Middle East Florals | McCalls 7566

Hello lovelies!! This is a VERY late post, as it is a blog about the dress I made (and wore) for Easter. I'm going to make this quick.

This is McCall's 7566 view C. I cut a size 12 but a 14 through the bust area. I was hoping that that cheat would suffice and I wouldn't have to do an FBA but I was WRONG lol. It would have worked for the knit view but not for this woven view.  I'll get to that more in a second.

The fabric was a gift from my cousin, TJ, who is living over in Kuwait right now. It was one of many in a huge bag he brought home and honestly, when I first saw it, I didn't like it all. I figured, that I would use it to muslin something in the future. But thennnn, as my family was deciding what colors to wear for Easter, it was one of the only pieces in my stash that stood out to match and the flowers made it seasonally appropriate. It grew on me.

The lining is one from a lining mystery bag that I got from Fabric Mart

After washing both fabrics, I sprayed them with Fabric Stabilizer and hung them to dry. It didn't quite make them feel like cotton the way everyone brags about, but I think it would have been a disaster if I DIDN'T use it.

Changes I made:

• French seamed the entire dress as well as the armholes. I didn't want to serge the seams because they would be completely visible so I went ahead and did the extra work. I also didn't want to have to hand sew the armholes closed so I figured out how to french seam those as well. It was QUITE fiddly so I can see why they left that out of the instructions but it was definitely worth it to me.

• I made a clean finish for the lining at the zipper.  In the instructions, they have you do ALLL of this work to have a lining and french seams and what not but then they have you throw a zipper on top of it all. If I'm going to put a lining in a dress, I need the insides to look extremely CLEAN. I finaggled a way to make at least the bodice to have a clean finish but i realized I sewed the skirt lining in the wrong way (inside out) and there was no way to cover the zipper at that part. Especially since I had fused interfacing on the zipper seam allowance

• I originally had an invisible zipper sewn in (the same color as the purple flowers too!) but as I was putting the last finishes on the dress, I tried it on, and the zipper RIPPED OPEN right at the waist seam!! I couldn't believe it! I know that i had been eating alot but I've never broken a zipper! lol I ripped it out and installed a center METAL zipper for some security.... I also started working out 

• Lastly, the bodice wasn't laying flat against my chest and was gaping because I didn't do a proper FBA. To remedy that, I put a few hand stitches in to close up the V join a little higher and that worked a little bit. (you can see the lining peaking out from the gaping below)

Overall, I enjoyed making this dress. It was nice to take my time and do more advanced techniques and not rush through to finish up fast. I definitely plan on making this again. I thing all of the views are pretty.

What do you think?

xoxo,

Tasha