McCalls M

I finished up this dress recently and took it out for a test drive on Friday. The pattern is McCall's M5316, a Laura Ashley design. I made view A with a few modifications.

To accommodate the border print fabric I made a straight skirt using two pieces of fabric with the seams placed at the center front and back. I also raised the neckline and used 6 buttons instead of 4. The pattern calls for using elastic to hold the buttons but I used fabric instead. I also did one of my standard alterations to below bust seams and increased the length of the bodice.

My only gripe about the pattern is that it was difficult to make the casings at the waist just using the seam allowances. If I were to make it again, I would add to the seam allowances at the waist to at least 3/4 inch. And when doing the decorative gathers at the shoulder, I would be more careful to tack down the threads because they are starting to become loose.

After the trial run, I added lingerie straps to the shoulders and decreased the length of elastic at the waist. It's a pretty roomy and I probably could have made a size smaller. Lingerie straps are very easy to do and very handy for keeping bra straps hidden. Here, I used a loop of seam binding (a scrap of fabric or bias tape works equally well) and clear sew-on snaps. I attached the pointy side of the snap to the loop so that it will point away from the shoulder when worn.