McCall's 7085 in a (sort of) floral double knit

A couple of months ago I bought this beautiful fabric on eBay. It was describes as a scuba knit. IMO it's not a scuba but a 'plain' heavy jersey with a sheen surface. As synthetic as it comes I guess, but I love it.

I knew right away that I wanted to turn these couple of metres into a dress, just needed to choose the right pattern. Of course I considered just using my tried and true McCall's 5975 (damn, that's one brillant pattern) - but I was feeling kind of crazy and adventurous (yup, that's me living on the edge) and decided to try something new. Meet McCall's M7085. An easy to sew dress with darts both front and back. The pattern does include lining pieces and you're adviced to install a zipper, but as with most of my knit dresses I skipped the zipper part. And the lining, too.

When it was done I felt kind of 'meh' about the result. Too loose and the wrong length for me, so I took it in - quite a lot in the sleeve and bust area and tapered the skirt. Furthermore I unpicked the hem so now it's left with a raw edge at the bottom of the skirt. Not the most elegant finish but I like this length and so be it.

Next time I will definetely go down a size.

I do like the dress, but I think I prefer my fitted knit dresses as bodice/skirt joined at the waist (as the McCalls 5975) and not these 'one front and one back' type of dresses. Dunno. Maybe it's just me.

 

 
I also made my baby girl a new, comfy over size dress. Definetely more of these to come. She really likes these loose fit dresses. This one is based on Simplicity 9062 - a blast from the past (1992). Fabric from my Stofdepotet stash. Sorry, but it was sold out a loooong time ago.

McCall's Mash Up - The Green Python Dress

Before we move on let's get something out of the way. Yes, I killed and skinned that green scuba python (of course it exists!!) with my bare hands. It's a long and not very pretty story - Indiana Jones will fill you in. And we've been through this a hundred times, Harrison - there's no need to thank me, you know I'll have your back anytime.

If killing and skinning is not you're kind of thing you could also just buy the pretty scuba at The Sweet Mercerie.

Now on to the details. As you've probably guessed from the headline this is a FrankenDress. It's the love child of McCall's patterns M5927 (the skirt) and M5975 (the bodice). Sadly they are both OOP. Sorry. Shame on you McCall's - these are such great patterns. I vote for reprints!

No changes were made to the bodice apart from omitting the zippe, but I did take in and tapered the skirt part quite a bit. The M5927 pattern is designed for woven fabrics, so in order to get a more fitted dress I had to do these simple alterations.

The skirt part is somewhat similar to the very popular 'Lora Dress/Robe Lora' designed by La Maison Victor - but they are not identical. Having tried them both I can say that the McCall's pattern is my favorite. I find that the pleats work better on this one - at least for me.

My favorite design feature. The pockets. Perfect deep pockets.

I really love how this turned out. (So much that I already made another - and no scuba animals were harmed during the construction of that one.)