Knit Dress – M6073, McCall’s Maxi/Midi/Knee Length Dress

Knit Dress - Full Outfit
Knit Dress - Full Outfit

My first finished to post to the blog! I'm so excited that I have a successful project to post about. :) This knit dress is McCall's M6073. It has a V neckline in both the front and the back and has three lengths: knee, midi, and maxi length. I wanted to use this fabric from my stash (it's a poly blend from... Fabric.com, maybe?) I only had 1.5 yd. and it was 45" width, so I eeked out as much length as I could, but couldn't even quite make it to the knee length. When I'm standing and there's no wind, it's not too short. :) Also, the fabric is sheer, so I have to have something under it. Therefore, there will be leggins worn with this every time.

I wasn't sure about this pattern at first because it seemed very loose and I wasn't sure if I'd would like it. However, it actually did flatter very nicely. I think that's mostly due to the drape of the very lightweight knit and the help of the elastic in both the shoulders and waist.

I did have to do a few alterations for this. Although my fabric was knit, it didn't have a great amount of stretch. I did a size 22 in the bust, grading to 24 for the waist and hips, then I did a 2" FBA. The fit was great overall. The FBA did give me a lot of gathers; in the future I may do a smaller FBA or none at all and let the deep V of the wrap take in some of the difference.

Knit Dress - Front View
Knit Dress - Front View

The photographer (aka: Mom) decided this was my "I'm a little teapot" pose. No one has ever asked me to model, can you believe that?! 😛

I struggled with the binding of the V neck because the pattern instructions made. no. sense. I was procrastinating utilizing last minute energy to finish this dress so I didn't want to take time to Google the "correct" way to do it. I found a way that worked and looks nice from the outside, but really kind of bad on the inside. I'm adding binding a V neck to my list of skills-to-learn.

Knit Dress - Back
Knit Dress - Back

To update my skill building for this post, I thought I show how I did the bust gathers for this piece. Gathering is basic skill, but when done unevenly, it can definitely add to the "home made" vs. "hand made" look.

I used a technique that I like to think of as "window curtain gathering" (yes, I totally made that up, if you couldn't tell) that helps me get more exact start/end when gathering between two points. Basically, I use two threads, knotted at the end to baste the gathers. One thread starts at the left and the other starts from the right. That way, I can pull on the unknotted ends, now on opposite sides of the gathered section. By doing it this way, there's no ungathered sections near the edge of the gathered sections.

Bust Gathers
Making Bust Gathers

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6 thoughts on “Knit Dress – M6073, McCall’s Maxi/Midi/Knee Length Dress

  1. Katherine

    Hi Mary,
    I like the new blog! Did you teach yourself how to do the FBA or did you have someone walk you through it the first time? I'm at the point where I probably need one but I get somewhat anxious about fitting adjustments. I'm never quite sure what adjustments I need to make or how to fix my fitting issues.

    Reply
    1. ladyreed

      Post author

      I learned from tutorials on the web. Mary at Idle Fancy has some really good ones. (Here's a link to all her posts tagged with FBA tutorial: http://www.idlefancy.com/search/label/Full%20Bust%20Adjustment%20%28FBA%29). I still get nervous each time, because I feel like every pattern is slightly different on the adjustments. I'm getting much more confident in just going ahead and trying it now. :)

      I'm glad you like the new blog. Thanks for reading!!

      Reply
  2. Hi Mary,
    I found your blog post while searching for help with the instructions on binding the V-neck 😉 You're totally right, the words and pictures just don't make sense! And I was beginning to doubt my language and sewing skills ;-D
    However, I really like how your dress turned out, so I thought I'd drop a quick note... Your blog is really cute, and I'm impressed with the number of posts you've written since you started! Keep up the good work!
    Now let's see if I can find anyone out there who can help with this 😉
    Greetings from Germany,
    Andrea

    Reply
    1. ladyreed

      Post author

      Thanks so much, Andrea! Good luck with the V-neck and, please, let me know what you learn! Maybe I'll be able to do it eventually, too :)

      Reply
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