It’s pretty rare that I make the same pattern two times in such rapid succession, but I’m back with another M6891 shirt dress. You can check out my first one is here.
This version went immensely more smoothly than the first one. Practice really does make perfect. Remember how I spent hours upon hours figuring out the notched collar on the first version? It’s okay, I don’t want to remember it either. The collar went in fine on the first try this time. All together, the collar took me about 30 minutes to put in, rather than the 6 hours I spent on it in the first version.
I also made a few upgrades on this pattern, since I was much more comfortable with the order of operations, and knew the finished product would fit. On the collar, I was also able to get crisper points by the folding seam allowances over rather than trimming them. Moving down the dress, I added a hook and eye at the waist because it was gaping when I did anything other than stand straight up without moving. I also figured out how to serge the side seams in a different order so that all of the seams are finished around the pockets (there are a few inches of raw seams in the first version). If you’re interested in how I did any of this, let me know!
There are so many things to like about this dress. The style is great–easy but very put-together. It feels very 50s to me. I also love the pockets. They fall at the perfect height, and are large enough to hold stuff. Plus, once you figure out how to do the collar, this dress comes together pretty quickly!
Well, that’s the end of summer sewing for me. It’s still 80+ degrees here, but I’ve already started in on my fall plans. So far I’ve been working on a long-sleeved shirt, cardigan, and jeans. Coming soon to a blog near you!
Abstract
Pattern: McCall’s 6891 in size 8
Fabric: 3.375 yards of floral cotton sateen by Gertie @ $4.79/yard
Notions: 1.5 yards interfacing @ $2.63/yard, 8 buttons, hook and eye, pink thread
Cost: $16.18 fabric + $3.95 interfacing + $1.54 buttons + thread and hook and eye from stash = $21.67
Time: 6 hours
Hi! Thank you for your post! I’m trying to sew the collar panel to the dress but somehow I can’t understand what the instructions are trying to tell me because I can’t match them. Did you have similar problems? How did you do it eventually? Thank you for your reply in advance!
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Yes! I had so many problems with the collar the first time I made this pattern. This tutorial by Pattern.Scissors.Cloth finally made everything click for me. I hope it helps you too! https://patternscissorscloth.com/2011/04/24/rtw-tailoring-sewalong-11-the-collar-and-lapels/. The other trick that was helpful was to play with the pattern pattern and see how everything fit together with those pieces separately from the fabric. Good luck!
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