McCalls 7094 is a shirt/blouse pattern.  But as you can see, I’m wearing a dress.  There’s a story behind this dress!

Actually, there’s a few stories behind this dress. Firstly, I sewed it last year, but it’s taken me until now to wear it. The fabric is a bit sheer, and it took me a while how to wear it comfortably, and in what weather it was best suited. I finally decided that I needed to wear it with leggings underneath (due to the high see-through factor) but the top was fine with a boring beige bra underneath.

Secondly, I didn’t actually cut this dress out – or begin the sewing! This was passed on to me by Leith, whose mum Christine had started sewing it for herself but decided that she didn’t want it after all. Many thanks to Christine for cutting it out at dress length, and for sewing half of it!

Thirdly, when I posted this on Instagram, Helen said that she had the same fabric, but had passed hers on at Restash. Now, I happened to know that Leith and Christine attended that Restash event – so we were able to put two and two together and work out that Helen in Melbourne had dropped off the fabric to Restash, where Christine had picked it up and taken it to Brisbane and cut out and started on the dress. Then Leith brought it back to Melbourne and I snaffled it from her and sewed it up! Helen says that she got the fabric from an op shop initially – so I have no idea at all where it originally came from, or the fibre content. It’s quite sheer, yet quite crisp and easy to sew and press.

This is actually a really lovely pattern. The description from the McCalls website is as follows:  Very loose-fitting, pullover tops have neck and front bands that form inverted notches, front pleated and back gathered into yoke with forward shoulder seams, no shoulder seams, one-way front pleat and narrow hem. A: Sleeveless. A, D: High-low hemline. B:Contrast bands. B, C: Button tabs. C: Back tulip hem. D: Long sleeves. Rolled sleeves Band C, and shaped hemline A, D: Wrong side shows. Designed for lightweight to medium-weight woven fabrics. FABRICS: Crepe de Chine, Georgette, Challis, Crepes.

My dress is a lengthened version of view D.  It’s size Medium, which is a 12-14.  I wore it with the sleeves rolled up a bit.  Construction was mostly on the sewing machine, with the overlocker used to finish edges.  It was important to take things slowly with the neckband and placket in order to make sure that everything lined up and sat where it should.  I hand-stitched the neckband facing in place on the inside.  The hem was finished by turning a narrow fold twice to the inside and top-stitching.  A good shot of steam took care of the overall finish!

I possibly wouldn’t have bought this pattern for myself, but now that I have it in my stash, and have sewn it successfully, I’m very glad that I have it and will definitely give it another go. It’s not a quick sew, but isn’t onerous either. Enjoyable to make and to wear! Many thanks to Christine/Leith/Helen for enabling this dress.