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Me Made Wednesday and Shirtdress progress

I like the StyleArc Elle pants.  They are quick and easy to sew up and as far as I can tell they don't look that bad on  me.  Since Mimi can't model pants I had to take the plunge and post a picture of me wearing my latest Elle pants:



Hubby is a little new to this photo thing... all the other photos he took didn't turn out so well.  The fabric is a black and white bengaline that I found at fabric.com.  It's a good weight for the in between seasons but might be just a little too heavy for the hot summer months.  This was a good pair to take to my conference last week as the meeting rooms were so cold.  I ended up wearing them twice, the second time I wore it with a long white shirt and a red camisole. It's a good travel piece!

I have been working on the McCalls Shirtdress Sew Along.  I knew I had to make a muslin but for me muslins are such a waste of time.  So I dug out some plaid fabric from my stash.  Of course the plaid made the work of putting together a "muslin" more complicated because I wanted to match the plaid, I wanted to cut the placket on the bias for added interest, etc.  So basically this was a "test dress" and not a muslin.  I was a little concerned about the fit as I used the 'Ditch the Muslin' concept that Ann St. Clair taught in a class that I took from her.  Basically you take your measurements and adjust your flat pattern based on those measurements.  So my pattern was basically a size 12 with a size 10 for the neck and armholes.  After I cut out my pieces I pinned them onto Mimi and realized it was a tight fit on her... but I marched on!

After I looked at the instructions for the placket I realized that I didn't like it:


As you can see you top stitch clear around the right hand side placket, but notice it is not attached to the front bodice.  Instead you sew 2 lines across the placket to attach it the bodice:


This essentially leaves the lower end of the placket free from the bodice which I really don't care for. So instead, I didn't top stitch around the lower end of the placket.  I went ahead and made the pleat on the bodice front, then I pinned the lower part of the placket to the bodice.  I then finished the top stitching of the bottom part of the placket, which basically attached it to the front bodice.  See the placket is now attached!!



Cutting the placket on the bias really added some interest to the front of the dress.


And here is a closer view of the collar band.  This was a little tricky and required quite a bit of pinning to get correct.  There is room for improvement.


This did fit a little tight on Mimi, but I realized that Mimi is just a little larger than needed. Once I put it on I realized it was a really good fit!  Hubby is still working on taking pics... I had to adjust the brightness a little as it was getting dark when we took the picture so the color of the dress is a little off.  At least you can see that the fit is pretty good (and the plaids match on the side seams!!)

The length of the hem on the side is a little shorter than I like.  I believe the next time around I will just make either View B ( rounded hem on the sides) or View C (regular hem line).  Since I like the fit  I probably will not make any other adjustments.  I am glad that I made this practice dress instead of a muslin.  I may not end up wearing to work but it will make a nice casual dress or a swimsuit cover up.

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