McCalls M5388 top/dress

This week I had time to create a long top/dress that I've had in mind for quite a while now. I bought flowered fabric at a thrift store about a year ago. The orange fabric was in my stash of vintage fabrics I inherited from my grandma. I had matched the two in my head, knowing they would work well together.

I remember when I first started seriously sewing in high school I had a project or two that didn't turn out quite as I liked because I made the wrong fabric choice. I used to be really into calico prints but those just don't work for every style. I don't really have good advice on choosing fabric except to say you must love the fabric and the style of the garment must be flattering for your body type.

For this dress I used McCalls M5388, view D. I made view D once before and used the same size adjustments to the front yoke. I also lengthened the pattern, using a contrasting hem, widened the sleeves a little and did not use elastic for the sleeve hem.

This time the biggest change I made was adding a back yoke and back facing. To make the yoke, I traced the top of the back pattern, and drew a line from the fold to the side seam where I wanted the yoke to end. I then added a seam allowance to that new seam line on both the yoke pattern and the back pattern pieces. Below is a scan of the new back yoke.
I cut two from the back yoke piece and used one as a facing. I basically sewed the entire shirt except for the hems, stitched the back and front facings together at the shoulders and then stitched the facing to the neck of the shirt. I clipped the curves, turned, pressed, understitched and sewed the free edges of the facing in by hand. I really do love the back yoke. It's not hard to do at all and makes the whole design more cohesive when using contrasting fabrics.