It's finally finished!

So I've been struggling with the Cherry Dress, McCall's 6503, that I discussed a little in my first post. Well it's finally finished!! WOOT!

So this is not the best picture of me, but that's what you get. I added a black knit shrug to cover my arms for work. I much prefer it that way just because it's A LOT of cherry print. It really needs a wide belt in the middle to break it up a little. I think.

You can see the arms here. Simple black single fold bias tape around the edge.

This is how I spent most of the time working on this dress. My seam ripper and I became great friends. I inserted the zipper at least 4 times... I am not a fan of zippers, needless to say. Hopefully I'll get better with practice. I did have to take this bodice in quite a bit. I started with an 18 based on the pattern measurements, but ended up with something smaller. Yay on the smaller front, but boo for the work involved in bringing it down, and it's still a bit too big. It would do well with taking it in more in the sides, but I am afraid that too much more will mess up the bust shape. Next pattern I do, I will definitely start at a 16 to see what happens.

This is just a picture of me looking sassy in my new dress! I really love the collar and the ruffled edging on this bodice. It really stands out great!

The First...

In what hopes to be, a very long line of vintage-esque sewing projects!

I'm currently working on McCall's 6503!

I chose this pattern for a few reasons. A: it was a work-friendly dress with what I felt was a strong vintage feel, B: it was an easier pattern, much more suited to someone who hasn't done much garment sewing in a very, very long time, and C: it was on SALE for $1.99 baby!!

So I grabbed this pattern and a few others to get the most out of the sale, and went over to the fabric section to pick something suited to the dress and my winning personality. After much debate with my darling fiance; I settled on this gingham and cherry print cotton. It had a fun feel to it and I hoped it would look decent on me.

I've been working on this dress on and off now for about a week now. It takes a bit longer than it would take the normal sewist because I'm a nursing mom to a 6 month old baby girl and also have a 4 year old son at home. Both of which need my undivided attention... all. the. time.

At this stage I've managed to get everything put together and have even gotten the zipper installed (which took at least 4 tries to get it right). Then I tried it on... and disaster struck. I swear I stared at this dress in the mirror for 30 minutes trying to figure out why I hated it. And boy did I hate it. I was so mad that I had wasted so much of my spare moments putting it together and the fit was awful. Then I lifted the shoulders and put the chest gathers where they were supposed to go. Suddenly, I was in love with the fit of the dress. It looked exactly like I felt it should. It was flattering in all the right places and the angels were singing Hallelulah.

So now the task at hand is to take the dress apart again and reshape the bodice so that it fits in that angel singing flattering way. This is the time when having a dress dummy would certainly come in handy.

To be continued...