range of body types and sizes.  It's just something that I've noticed on me that I don't think that anyone's mentioned before.  If you're at all self-conscious about your back, this could be an issue for you.  It is for me.

For the most part, I really like this pattern, and this dress, but I'd like to make it out of a solid color with some small adjustments.  Better fitting in the body of the dress, longer bodice top.  Actually hemming the sleeves so that I'm not limited to wearing this under sweaters in public.  I think I might shorten the hem as well.  It looks like it's hitting me at an awkward place on my knee.  So, not my favorite, but not bad as a halfway point. 

 We'll see how the next version comes out, but that will have to wait because I'm working on fitting with a woven fabric.  This is not going well, but hopefully, I'll learn something.  Stay tuned!

A dress should be tight enough to show you're a woman . . .

. . . but loose enough to show you're a lady. - Edith Head

I think I've managed to accomplish this with the sheath dress from McCalls 5818. 

(Yes, I was geeky enough to bring my camera to work specifically so I could take a picture of myself in the full-length mirror in the bathroom.  What?  There's decent light, and we don't have a full-length mirror at home.  The wrinkling in the middle of the dress is due to the wonky way I was standing to actually get myself fully in the picture.  On an unrelated note, I was having a fantastic hair day.)

Dress as still life.

I love this dress.  I love the pleating at the neckline and have wanted a dress with this detail for ages (particularly after a failed attempt at McCalls 5466; stupid bias-cut skirt).  I love that there are no side bust darts, so there is one less opportunity for darts that stick out.  I love that there were only two pattern pieces.  I did a full bust adjustment and distributed the additional fullness to the neckline darts.  I also graded up in the hips and thighs probably one full size.  The pattern instructs you to use a regular zipper, but I had just received my new invisible zipper foot, so I had to put in an invisible zipper to justify the purchase.  It also gave me the option of machine stitching the lining to the zipper.

There is supposed to be a slit at the bottom of the skirt, but because this hits me just above the knee, it wasn't necessary (and I completely forgot about it because I ditched the instructions).

My only real beef is with the instructions.  Other than referencing them to make sure I was making the pleats at that neckline properly, I didn't really use them because I wanted to try the method for lining a dress outlined here (which was fantastic and gave a great result after I enlarged the shoulders so that I could bring the front pieces through after sewing) and, seriously, two pattern pieces, three seams, a zipper and a hem.  Even I can put those together without instructions.  But this is a Palmer/Pletsch pattern.  One of the bonuses of these patterns is that there are supposed to be some instructions to help with fitting, and while the instructions did walk you through all of the most common adjustments (full bust, broad back, forward shoulder), they used the jacket pattern as the example.  This does make sense because the jacket is the most complicated piece in the wardrobe, but it leaves you flying blind for the dress.  Well, not blind exactly, because there are the handy alteration lines on the dress pattern, but they address the full bust adjustment by creating a side bust dart which turns this into a slightly different dress than the one on the pattern envelope (also, see above re: loving no side bust dart).  The pattern does not take the next step and explain how to take the fullness from that side bust dart and rotate it into the neckline pleats.  If I hadn't altered this pattern in the Fit For Real People class, I would have had no clue.

I used a polyester suiting and lining for this.  I know, the evil synthetic fabric.  But it has a nice feel and drape to it with a little bit of stretch, and now I have a work-appropriate dress that I can throw into both the washer and the dryer.  Additional bonus?  The hanger shot above was taken after the dress has spent the night (okay, two) wadded folded up in my gym bag.  Minimal wrinkling, which is important when you plan to wear a sheath dress while sitting at a desk all day.

All in all, I am really pleased with the result.  The dress is classic with an interesting enough detail to keep it from being boring, and I got a lot of compliments at work the day I wore it.

For those who celebrate Easter, have a great holiday.  I'm off now to frost the cake Mr. flyskim and I are bringing to his cousin's house.  Just a basic chocolate cake from this recipe.  Easy as anything and really tasty.  It's the same recipe I used for this cake when a co-worker moved to Austria so that his wife could pursue a job opportunity.

That's even a Lufthansa plane (he's a pilot; it makes sense).

I use the frosting recipe from the back of the powdered sugar box, and we're going to color it green and decorate it with a bunch of Peeps rabbits.  That would be Mr. flyskim's contribution to this venture.  I wanted to make the cake look like a meadow with candy flowers and an Easter Bunny.  But noooooo.  He thinks Peeps will be funny.  I'll post pictures later.