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McCall’s M7317 pleated surplice dress is a great summertime dress. I made this out of a beautiful white rayon challis patterned with green leaves and orange flowers. This was the first time I sewed with rayon challis so I used a microtex needle instead of the usual universal type. It was also the first time I ever added a lining to a bodice, but it wasn’t too hard to put together. Once again, I sewed a size 18 but the bodice was a bit too large in the shoulders. Would sewing a size 16 fix this problem? Luckily, I always trace my patterns onto Pellon 830 Easy Pattern so I could easily try to sew the size 16 (and make a muslin this time – whoops).
I saw this pattern and thought it was perfect for the hot and steamy Toronto summers. I sewed View A with the even knee-length hem. When I first tried it on, the shoulders kept slipping off; the back slightly gaped and the front fell open. The fitting problem appeared to be fixed if I pinched a bit of fabric along the front neckline, but I thought a dart in that location would be ugly. I fixed this problem by adding a dart in the shoulder seam, pointing outwards. This fixed both the back and front gaping necklines, but unfortunately I only did it after I sewed in the lining!
Again, I don’t have an invisible zipper foot nor an invisible zipper, so I sewed a centred zipper along the back of the dress. I read in The Complete Photo Guide to Clothing Construction that I should reinforce the zipper area by adding interfacing to the fabric on which the zipper is sewn. I added two 1-inch-wide strips of interfacing, each the length of the zipper, to the back bodice edges before I sewed the zipper – hopefully this will help my McCall’s M7317 dress last longer.
I sewed the skirt and bodice seams using French seams because the challis was slightly sheer and I don’t want to encourage unravelling.
Love this dress and I’m even more impressed that you made it. Great idea to use French seams on sheer fabric and I enjoyed hearing your thoughts as you constructed this look.
Adorable! Love the fabric as well as the pattern! Thanks so much for sharing with us at Brag About It! Pinned 🙂
Such a cute dress! I may have to have my daughter make one of these for me!
What a darling dress! Beautiful!
Hi there
Just stopped by to let you know that I featured this on my Saturday Spotlight post this week!
Saturday Spotlight
Thanks again for linking up to A Round Tuit Hope you have a great weekend!
Jill @ Creating my way to Success
THis is such a lobely dress. An I sure like the fabric! Absolutely gorgeous!
You did a really nice job on this! Thanks for sharing on the Pleasures of the NW’s DIY party
Gorgeous, love the fabric you chose and great tips about adding interfacing. Thank you
That dress is so cute – great pattern and lovely fabric. So pretty!
This is SO pretty! It reminds me of Hawaii and I want to go back! (wearing this dress, of course!)
Your dress turned out gorgeous! I love the fabric.
What a pretty dress! I love the pattern on the fabric too! Thanks for sharing on My 2 Favorite Things on Thursday! Pinned!
I love this dress because it is so something I would wear.