McCalls 7313 - Merino Dress

Carrying on the red theme... 

I unashamedly have pink as my favourite colour (in case you couldn't tell by the theme of the blog). The girlier and more pastel the better. Red comes a close second however, as it's vibrant fierce original cousin. 

Cue - an all out red dress.

This is McCall's 7313 - a knit dress pattern with two neckline choices (scoop vs high), two skirt lengths and several sleeve lengths. It's a "Learn to Sew" pattern so I did find there were slightly more instructions and tips than a typical Big Four pattern, which was nice. 

I cut a size 8 based on finished measurements due to the known generous ease of the big 4 patterns. (Body measurements actually places me at size 10 with a  size12 waist.). I made no modifications to this and ended up still with a reasonable fit. The dress seems to run quite short - it's pretty standard for me to shorten both torso and hem in most patterns however with cutting the short version of the skirt I didn't have to shrink anything at all! The torso just hit at my natural waistline above my belly button (when I was cutting it out I was almost worried it was going to be too short. Unheard of 😝 ) Would definitely recommend those with longer torsos double check precutting! The sleeves were the only area where it was a smidge long - I think I'll take around an inch off next time. 

It is quite roomy at the waist still (finished measurement at waist pre elastic was 71cm) - the elastic channel cinches it in so it’s fine but I think it would look nicer with a smoother waistline? I can understand why they did it as depending on the stretch of your knit you still need it to fit over your head and shoulders- however next time provided my knit has enough stretch, I’ll definitely take it in a smidge so I get an unwrinkled waistline and can omit the elastic.

When I finished I thought the top could do with a bit more frippery so I added in a bow (pattern helpfully stolen from Simplicity1609, one of the many patterns I have in my stash that I will definitely make "someday".). I hand stitched it down both in the center and the two top corners so it sits perkily without drooping 😀 I’m quite pleased with how it turned out, except now looking at these pics it occurs to me it all looks a bit Christmas-y…. which was definitely not my intention given it is only the start of October 😅 (Wouldn’t dream of starting any holiday celebration before the malls do! 😝)

The fabric is a gorgeous vibrant Merino I bought from The Fabric Store. I only had 1.7m of it but all the pieces ended up fitting in fine. 

I look forward to being able to wear it out and about, maybe when the festival season gets closer? Assuming 1) We are allowed to be out and about socializing again and 2) the weather doesn't get too warm for it!