July MAGAM Project Done!

Yeah!  I've caught up with my backlog of Make-A-Garment-A-Month projects.  My July project is now all done and I can't wait to wear it.  I've very pleased with how it turned out.  So, let's start from the beginning.

My starting pattern was McCall's 6883 - a Spring/Summer 2014 release.  I opted to sew view C - that's the white view on the front of the pattern envelope.  I used the crazy circle print quilting cotton as the main dress fabric and accented the neck band and lower band on the dress using the turquoise linen.  Both of these fabrics have been in my stash for awhile so I was glad to finally sew them up.

My muslin started out ok.  I traced the pattern pieces using a size 10 for the neck, bust and arms, grading to a size 12 at the waist and hips.  You can see in the picture below, it is a bit tight at the waist.

More evidence of it being too tight at the waist - see this drag line below.

I decided to add 3/8 inch to the side waist starting just under the bust and tapering to the hipline - the area I'm pointing at below.  Also, I pinned on the front band pattern piece and noticed it was too short, so I added 2 inches to the dress length as well.

More pulling lines on the muslin back.  Adding the 3/8 inches to both sides should take care of this.

My next problem came when I needed to cut out the contrasting bands.  My turquoise linen had been in my stash for so long, that it developed fade lines along all of the folds.  They were fairly faint, but still noticeable to me - I've highlighted where the fade lines were in the picture below.  I was able to cut out all of the pieces as is, except the front bottom band pieces which were supposed to be cut on the fold.  Because of the fade lines, there wasn't anywhere that I could squeeze this piece out of on the fold, so I ended up adding a center front seam to the bottom band and then cut them out.

And Voila!  Here's the finished product!

I am lovin' this dress.  It's so much fun!  I happened to have some crazy earrings and a necklace that doubles as a bracelet to accent the fabric.  I ended up taking in the waist on the finished product about 1/4 inch each side for the perfect fit.  And, you can't even notice where I pieced the bottom center front bands.

Here's the back view.  The pattern doesn't call for a full zipper, but I decided to change that.  For the back of the dress, there are two pattern pieces - an upper back and a lower one.  The upper piece starts just below the armhole - you can kinda see it in the picture below. Instead of a full zipper, the pattern says to sew a zipper from the bottom of the upper back piece to the mid derriere area - leaving the upper back piece open and then sew hooks and eyes to the contrasting band on top. This seemed a little odd to me, so I just opted to sew in a full zipper instead.

Close-up of the front.  There are two deep fitting darts in the front and the back that need to be trimmed on the inside to keep them from distorting the fabric.

Ta Dah!  I feel like I should be dancing somewhere!

Until next time - Happy Sewing!

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