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 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.
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