A quick post on a quick to sew dress. My husband recently passed his 30th year anniversary with his current employer, and one of his coworkers had reached 35 years. So there was a celebration dinner, with spouses, at a local restaurant. I jumped at the opportunity to sew a dress to wear to the dinner, because I don't have many activities these days where I can wear a dress. I chose McCall’s 7243, a close fitting pullover style with what I would describe as a "cape collar".
My thoughts were that the collar would bring attention up to the wearer's face, and create a more hourglass silhouette if the wearer has wider hips (comme moi). The fabric I chose is a stable sweater knit, in a poly/acrylic blend, purchased at Jo Ann Fabrics. My like of the fabric color and pattern overruled my aversion to the fact it had acrylic in it.
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| McCall's 7243 Front |
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| McCall's 7243 Back |
Some of you may notice that my dress's collar overlaps in the opposite direction than the pattern picture. I was cutting out the dress on the kitchen table, between meal times, when my workspace got invaded by hungry humans. The room got very hectic and I lost my concentration, forgetting to place the pattern pieces that needed to be cut out of a single layer fabric (fronts) with the correct side up. Once I realized I had done that, I had to do the same thing with the collar pattern piece. so that all pieces had the right side of fabric in the mirror image of the pattern. Also I did a poor job of checking the finished dress length before cutting out the pattern pieces. I held the front pattern piece up to my body, looked down and decided to add an inch to the bottom edge. Yes I know, not the best way to check hem length, looking down combined with bifocals. Next time I will use a mirror. When I did the first try on of the dress, I was dismayed to find I needed about 3 inches more to cover my knees. I had very little fabric left. Barely enough for a 3 inch wide hem band. So I faced the band with tricot to maximize the width. The seam where I attached the band to the dress looks very much like the topstitched hem, recommended by the pattern directions, would have.
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| Faced Hem Band |
I will probably wear this dress to work one more time and then cut it off at sweater length. It will get more wear as a sweater. I think View B, the sleeveless version would make a really cute summer dress.
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| McCall's 7243 |
