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Sunday, June 18, 2017

A Fun Dress: McCall's 7562

After seeing how wonderful McCall's 7562 turned out on Dressmaking Debacles, I decided I would give it a try.  It is not a silhouette I would normally choose for myself.  It is a very loose fitting dress with a split kimono type sleeve which means there is a lot of fabric under the arms by the bust area, an area that I do not want to emphasize.

When I made the muslin, it looked like a hospital gown to me.  It was so huge and long!  I picked a Medium based on my measurements but I eventually took in 4 inches total from the sides which put me into a Small.  I also shortened it by 6 inches!  (I am short but I normally shorten by 3 inches.)  Muslins are usually very unattractive garments so I did not let the hospital gown look dissuade me.  I had purchased this beautiful fabric at NY Elegant in NYC (40th Street between 7th and 8th Avenues).  I love the print and colors.  It is a drapey rayon which I felt would be perfect for this dress.

Despite my misgivings about the silhouette for my figure, I do not regret going outside my comfort zone - something I need to do more often.  It is a very comfortable dress, perfect for those hot humid days.  I do love the split sleeves with ties.  I also love that it has inseam pockets - yay!


I think the shirt tail hem adds another element of fun and interest to this dress.  I hemmed it to knee level at the front:



But the higher shaped sides add a little pizzazz to it:




As recommended by others who have made this pattern, I omitted the center front neckline placket.  I also raised the neckline all around by 1 7/8 inches.  

What do you think of my beautiful necklace?  It was lovingly hand made by my very dear sewing friend, Vivian, who gave it to me as a gift some time ago.   She is one talented lady!  Her eye for what beads go with other beads is unbelievable.  It is the perfect necklace for this dress.  



Here you can see the very loose fitting design of this dress:


The pattern includes a neck binding piece that you attach and slipstitch but I decided to use bias tape. It is the prepackaged single fold bias tape you can find at JoAnn's.  I like the clean finish of it.


On my figure, even though the dress was loose fitting, I found I still needed to do a full bust adjustment to make it hang properly.  The full bust adjustment also reduced some of the extra fabric under the sleeve since I had to add a dart.   You can find instructions on how to make this alteration in the book by Palmer Pletsch, Fit for Real People.  The full bust adjustment always has the effect of lowering the dart too much for me so I must either redraw the dart to point to the correct spot or I must raise the whole dart.  In this case, I redrew the dart since there was no room to raise it any further due to the kimono type sleeve.  Since I butchered the pattern so much, I traced the altered pattern onto fresh paper.  


I love this dress and look forward to wearing it often during the hot humid days of summer!


Happy Sewing!

32 comments:

  1. Wow! What a cute dress, Tomasa! It's a perfect. You should be a model on the envelope.

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    1. Thank you Eli cat! I am happy you like it.

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  2. Yay for switching up style choices! This is really cute on you. The fabric and changes you made are perfect!

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  3. This dress looks wonderful on you and I thought maybe you had lost weight in the bust area, you looked smaller there. Much more flattering than you would think. See what happens when you go outside the box! Your full bust adjustments made the fit just perfect. No drag lines!

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    1. Thanks so much! I wasn't expecting this silhouette to work out as well as it did. Oh how I wish I had lost some weight there...my back would be really happy about it.

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  4. This dress is so lovely !! I love the Fit & the fabric is really in great color tones for you . It's always fun to get a second look at a pattern you ,isn't have missed -thanks

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    1. Thanks so much MaryEllen. It is such a comfortable dress.

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  5. This dress looks lovely on you! Yay for trying something new, and doing a muslin first! Your final garment is very nice.

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    1. Thanks Vanessa! I am glad I gave it a try. I have never regretted doing a muslin!

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  6. Your dress is so pretty on you, beautiful job.

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  7. Ooohhh this is such a cute pattern, thanks for bringing it to my attention! Your version is beautifully executed - I love the clean finish of the bias tape too!

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  8. What a fun dress, totally not your usual style but it looks great!!!

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    1. Thanks so much Kyle. It was fun to try something different.

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  9. Love your pretty comfy summer dress. Thank you for an excellent review. I thought about purchasing this pattern, but thought it might be too blousey around the bust area. thanks again.

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    1. Thank you Cennetta. It was a bit of a gamble for me but I am glad I gave it a try.

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  10. Lovely dress and it looks wonderful on you! I love the fabric colours and the necklace is absolutely perfect.

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    1. Thanks Marianne! Yes, that necklace was waiting for this dress.

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  11. You're right, sometimes it's good to go out of your comfort zone. You did an amazing job with this dress. You look great in it. I love your choice of fabric. And the necklace goes perfectly with it.

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    1. Thanks so much! I fell in love with the fabric as soon as I saw it and just knew it would be perfect for this dress. I love the necklace.

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  12. The necklace is lovely, and just perfect for this fabric. You did a great job persevering; this looks like the perfect summer dress. The sleeve slits are a wonderful focal point too!

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    1. Thank you! I am glad I made a muslin first. Now that it fits nicely, I can make the other versions (whenever I get around to it, that is.) Yes, that necklace is very special to me because it was hand made by a friend - I love it.

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  13. I love your dress! The necklace from your friend is beautiful and perfect for this dress. I appreciate the detailed post about changes you made to achieve such a lovely and I particularly like seeing how you did the FBA. Fit for Real People is my go to book for all fitting challenges.

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    1. Thanks so much Linda! Fit for Real People is truly an indispensable book.

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  14. That's a delightful dress and you look great in it! I absolutely love the necklace to!❤❤❤

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    1. Thank you Tany! I love the necklace too! :)

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  15. You certainly picked a great choice of fabric print for this dress. Sometimes we need to go outside of our comfort zone and I think yours has paid off. We've just had a heatwave and I Can't think of anything better to wear than a dress like this!

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    1. Thanks so much! I fell in love with the colors and print of this fabric. I am trying to go outside my comfort zone more often.

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  16. Wonderful done and turnout ... FIESTA ;)

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