McCalls 6953: Knit and Voile maxi dress

 

I've been a bit obsessed with mixed fabric dresses lately, I love a knit bodice and a woven skirt, seems the best of both worlds!

Pattern detailsn (same as last time I made this dress);

• sz20 with d cup
• 1" fba
• 1" wedge from back neck alongside of the zipper
• 2" petite bodice
• 1" wedge out of bustline length
• lowered neckline
• added waistband
• added pockets from Simplicity 2588

There were a couple added adjustments since the bodice is a knit;

• Took in the sides by a total of 4"
• Took out length in the bodice of about 2"
• Cut the back on the fold
• Gathered the skirt instead of pleating it so I could make the dress a pull-on.
• Bound the neckline instead of lining the dress.
• Added a 4" facing to the hem to help weigh it down

I do need to take some length out of the upper chest as its buckling slightly. It looks like the princess seams are ripply too but in real life they sit flat.

Fabric:
Cotton spandex knit for the bodice from Spotlight and a cotton voile for the skirt that was left over from my Cambie dress

I'm happy with how it turned out and I'll be making more mixed fabric dresses soon!

Sewaholic 1202: Cambie Dress

I'm kind of late on the cambie bandwagon, but I finally downloaded it and made it up!

Fabric is from the clearance table at spotlight, its a cotton voile. Lining is a cotton poplin.

Adjustments:

• I started with a sz 16 and changed the front to a princess seam using the bodice from Colette 1020 (which already had a FBA of 1")
• Added a side panel that was shirred (I did this by taking an inch off the side seams on the front and back bodice then made up a shirred panel that measured 2"+seam allowances when it was done), the skirt has enough gathers that I didn't worry about adding any width to it, I just gathered it a bit less.
• Took a wedge out of the back neckline of about 1" tapering down to nothing at the waistline.
• Added 1/2" to the shoulder height.
• Petited the bodice by 1" and took an extra 1/2" out as a swayback adjustment.

I've got some rippling at the princess seams, every time I sew with voile I get this, I think its a combination of the thin fabric and being pulled tight by the shirring. Next time I sew with voile I'll try underlining it and see if that helps.

I'm happy with this, it needs a couple of small tweaks before I sew it again - There is still too much length in the back bodice and it needs more length at the front bodice. I want to add a little more ease to the bodice, probably an inch to the side shirred panel. It's the first time I've used a side shirring panel and it worked pretty good, it changes the construction steps a bit and makes it harder to fit as I sew but means its a dress I'll wear a lot more.