Black Floral Shirtdress

Hello. I've had a lovely week dedicated to sewing whilst I have been enjoying the school holidays. This week I have been working on extending my sewing skills with this beautiful floral shirt dress.

The fabric comes from my recent trip to Walthamstow, where I picked up 2.5m of this floral black polycotton. The fabric is lovely and soft with a good drape. Perfect for a summer dress.

The pattern is the infamous Mccall's 6696. I have wanted to add a shirtdress to my wardrobe for a while and deliberated over what pattern to go for, firstly comparing shirtdresses and then finally settling on the M6696. The pattern has so many variations, with different sleeve and skirt options it is a really flexible pattern. I chose view A, with a full skirt and no sleeves.

The instructions were straightforward and easy to follow. It was surprisingly quick and easy to sew up and will be even more so on subsequent makes. I did makes some changes to the pattern and construction:

1. The main change I have made is to gather the skirt instead of the pleating. I find that pleated styles tend to sit on my hips weirdly, whereas gathered skirts are more flattering. I use the directions for the Clemence skirt from Love at First Stitch by Tilly Walnes. 
2. When constructing the yoke facing, I used the burrito method. I hate hand sewing and will do anything possible to avoid it. I have unknowingly used the burrito method before when making my Husband a shirt, so I followed the instructions from Simplicity 1544. There is also a good online Yoke Facing Tutorial in the Alder Sew Along by Grainline. 
3. I did a lot more topstitching than recommended by the pattern in order to avoid slip stitching. For the waistband facing I 'stitched in the ditch' ala Tilly and the Button's recommendation from Love at First Stitch instead of slipstitching and I also topstitched both the plackets and the collar stand to secure the facings. 

The majority of the dress construction went well, probably due to the fact that I am able to take my time. However, when I was almost finished .... disaster struck.

I had faithfully followed the instructions for adding the collar but when I pinned in the collar stand facing ... well, the collar was all wrong. I had managed to sew the collar off centre, which can clearly be seen in the picture above. After showing my Husband and Mother-in-law I left it overnight but ultimately decided to resew the collar stand.

I had to unpick and also cut a new collar stand, but it was worth it. I followed this Tutorial by Four Square Walls, which gives a different construction of the collar which I am more familiar with. I'm far happier with the centring and overall construction of the collar.

I cut a straight size 10, according to my waist size which fits really well. I usually have a problem with my small shoulders but this fits fine.  I also like the length of the dress - usually I add some inches in the length so that it hits me at my knees but this was perfect without any adjustments. The only thing that I would change is to reduce the blousing at the back, which has also been noted by other bloggers.

One of the things I like about this dress is the fact that it is so neat inside. This was the first time that I have used bias binding to finish the armholes.  I'm not sure that I have perfected this technique but I have certainly improved. I used black satin bias binding that I got on my trip to Walthamstow, however, I'm not convinced that this was actually cut on the bias because there was not much flexibility around curved seams. In the future, I am tempted to make my own.

I'm very, very pleased with this dress. I might even go so far to say it is the best thing I have ever made. I am very proud of the construction, having practised my shirt making skills and learnt a new technique in binding armholes. I am wearing it for a trip to London this afternoon to see Riverdance, followed by a meal at Hawksmoore, hopefully it will prove to be comfortable!

What are you up to this afternoon?