Another great McCalls shirtdress

I so enjoyed sewing McCalls 6885 that when McCalls patterns were on sale recently, I hopped over to my local store and picked up a couple more. I bought 6696 even though it's a fussy pattern (inset waist band, back gathers) partly because I love the look of the eyelet version with the bicycle and partly because I think the slip pattern could be useful. But I bought 7351 for the slim lines of view A and decided to make it first.

Then I went stash diving and found a beautiful cotton print I no longer remember acquiring. I am pretty sure that I got it while traveling somewhere in western Canada, maybe Victoria. It's an indigo batik-like print that has a strong vertical direction but it was printed sideways on the yardage, only 115cm wide. And I only had 2.0m when the pattern called for 2.9m for view A.

Skimpy fabric

But The Sewing Lawyer scoffs at the Big 4's generous yardage requirements and could see that lots of the 0.9m she did not have would be taken up by the bias strips to finish the arm openings, the back yoke lining and the pockets.

Hidden bits

So taking due care (measure twice cut once) I verified that the length of the front bodice and skirt *just* fit on the cross grain, which meant they could be cut in the same position vis-à-vis the pattern repeats. I was able to get all the other main pieces on there too, although I had to cut the back yoke and one of the collar stand pieces with the pattern going across instead of up and down. I got both front bands on the last skinny scraps - they just fit. Sadly, there are no pockets but I had already resigned myself to that impossibility. The hidden bits were cut out of scraps left over from a white shirt.

It was an enjoyable sewing experience. Substantial cotton is so well behaved! For some reason the buttonholes had to wait but I charged up the beast and made them today. That machine does buttonholes like a champ! There are 8 because stash had only 8 of the perfect buttons.

I love this dress!

See the sideways yoke? Or not...

You can tell I spent a lot of time matching the pattern, right? OK maybe not, but it makes me happy.