McCalls 6395 - Final

Pattern:
McCalls 6395 - A Dress that's semi-fitted through bust and hip with a loose-fitting waist.

Fabric:
Black ponte knit from Fabric Mart
Gray ponte knit from Fabric Mart
Patchwork Faux Leather from Fabric Mart


Notions:
9" black invisible zipper


The Construction Journey:
**I detailed my pattern alterations in this post.
  
**However, I ended up removing the two inches that I added to the lengthen/shorten lines because the skirt was hanging a little too low.


**I decided to omit the lining I was going to add...the ponte knit is firm enough without it.


**I was going to omit the center back zipper but after adding the leather trim to the neckline, I decided I needed to make sure that I could get the dress over my head...so I added the 9" invisible zipper.

**I also added leather pieces to the hip line and the sleeve hems.

A few more shots:

The leather at the neckline

The hand on the hip pose

Final Notes:

This dress is very comfortable to wear and even though it has a little more "Casual Friday-ish" feel to it, it will get worn to work.  Sometimes, I just need a little something different, y'know!  But I have to tell you that I have a serious fabric crush on ponte knit!  Gawd is this some awesome stuff to sew and wear!

I'm also crushing on McCalls 6460 - View B with the raglan sleeves.  Have I told you lately how much I love raglan sleeves?

McCalls 6460

  
So I think this will be up next...I also really want a purple sheath dress...don't know if I will have time to make both next weekend but that's what I'll be working on unless I give in and make a few more skirts, or maybe finish up the UFO jacket from earlier this year...or...you get the drift.  *LOL*


Parting Shot:
The Little Prince and his mother came to visit this afternoon and she took these pictures for this post...(Sharon, I know a tripod)  He's getting so big these days, that I wanted to share a picture of the little man with you:

...as always, more later! 

I sewed in the middle of the week!

I can't remember the last time I did that!  But I actually sewed quite a bit yesterday evening...and I have photographic proof!  Bad photographic proof but proof nonetheless.
  

So tonight I came home and tried on the basted together dress and while I got the width right, the length is a little wonky.  I will be removing the length I added, cause it ain't working.


Anyway, I'm looking forward to the weekend!  I'm looking forward to sewing all weekend long!  It's back...my mojo is back from vacation and I can't wait to take it out for a spin...thank goodness 'cause I was beginning to be worried that it was never coming back...silly I know but sadly true.


I have a list of garments that I want to sew...as an aside, I'm pinching myself because I have a list again!  And I'm off for four days next week for Thanksgiving and all of my children, their spouses and my grandchildren are coming here...so no traveling, extra hands to help cook and clean-up which means I will have a good three days to sew.  I'm sooooo excited! 


As an aside, Elaray asked if this was the first sewing room that I've had.  No, it isn't.  When I was married I lived in a townhouse and we converted the basement into my sewing room and the girls playroom.  I spent many wonderful weekends there, sewing and listening to my daughters play...learning my craft, teaching others to sew and inspiring others to love this gift as much as I do.  So yes, I've had several sewing rooms in different incarnations...I've been sewing since I was 11 and it's been an integral part of my life since then.


Finally I'm slowly but surely getting used to my new room.  I'm working out the kinks but it's time to sew...and I'm planning on doing just that!  So look for the finished version of McCalls 6395 this weekend.


...as always, more later!

McCalls 6395 - Part I

This is another pattern that I've wanted to make since it appeared in the fall catalogue.  However, you know those patterns show up at the middle of summer...usually during a heatwave...so you have to wait until the weather is chillier to even think about making them.  Well it's chilly and I'm seriously thinking fall gear!  So instead of pulling my altered pattern pieces for my SF Inspired Dress out of the folder, I pulled new pattern pieces out of the pattern envelope instead.

McCalls 6395

I think this pattern is skewed to the younger sewist but I saw a dress that I could corporatize by making a few changes:


- I mixed two views ~ using the upper half of view B and the skirt portion of view C.

- I'm adding faux leather accents to the dress.


- I omitted the foldover neckline, because even though the illustrations show it as close fitting, there is no way that it could be since it has a boat neckline.  


- I omitted the exposed zippers.  This is a very cool and trendy effect but I'm already adding faux leather accents to the dress so one trend per dress is enough for me.


- I omitted the facings since I decided to line the dress and I'm binding the neckline with the faux leather.


Pattern Alterations:
- added 2" at the lengthen/shorten line to both the front and back bodice pieces.  The unaltered pieces hit me in a very unflattering place on my body, lengthening them took them down a bit and will give the dress a better line.


- added 2" to the hemline of the skirt pieces ~ both front and back.  As pictured above this skirt is short...to short for my chubby knees so adding length was necessary.


- I did a pivot and slide on the front bodice piece to add some room to my abdomen area.  This amounted to 2" at the bottom of the bodice piece.  So I added 2" to the front skirt piece also. 


- I added 1" to the back seam area of the bodice piece and the same 1" to the back skirt piece.


A pleasant surprise was that I did NOT have to make an alteration to the sleeve biceps.  They were more than wide enough - Yeah McCalls!


I've already started to construct the dress but got interrupted by my Vogue 1250 LBD.  Hopefully, I will finish this up next weekend.


...as always, more later!