Friday, July 15, 2016

McCalls 7348 - A T-Shirt Dress Wearable Muslin

I've been passing women on the streets of NYC wearing easy t-shirt dresses and sneakers.  While it's not exactly Chicos Chic, it is a look that appeals to me because it's casual, comfortable and perfect for my office. So I want not one but a few. I have loads of fabric and just need to perfect a pattern.

So I pulled McCalls 7348 from the overflowing pattern pile and then I pulled a couple of pontes from the overflowing fabric pile ~ notice a pattern here ~ to make a couple versions of t-shirt dresses.

The pattern pieces are simple for this pattern. Just four pattern pieces - a front, a back, a sleeve and a neckband are all that is required to make a variety of dresses. Now I'd read a review where a slimmer sized sewist (say that 3x fast!) made the longest version and had to take ALOT of the excess fabric from the sides. But being the plus size honey that I am, I thought great I can use the extra ease and there will probably be less fitting issues - WRONG!

I started with an extra large and traced the pattern pieces off for the short dress, the high/low dress and the maxi dress. Then I took a piece of ponte fabric that I'd pretreated, which turned out badly, to use for my wearable muslin. This is a simple sew because it's a "Learn to Sew" pattern.


However, there is just toooooo much space in this pattern. Now I need you to realize that the pattern highlights that. It is something I knew going in. I just thought the extra ease would work for and not against me. To make the top shown above, I had to remove sooooooo much extra fabric from the sides (and there is still some there that bothers me) as well as re-angle the front to get the high/low effect.

Personally I think if you have another knit dress pattern like McCalls 6889, you should use that one instead of this one. There is just so much space and for a "Learn to Sew" pattern it could frustrate the h*ll out of a beginner. I hate when that happens to new sewists because they think it's them and not the pattern.

I am going to wear it as a tunic and not the dress I was hoping for so I didn't put a lot of sewing effort into it. There's no band at the neckline. It's turned under, pressed and topstitched with a double needle. There is also the high low effect where the high is too high for my chubby knees so it will only be worn with some kind of leggings. 

A few more pics of this one ~




Conclusion ~
At first I was going to let the pattern go and just wear the tunic I managed to sew from the pattern. I mean I don't have a lot of casual clothing and since I can actually wear it to work, it's a great I don't feel like getting dressed today outfit. Also, surprisingly my daughter really liked this outfit.

So I decided that since I'd already traced all of those dayum pieces, I wasn't going to let a simple pattern beat me. I made some changes to the knee-length dress pattern pieces to get a workable pattern. Future makes from the altered pattern are up next on the blog.

...as always more later!



25 comments:

  1. I have that same fabric! I bought a yard of it intending to make a Colette Mabel skirt without realizing the stretch ran perpendicular to the stripes. And now I have no idea what to do with it. :P

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  2. um I LOVE THAT. so cool with the leggings! i think it was a happy accident that the pattern has too much ease--you worked it into an even better ensemble, methinks.

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  3. Love what you ended up with. I think that pattern needs to be made with a tissue thin fabric to work the drape. The ponte had just too much structure.

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    Replies
    1. That's what I was thinking too.

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    2. You are both probably right...however, the pattern envelope back states that you can use medium to heavy weight knit fabrics citing cotton jersey, interlock and novelty knits. I've successfully substituted pontes with cotton jerseys in the past.

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  4. I'm in the same camp as your daughter - it's a cute tunic. Karen

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  5. I'm convinced those Learn to Sew patterns are the devil in disguise. It always seem like they are the ones that need a bunch of extra work to work!

    Cute tunic and it's perfect with the leggings!

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  6. I am glad you persevered as this is very cute! I would totally wear this! I wish some of the learn to sew patterns had more information on fitting and such AND wouldn't be obnoxiously loose-fitting. I hope you will wear the heck out of this Carolyn!

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  7. Looks great on you as a tunic! Well worth the effort to solve all the pattern problems and now you have a pattern well worth repeating.

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  8. I am one of those newbie sewists, so thank you for comment. Love this look you, it's fresh and fun.

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  9. I'm liking this on you Carolyn. I too see a lot of these "easy" sew patterns with excessive ease in the pattern confusing beginners trying to learn to fit patterns.

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  10. Your daughter is right - it does look good on you.

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  11. I'd definitely keep it--it's a great casual look for leggings or jeggings. You look good in it--however, from my own experience, ponte has no flow and does not work well with less structured styles. Being well endowed in the three 'b' areas (boobs, belly and booty--styles like that only work for me when I use something lightweight like challis or ity/cotton knit.

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  12. I really like that outfit. You look great! I would wear it with leggings too. :) Good tip on the "ease". I swear, are they getting paid by the fabric people to put 10 inches of 'ease' into every seam??? Seriously. That's what causes people to say, I can't sew, I followed all the directions and got a tent. :P

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  13. the pattern looked really promising, but I see what you mean. I still think it looks cute on you!

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  14. The pattern envelope shows a really cute tshirt dress, too bad its not a good pattern. Cant wait to see your dresses with the alterations.

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  15. I have had the worst experiences with the learn to sew patterns. But the end result does look fun!

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  16. Just want to say up front - I'm not a huge fan of the high-low hemlines, but I really like that outfit on you. Sorry it didn't turn out the way you had in mind, but still a really great outfit. Might have to give that one a go myself!

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  17. Hi Carolyn, I really like this outfit on you. I looks great! Regarding the pattern, the picture of the dress looks like it fits around the bust and shoulders and flairs out over the hips are you saying it isn't fitted around the bust at all it is more sack like?

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    1. Julie - the shoulder and the bustline fit great...though after looking at these pictures I'm going to shave just a little off of them. It's sack like from the waist down.

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  18. I love this and your banded dresses as well. Your style and fit are remarkable. Thank you for your blog posts.

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  19. I love the tunic and leggings which pattern did you use?

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    Replies
    1. Grandma Bernadette - the tunic is from the McCalls pattern and the leggings are RTW.

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  20. That fabric tho! Not sure why this pattern didn't originally appeal to me but it's beginning to grow on me. Great review of this pattern. Very helpful!

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