Dresses

McCall’s 8553

Today I’m sharing a recent make that I’m super excited about. It’s rare that I make up a pattern so fast but zip front dresses are so on trend right now and I’d actually saved several inspiration images on Pinterest.

The pattern is of course M8553. It’s a boxy shirtdress silhouette with zipper front extending into a pointed collar, there are puffed sleeves and a gathered skirt. It’s been an insanely popular pattern so far and isn’t even fully available yet! The design in the early access shopping area of sewdirect.com for VIPs to shop; This is where a small number of early copies of the new designs are flown in for VIPs to shop before the main shipping container arrives with all UK and Europe copies.

I unfortunately had to tweak the skirt to fit on my fabric; it should be a three panelled skirt front with offset in-seam pockets. I had to merge the pieces and cut a single front panel. I cut the size 12 in the upper bodice and graded out to the size 16 at the waist but found that was TOO boxy so took about 6cm back out. Other adjustments were to shorten the bodice length by 3cm and widen the sleeve cuffs to the size 16. And leave off the chest pockets.

My gorgeous fabric was a SUPER heavyweight sateen/drill weave remnant from Abakhan Preston. It was really too heavyweight for this dress but I made it work. Please use something less thick for yours. A regular sateen or a nice medium weight denim would be ideal. I used a lighter linen for my toile and that looked fab, so I might create a second version later in the year.

My zipper was a 30cm colourful set from eBay and I picked the blue base with coral zipper as a pop of contrast colour and matched the topstitching to the coral colour (it’s subtle in photos but pops in person). 30cm was the perfect length after I’d shortened my bodice and I did a slightly bigger waist seam allowance, but 35cm would be best for most people. The instructions tell you to get a 40cm and shorten it to the precise length you need.

The colour and print on this fabric stole my heart as it reminds me of cyanotypes and is the happiest shade of blue. Sadly as a remnant it did have a couple of stains on it but I just cut around those parts and some of the blue had run a little… Our little secret.

 

(1) Comment

  1. Carol Thomas says:

    The fabric is a beautiful colour, and print. The pop of coral in the zip and cotton stitching adds a little zing to the overall effect. Great!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.