McCall's 6319 Dress

While I had my serger threaded up with black (it takes no time at all to rethread so I don't know why I do this, as good a way as any of deciding what to make next I suppose!) I thought I would tackle the border print jersey that was still hanging around from my last fabric shopping trip.  I love wearing simple knit dresses in the super hot weather we have right now, when I met up with Maria we were both wearing essentially long t shirts with elastic at the waist.  Simple easy sewing and brainless dressing, can't beat it.

I used McCalls 6319, a basic dress with a bit of asymmetry that I have made before here.  That version, whilst a gorgeous colour was not good quality fabric, it became flimsy, pilled like crazy and has had to go.  I made view A again (and again without the shoulder zipper) except I had to change the skirt portion from a bias pleated piece to a straight rectangle to accommodate my border print.

I did try to get clever here and originally cut the front skirt wider, added in some pleats and stitched it all up.  After a day of wearing it I realised it just wasn't going to work, unpicked it (no fun!) and removed all the excess fabric.  The proportion of my extra pleats was just wrong and the weight of them pulled the hem down on one side.  Also the skirt was a bit long so I shortened it from the top to keep the border intact.  All that would be much more interesting if I had some befores and afters to show you, but I don't, sorry!  Anyway here's the after, I'm glad to have this in my summer wardrobe, hopefully this one has a longer lifespan than its predecessor!

I wore it out to a casual dinner last Friday and found a couple of black and white backdrops on the way.

Next up, another black and white dress that I have just finished and then I am diving into my pile of activewear fabrics.