I finally made McCall's 6886

A few months ago I was invited to attend the wedding of a friend of mine and I knew I wanted to make a new dress for it. I already had 3 weddings to attend that I was wearing handmade garments to, so why not this one too?! I knew I wasn't going to have time to do a lot of fitting or work with a pattern with tons of style lines and features so I decided I was going to go with a VERY simple pattern and use a standout fabric.

Enter McCall's 6886. It's not even a shock, almost everyone in sewing blogland has made and loved this pattern. It is the perfect simple knit dress with multiple variations and endless opportunities for customization.... and customize I did. I'll get into that in a second. I cut a size 12 (which is my normal McCall's size), 3/4 sleeves, low neckline, and the midi length. I ended up cutting about 4 inches off of that right before hemming.

The fabric was purchased at Fine Fabrics in Atlanta in March 2016 on shopping field trip with LeJanaro. It's a textured ponte knit. I don't know what kind of ponte because the bolts aren't labeled with that much detailed. It is sooo pretty in person, with gold splatters all through it and it's spongey texture. It looks like a painting all on it's own. The wrong side is white and just barely fleece-y so it gives some thickness and a little bit of warmth to this fabric.... which was perfect because the wedding was on a REALLY cold day in December. I'm even wearing stockings! lol

For fit mods, I did my normal 1" swayback adjustment I normally do for McCall's patterns but I used THIS tutorial (1st option) so that I didn't have to cut a center back seam. I'm not sure if the adjustment just didn't work or if the fabric had something to do with it, but it doesn't look like I did ANYTHING lool.

I also did a quarter inch FBA using instructions from the "Fit for Real People" book. I figured I should just bite the bullet and stop trying to act like I don't wear a D cup. It worked well and I don't have that bunch of fabric I would normally have around the armhole that wants to be a dart.

For the 2 "bust-framing" (idk what to call them lool) straps, I was inspired by a shirt I had recently bought at Ross with the same design. First I lowered the neckline almost 2 inches. Then I cut two LONG 1.5" strips, serged each one right sides together and turned the tubes. I lined up the stripes where they matched on the dress and pinned.I sewed them right sides together on the dress (center front and each shoulder seam) with a very small stitch length. I hemmed the entire dress (sleeves, neckline and bottom hem) 1/2" with 1/2" LiteSteam-a-Seam2. I didn't do any actual stitching on any of the hems. I don't know if they will last but the package says "permanent bonding" so I hope it's right. We'll see when I get it out of the wash.

I love the way the stripes match so well even though they are pretty abstract up close. This dress stands out so much I just adore it!

Have made any unique customizations to your M6886's?! Let me know in the comments!

xoxo,

Tasha