McCall's 6696

Update 2021

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. 

Original post

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...