McCall's M6503 - My new love

Foreword: I haven't been around for a while again, you may or may not have noticed. Unfortunately I became ill at the beginning of September, was misdiagnosed several times thanks to my high pain threshold and non-typical symptoms. Anyway I ended up in hospital for a week with what eventually turned out to be a ruptured appendix which had leaked a litre of fluid into my abdomen and caused havoc. Turns out that I was in a life threatening situation, mainly because due to my misdiagnosis' I'd been walking around with the ruptured appendix for 2 weeks AND had been on holiday with it, which mystified my consultant! One emergency operation later, a whole load of antibiotics and then further complications, here I am. I've been signed off for 6 weeks and I can't drive for 6 weeks which means I've had to admit defeat and miss my final year of university because I was told I can't miss 6 weeks and still pass, and my course isn't the type I could study from home. The one positive in this is that I asked for a whole load of sewing stuff for my birthday in September and I now have plenty of time on my hands to sew now I feel more like a human being!

Onto the main post....

I bought some lovely navy blue polka dot crepe de chine fabric from FabricLand (£3.33 a metre) and McCall's M6503 a while back with the intention of sewing it just before I went back to university. Unfortunately I ended up in hospital so that didn't happen but this week I finally felt up to sewing again and so have kept myself free from boredom by working on this.

Originally I had planned to make view D with the ruffle but having googled other people's versions I decided that the ruffle was too flouncy for me and so I decided to make a sleeveless version of view C (the blue one).  The construction was relatively easy, the front facings, collar and midriff were quite fiddly but I got there in the end. I decided to use my trusty pinking shears to stop the fabric from fraying and I quite like the way it looks. I did make a couple of amendments to the pattern, the pattern advises that the side zip is inserted about an inch below the armhole, so there's meant to be an inch of stitching, then the zip. If anyone's like me then they find garments with those sort of zips really awkward to get in and out of, so I inserted the zip right at the bottom of the armhole to make it easier for me to get it on and off. For that reason I then decided not to put buttons on the front of the dress as I didn't need them and I preferred the way the dress looked without them. Instead I just slip stitched the front facings of the dress together, which also helped with the gaping caused by my small bust vs McCall's insistence on gathering on the bodice rather than darts. The size 12 in this pattern fits me like a glove and so no size adjustments were needed!

This dress has to be a favourite out of all of the dress I've made, if not the favourite. I love navy blue. I love polka dots. I love the way this fabric feels and hangs. I love the fit. I love the style. This dress just fits so easily into my wardrobe and is a style that I will wear all the time. Not only that but it will fit beautifully into both my summer and winter wardrobes as it's great for layering with tights and a cardigan, but also for wearing alone with sunglasses and flip-flops in the summer!

Styling for Autumn/Winter 2012/13