DIY Summer Dress using McCalls 7774 & 7627

“In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.”Matthew 5:16 (amp)

Happy Monday Everyone!

I pray that this week has greeted you with excitement and anticipation for a great productive week ahead! That was my prayer this morning. I’ve been busy lately and started to feel a little run down but I decided to give myself a very lazy Sunday in order to prepare for this week. Sometimes you have to give yourself permission to do that.

This weeks post is a DIY Dress that I have been slowly bringing together over the course of the last 2 weeks. I knew what I wanted initially but as I was putting the pieces together I found myself taking a more organic design process. Making changes to the design as I went along.

Inspiration

This dress was inspired by a lot of the very feminine and soft dresses that i’ve been seeing on the runway. Spring/Summer 18 designers featured them and the trend is extending into fall 18 as well. I knew I wanted something soft and feminine but also practical. Something that I would actually wear.

Fabric

This is an Ankara print that I purchased from House of Mami Wata . She has an etsy shop and I am really enjoying her print selection. She also has very prompt delivery. I got my fabric in 2 days. I chose this fabric because at first glance it just looks like a regular cotton floral print but it has a textured black background that lets you know that its a wax print. Which I love. Here is an upclose picture of it.

What I did

I used McCalls 7774 view C for the skirt. While I liked the gathered waistline as well as the pockets I didn’t like that the bottom was just an attachment to add length. I wanted more of a flounce or ruffled bottom. So I slash and spread the bottom pattern piece adding about 10-12 additional inches to the pattern piece which added an additional 20-24 inches of fullness to the hemline. It gave the dress a more dramatic flare.
For the bodice I used McCalls 7627. I have been playing with wrap dresses and tops all summer and wanted to play with a faux wrap bodice for this dress. It gave me an attractive neckline and because I made this pattern already for the Sunday Wrap Dress I knew that the bodice would fit. The only thing I did was add 2 inches to the wrap front so that it would extend completely to the side seam. This made the dress more comfortable to wear and gave me complete coverage in the bust area.
The other change that I made was to shorten the dropped shoulder to end at my shoulder line so that I could add a sleeve.
For the sleeve this is a self drafted flounce sleeve. Which is basically a circle skirt on my arm so to speak. I just measured the circumference of the bodice armscye and followed the instructions for finding the circumference of a circle skirt.
I didn’t follow any of the instructions for this pattern and I tried a few new finishing techniques which I was very happy with the results of. I installed my very first lapped zipper which I am really enjoying and plan on doing again. I used black single fold bias tape to finish the hem of the dress instead of a double fold hem and for the sleeve I used my serger on the narrow napkin fold hem setting to give it a clean finish.

Style it

This dress has it going on all by itself. (lol!) The print is so bold and the flounce hem and sleeve only add to the character of the dress that I decided to keep the accessories to a minimum. It needed a belt to break up the print and I found this burgundy colored belt with a gold buckle at Target for $15. and the shoes were a recent purchase from the DSW clearance rack for $30. They are Madden Girl. I chose them because it gives the dress a modern edge and me the height that I need to balance out the fullness of the dress.

This weeks photo shoot was fun. I have to thank my long time sewing student Yvett for being this weeks photographer. This is her last year of high school and then she’s off to fashion design school. I love her drive and focus. A great young person! who does some cool stuff with an iphone camera!