Finished McCall's 5927

Update! - Just some better photos. Thanks Josh!

I am pretty pleased with this dress, even if it wasn't finished in time for Christmas! This is McCall's 5927, a sheath dress with a couple different sleeve variations. I made view D.

I like this pattern for a lot of reasons: cute little tucks on the skirt, cap sleeves, pockets! I also chose this pattern after decided I need to be a teensy bit more practical with my sewing. Yes, it would be fun to do a glitzy party dress, but it is also satisfying to have this dress which I can wear throughout the winter for many different occasions. The fabric is a stretch corduroy by Robert Kaufman that I got off of Etsy. It has a super fine wale that is almost imperceptible. Also, it's fun to talk about how many wales your dress has when no one knows what you are are talking about.

Me: "Check it out hubby. My dress has miniature wales. Thousands of them."
Hubby: "....."

Okay, it was fun to me at least. You might give it a try sometime. So yeah! Super little wale corduroy with stretch. It has so many benefits! Easy to work with. Comfortable (stretchy) and natural fibers (cotton). And the feel is almost like velvet. The pattern didn't call for a stretch material, but it worked out fine. I didn't make a muslin (shame shame), but I made it work anyway. I guess I could have gone down a size maybe, because of the stretch. I've heard that works for other people, so maybe I'll try next time.

I think the shed in our yard makes a nice backdrop, don't you?

Side shot - I wish I had take my hands out of the pockets for a few of these. They create wrinkles where otherwise there would be none. Oh well! Modeling is tough.

Obligatory rear view.

Yikes, it's cold! I took off my cowl so you could see the neckline. Then we ran back inside.

Anyway, I made the 14 for up top (I'm a 36" in the bust) and graded out to an 18 at the bottom (I'm 44" in the hips). It was still too large though, probably because of the ease built in. Even though my material stretches, I fit it so that it only barely hugs my figure. I even measured the pattern pieces to narrow in on my size, but I guess that didn't work so well. Next time I will try tissue fitting with the pattern pieces and see if that gives me a more accurate result. Also, I might do a muslin so I can fix this issue:

I believe this is what they call, "le sway back." I don't think it looks as bad as this when I stand straight or sit down, so it doesn't bother me too much. But I will try to correct for it in my next dress. What else... I didn't line this dress because I couldn't find stretch lining material except for some silk through Hart's Fabric online. I was just too impatient to wait for it, and I didn't want to spend more on the lining that on the outer fabric. And in the end, I don't think this needed a lining anyway. A note on the sleeves on this pattern - I'm glad I used a stretch material because they are sewn on at a rather sharp downward angle, and I think a non-stretch would have limited my range of movement. That's no good, because it would have restricted my sweet dance moves on New Years:

Is it the hokey pokey? What's with the paper bag? well, you had to have been there.

Happy 2012 everyone!