McCall's 6069 - Easter dress for me!

It's been years since I had a new dress for Easter. I hadn't really planned on making a new dress for this weekend, but after the ball gown, I needed both a softball project and something that would count towards my summer wardrobe for the bazillion events I'll have to attend in conjunction with Jim's summer coordinator position. I really liked this McCall's dress that was recently released and scooped it up during the last pattern sale at Joann's. I'm a sucker for a cowl neck and any garment with an interesting back.

The fabric - a poly jersey - was purchased at Michael Levine Loft this winter. I liked the bright colors that are tempered a bit with the black and the floral design. The best part - I think the 3.5 yard piece was like $5. I originally had flagged this fabric for a wrap dress, but after seeing this pattern, it looked so much like the fabrics used in the cover drawings, I decided to change my plans a bit. I only needed about a 1.5 yards for this dress though, so maybe I can still eek out a wrap dress afterall.

I pretty much cut this out per the pattern with just a couple of changes. I cut a 6 for the bodice, but added a hip curve to the skirt pieces - the waist was cut at a 6 and extended to a 14 at the hips. I used the hip curve from M3830 as a template and it worked well.

I added the back strap, omitted the pockets for a smoother fit over the hips and thighs and added 2 inches of length to the skirt. Lastly, I folded to the bodice seam allowance down to form the casing for the waistband - the pattern instructions have you fold it up, but I needed the extra bit of length in the bodice.

This was a really simple dress to put together, which was exactly what I was hoping for after my last project. I cut it out on Friday night and sewed it up on Saturday with no snafus to speak of! Woohoo! The only tricky part was the narrow hem around the arm syce. Fluid poly jersey doesn't really like to do narrow hems, but with enough pins, it worked out.

One thing that is not terribly obvious from the pattern is that the back has MUCH more drape than the front. It looks pretty, but at first I thought I had cut something wrong. If you look really closely at the line drawing, you can see a few extra lines drawn in the back, but I didn't notice it until after sewing it all up.

{Close up on the front}


{Close up one the back}

I wore this dress today for Easter lunch with the big 'ol extended family and it was a hit. I was comfy and felt cute and got several compliments from the aunts and cousins. I think this is a great day to night dress as it's very work appropriate topped with a black cardigan, but when it's removed, the back makes it much more of an evening dress. I think this will be great for dinners and events this summer.

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For those of you that aren't into the sewing stuff, here are a couple of pics of the homemade pie I baked for Jim's birthday this weekend. It was so freaking good! There is no way we can finish it before it goes bad, so my CWs are getting a fun treat tomorrow at lunch. :)