Sunday, July 26, 2009

McCalls 5804


~a new dress for Katie, my 19-year-old daughter~

The Pattern: McCall's 5804, View B

Fabric: Cotton--a beautiful print, not what I would have chosen but Katie loved the fabric when she saw it at Hancock's. She will get to do the ironing. :) The fabric suits Katie well, and I'm very pleased with the results.

Size: I started with a size 10 based on Katie's measurements, but it was much too big. I'm so glad I discovered this when I made a muslin of the bodice. You know, I rarely used to make muslins, and it's only been in recent years that I have. After much fitting and re-fitting, I finally got it right on this dress. I realized that I should have started with a size 6 and adjusted up from there instead of adjusting down from the size 10. The only place the size 10 fit was in the waist/ribcage and the hips. I pulled several reference books off the shelf and learned so much about fitting. Much to my surprise I found that I actually enjoyed the fitting process! I feel like the extra time and work involved was well-spent because of the knowledge I gained.

Construction Details: The dress is fully-lined, but I did not follow the instructions for the lining which have you line the bodice and waistband before attaching the skirt and skirt lining. Instead, I completely made the dress, sans sleeves, and I made the lining the same; then I attached them together at the neckline. Afterward, I did stitch-in-the-ditch in the waist seams to hold the lining to the dress. I did not topstitch the waistband as instructed.

The back of the dress opens with an invisible zipper. I'm so glad I have an invisible zipper foot for my machine--it holds the coils up and allows for close stitching. Before I bought the zipper foot, I used a pintuck foot which worked almost as well.

Changes made:
~Raised the neckline by 5/8 inch.
~Raised the armholes because the sleeves were binding. Raising the armholes helped because there was too much fabric there that was binding. Before I read about this in the fitting book I would have thought to lower the armhole (I tried it first, and it made the binding worse).
~Lengthened the hem by 2 inches. I would have made the skirt even longer, per Katie's wishes, but I didn't have enough fabric. Since Katie is short ("short people got no reason") the final dress length is fine.

Okay, I will post pictures of Katie in the dress in the next few days. It looks great on her!

thank you for reading,
Ruth


10 comments:

  1. That's a really cute pattern. Can't wait to see what the dress looks like on Katie. I may want to get this pattern for my 16 year old.

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  2. What a beautiful dress , I love your fabric choice . Very pretty !

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  3. Beautiful fabric and pretty pattern. Maybe I'll do a muslin one of these days...

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  4. Very pretty! My daughter picked this out for herself.

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  5. I read your review on PR and came to your blog... I was wondering what reference books you like for resolving fit issues? Thanks!

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  6. AprilH: The two books I used were The Perfect Fit by Nancy Zieman, and Fit for Real People by Pati Palmer. I also have Fitting Finesse by N. Zieman.

    I am relatively new to fitting patterns, and I like having a variety of books to reference. If I had to choose just one, I think it would be the Fit for Real People.

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  7. Very pretty dress! Isn't the invisible zipper foot amazing? It is unreal how quickly and easily you can put in a nice looking zipper with it.
    Can't wait to see the pictures of her wearing it!

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  8. AnonymousJuly 28, 2009

    Please tell me your secret of getting so much sewing done and having a family! Perhaps I haven't hit the right amount of children yet!!!!

    Love the dress. I will have to try fitting a dress correctly just once.

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  9. Great dress!

    You sew up some lovely things! I am enjoying scrolling through your projects!

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  10. You are a very good seamstress and the dress is pretty! I like the fabric too.

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