Linen Border Print

 
 
 



 I spent most of May and June working on this dress.  I made 2 muslins and the fit still isn't perfect. 

I am looking for the 'perfect' shirt dress pattern.  And I actually do own 2 different patterns labeled "The Perfect Shirt Dress", but they have darts and no waist seam and for some reason, I really wanted a waist seam.

M6696 - Line Drawing

I chose McCalls 6696 because there was an option with a straight skirt.  I have a lovely border print that I bought in 2008 in New York and it's ready to come out of the closet.  But, I needed a pattern piece that was straight across the bottom to really show off the border print. 

There is no photographic proof  of the alterations, but I did them.  I even emailed KID, MD and Lynne asking them for help.  See - the back was really, really blousy.  In fact, I think I could still take a bit more out.  The back waistband seems to dip down. 

To take out the fullness, I actually just sliced an inch right off the center back pattern piece.  Then I cut from the center back seam to the side seam and overlapped about 1".  After that, I layered this bodice with the simplicity sheath dress bodice that fits so well and drew the back darts in.  I still need to make the back bodice shorter - I am really, really short from my neck to my back waist.  Don't believe me?  My measurement is 15".  Yea short there. 


And now I'm going to show you the back.  I wore this dress again today.  The first time I wore it I felt like a pin I saw the other day.  It went like this: 

Mirror:  You look good today!
Camera:  Ummm, no.

Today, I realized that the back is too wide.  Still.  All the way through.  You can see all the extra bunched up in the belt.  The side seams hang straight - so the extra doesn't need to come out evenly around - it needs to come off the back.  And the hem hangs even although the back waist dips down - so the bodice needs to be shorted and the extra added back to the center of the skirt - right?

I don't know if you can see it or not - but I cut the pockets from the border print.  I wasn't going to get all the pieces if I didn't.  And there two tiny little green leaves peeking out of the front bodice seam.  The pockets are lined with white quilting cotton and I used the metal buttons with the white centers.  I think they work. 

So - although I'm not thrilled with it - I will make the pattern again.  Using a different fabric that I don't care about so much to test the theories above before cutting into the New York Border Print.