I don't have a picture of the original Gap tank top. I wore it to death. It was long past its expiration date when I finally got rid of it. But before I did, I studied the construction and created a pattern. And I made 3 versions in different colors OUT OF MY SON'S OLD T-SHIRTS. I am so very proud of myself. I made these a couple years ago and am only now remembering to document them.

The first one I made was black. 

The other two are a gray and a white.

I just have not been able to give up on this dress. I have worn it here and there since swearing I was getting rid of it, cursing the same issues as before. I wore it at Easter and then came home and resolved to make a new version, starting with an alteration to the back to remove all the poof. Also I planned to change the neckline. I went looking all over for ideas. Finally, I put this dress on my dress form, drew the neckline I wanted,  removed the bias tap neck binding, and cut. 

I thought I had some extra scraps of this fabric for a new neckline. Nope. Looked everywhere. So I found some lawn bias tape I had made before and tried that. Too stark a contrast. Then it hit me to use the old binding, splice some of the white binding into the middle so it would fall in the back and not be seen so often.

So the dress still poofs more than I want in the back, but I can totally live with it. Two more bits of lawn are on their way though, and I will be making a couple more of these.

I never wear this damn dress and it makes me so angry. Several times I've been charmed by the idea of wearing it...I still love the fabric—the design, the feel of it—and the style still seems like it should work for me. But I put it on and am disgusted. The voluminous back infuriates me and I have just discovered something else about the cut of the dress that put the nail in the coffin for me and motivated this update so I know better from now on. The neckline is too high. It chokes. I just made a Jalie raglan top and I like it...except for the neckline, which is pretty much the same as this dress and like many a round neck T-shirt. I unpicked the neckband and scooped out the neckline, matching a raglan sweatshirt I love but don't wear much because of the color. Once I put on the new neckband, I am looking forward to seeing if the changed neckline makes the top fun to wear.

Anywho...never again will I make this neckline. 

Ya know...it's a lot of work to put into something that doesn't turn out as nicely as one would wish. I have a few shirtdress patterns in my stash--none of which I have made before. I was in stash-busting mode and wanted to use up a black and white flower lawn I'd been saving for the purpose...for a while. This pattern comes with different cup sizes, so I chose it. I wear a D but chose the C cup remembering my Wild Ginger fiasco. I followed all the other sizing guidelines on the envelope, figuring if they took the time to make different sized cups, they were going to make a pattern that fit the stated measurements. Nope. What are these people thinking? Who likes massive amounts of ease? I made a number of adjustments to this dress, unfortunately after I cut it out. So the pleats at the back have been pulled forward because had to take a couple inches off the side from the waist on down. I had to raise the waist band...a couple times, not believing the first time that I would need to take out be so much as it turned out I had to. I had to remove at least 2 inches out of the center back because it was absurdly voluminous; there is still too much fabric there, but it's better. Since the yoke was cut and sewn and the waist band was already cut and I didn't want a seam there, I took a large dart out under the yoke and tapered to the waist band. I never intended to sew the collar because my husband says he doesn't like them. I figured I'd try this once and see if I liked it. I do. I bound the edge with a bias strip I cut from the same fabric. This is a lightweight lawn and is super comfortable. It was easy to sew with (and seam rip!), but the cut edges threatened to fray right away so as soon as I could I serged the seam edges.

Looking at the pictures, I think the back waistband is still too low. Next time...

I thought this would be my Holy Grail dress. I've been tweaking the fit for....years. Lately, it's been hanging in my sewing room because it didn't fit anymore! I've lost weight again, and now it fits, so I thought I'd document the mockup before I take it apart to use it to alter the paper pattern and then make a real dress. I can see from the pictures that I don't like the cap sleeves; thank goodness. (Maybe the darts I pinned out of the neckline are too big?)  I thought in the mirror they looked so good that longer sleeves wouldn't work. But I like longer sleeves. So the real version will have them. 

Update: I made it up in a knit. 

I've made this pattern a few times before in a knit. I wear most of those dress all the time because they look okay and they are super comfortable. But in looking at the pics, I've always suspected I made a size too large at the top. Here's one I made in a knit a while back:

I made the pattern again in a woven, and I am now convinced it's a size too large for me at the top.

I wanted to make a simple sheath for a trip to Hilton Head in some linen I had in my stash. I had bought it to make a beach coverup for the previous year's trip to Hilton Head, but I thought it was too heavy and changed to a lighter-weight white linen. I also  thought I hated the color of the blue, and I called the fabric "linen fit for a tablecloth." But I pulled it out before this trip and I realized the color is actually super nice. I realized it could be neat if you make the right thing with it. So I decided to try it with McCall's 6355 since I had made a lot of alterations to that pattern for myself and I had an--as it turns out--incorrect notion that it fit me. Sigh.

When I first basted this linen version together, I needed a little more room at the hips, so I removed the side seams and resewed. Then the darts, which I remembered lowering for the knit versions, look too low now. I pulled the shoulders up and it seemed to make everything look better. So I cut off an inch of the top shoulder seam. A nice side benefit was that the sleeve fit perfectly in the armseye, no ease to fiddle with. I put an invisible zipper in the center back (the pattern calls for an optional side-seam zipper, but I didn't feel qualified to pull that off). 

So I like this okay--it's a very comfortable and breathable fabric and I like the color and the matching of the sheath idea to the linen. HOWEVER, I am not sure if I sewed the sleeves in the wrong sides (and thus backwards) or if that inch I took out of the shoulders screwed up the fit of the dress on my torso. Maybe it's the sizing. The neckline is waaaay too large and my brassiere straps are usually visible. Oh well. Onward.

I wear my gray Blackwood Cardigan all the time in spite of it not closing fully in front. IT is so comfortable and I love the color. I  figured if I wear that one, I'd wear one in purple. This new one is definitely french terry; I paid attention this time. But it is different than my gray one, which is not quite as heavy. This one is definitely more like a sweatshirt material. It's okay. I still like it, and I like the purple a lot. No issues making it; it went together very easily.