Simplicity 9678

Another pattern that I really like and fits so good right out of the envelope.
This lovely challis is from one of the great garage sales from the Textile Center in Minneapolis/St. Paul. You get to choose a whole bag of fabric for ten dollars. I have the fabric on the cover of the pattern envelope, but I wanted to use the essentially free fabric first to test.

 

McCall's 7991

No, we do not have any snow so far this winter, this is from last year. This posting has been sitting around for a year.

This is one of my favorite patterns, McCall's 7991.

This dress is made from stretch velvet. I used the fabric for the cuffs instead of ribbing
 like the last time.

I did want to wear this today, but couldn't find it, so I'm wearing another self-made velvet dress!

 

Vogue 5605

I really like this pattern, it fits well and I like the full skirt and the drape in the front and the back.

Cut it out last summer and just got to it now. Always happy that it still fits!

 The dress is cotton and the overlay is in lace, even went so far as to do a little hand-stitching, Yikes!

Target Dress Copy

This is a copy of the Christopher John Rogers dress from Target last year. I would have preferred to purchase the dress from Target, but it seems like the average consumer has no chance of getting any designer offerings that Target has. It's frustrating and it doesn't generate positive feelings. You think they would know the market better, oh well...

Here are the patterns that I used and I think my version turned out even better!

Got compliments on the dress while I was out and about. And even found a coordinating rose.

 

McCall's 7974

When I'm ready to sew a pattern, I have to go online to see what everybody else has sewn up.
I found The Telltale Tasha online, she had made this pattern with this fabric and I thought
it was fantastic! Since I had the fabric just laying around I went for it.

I really love this pattern, just did my normal adjustments and it fits really well.  Went out to eat pancakes in this dress and received many compliments.

 The bad thing is I organized my patterns and now I can't find it! Have you ever done that?

McCall's 8348

This dress almost ended up in the bin as they say in England. I bought this pattern on Etsy, they do reproductions of vintage patterns. I think I just ordered a size that was too big.

When I tried this on the front of the bodice was hanging way low over the waistline. It looked like I had surgery to remove fat from my stomach and they left all the skin. Horrible!!!

I hacked off about three inches on the front and none on the back. I added darts to the back bodice and to the front, then sewed everything together and the result was a wearable dress!

 

McCall's 7624

This pattern was cut out for over a year before I got motivated to sew it up. The reason was because I couldn't understand the instructions for the front band. Luckily, I found a tutorial online. She had problems too and posted the solution. Thank you!

Fitting is no problem with this pattern. But it takes a lot of interfacing, so be warned!

 

Simplicity 8875

This is a pattern from 1970, it really looks like one from 1950.  It looks like a dress you would go to a barbeque party in. Sorry I don't have a picture of the pattern illustrations.

Not much to tell, the pattern fits nicely and I liked the scoop neck. Fabric once again from SR Harris in Burnsville MN.

 

McCall's 7948

I can see why everyone loves this pattern. It seems to fit well and it's so flexible in terms of styling.
I have used parts of this pattern to make up other dresses, but never on it's on before.

Since this is a panel print I cut the top skirt longer and the bottom shorter. I also sewed small darts in the front and added a zipper even though you don't really need one.

Next time I would make the neckline lower. I am going to make this again, I think I'm going to cut up some of my Mexican dresses that somehow have gotten smaller!

The fabric is from JoAnn's and I purchased four panels to make this dress.

Burda 7205

I finished this in the late fall, photographed it and forgot about it. Now that it's finally summer time, time to fish it out! Love this pattern. It is easy to sew, wear and pack if one were ever to go on a vacation.

Flowers on the back too, but no pictures.

 

Simplicity 8259

For some reason I thought this dress wouldn't fit very well, so I had it cut out for over a year
before I got to it. And it fits really well. I've had a lot of sewing failures this year so this was a
welcome change for me!

This dress does have sleeves from another pattern (sorry can't remember which one).
I wanted a sleeve with more ease.

And I even had matching buttons in the stash!

 

Akinori Dress Pattern

Short dresses just don't look that good on me. I had even lengthened this, but I ran out of fabric to make it longer. I cut out my normal size in the big four patterns and that worked out well. 

Sewing the insert was a bear, but it does look nice and finished on the inside. Also the top is supposed to overlap in the front as it attaches to the insert. I couldn't get that to work but I'm fine with that.

 I also gathered the back under the belt so it would lay nicer and that worked out well too. I'm kind of iffy on this dress because of the length, might add a ruffle if I can find some coordinating fabric.

McCall's 7970

I've sewn up this pattern before and I like the first version better. The flowers on the bodice are just not in the best area, even though I did take note when cutting this out.

On this version instead of hemming the exposed ruffle I turned it under so it acts as a facing, that ended up working better than version one. I will wear this so I will count this as a success.

 

Burda Style 6224

I started out the day in this dress, then quickly changed out because it felt too constricting even though it fit pretty good. I made it longer and it is still too short for me. If I were to make this again I would add more length and probably not peg the skirt so much. I would also add a bit to the back width, both top and bottom, just to add to the wearability.

The sleeves are from a different pattern that's why this looks different from the pictures on the pattern. Once again the Burda instructions fell short even though this was from a pattern envelope not the magazine. Who knows if I did the pockets properly!

This dress might be good for going out to a restaurant or if you had to carry bulky things in your pockets, Ha!