Squash-coloured Floral Dress: McCall’s M7431
When I saw this pretty viscose poplin fabric on Blackbird Fabrics, I fell in love. (I think it's out of stock now...) At the time they had it in yellow, pink, white, and black and I ordered yellow and black. The yellow is deep and rich, so beautiful! It's darker than mustard, I think it's more like a squash or pumpkin (what's the difference between these two?) colour.
Blackbird Fabrics is a Canadian company based in Vancouver which is a big yay for sewists who live in Canada including me. We need more online fabric stores in Canada!
I was so excited to get these fabric because they're different styles of print from what I usually sew. I don't think I've ever made anything with viscose/rayon/challis sort of fabric before either. So I wasn't sure how difficult it would be to sew lighter drapey fabric (which turned out to be pretty smooth, I didn't find it difficult to sew these fabric.)
I decided to use M7431 from McCall's Patterns with this fabric. The shape of this pattern is similar to M7242, and just like M7242 it's Laura Ashley design!
I chose view D for bodice and view B for sleeves.
Alterrations and adjustments I made:
Slashed and opened the skirt by 8 cm each, front and back
Added 2cm to the skirt length
Made the neck opening more shallow by 5-6cm, also made the V-shape at the centre of the neck smaller (be mindful that this pattern is a pull-over, so make this adjustment to fit your head)
Added a side pocket
Added sleeve cuffs and buttons instead of elastic
Minor fit adjustments like shortening sleeve lengths
I love how this turned out! I think the pattern suits the fabric very well.
Here are some details...
I don't mind the sleeves that have elastics cuffs like my M7242, but that's definitely more of a casual style. I wanted an elegant look with this fabric because it has such a beautiful drape. So I went with bishop sleeves with cuffs, and I loooove them! (Though I should probably shorten the sleeve length a bit more next time.)
I was originally planning to try flared sleeves like view A, but I couldn't really pull it off. I'd give flared sleeves another try someday but with this dress I'm glad I made bishop sleeves.
It's really light weight but it's tightly woven (is this a correct term?), so it's not transparent (but I'd still wear a slip or a half slip.)
My local fabric store doesn't carry much apparel fabric in woven, so thank you for this pretty, good quality fabric, Blackbird Fabrics!
Mar 13, 2017
