So I finished this dress... two? three? weeks ago but never got around to posting this because... I'm lazy? Yeah, that seems right.
I used a 1970s McCall's pattern. The plaid fabric is a thick polyester-y cotton – not my favorite texture in the world, but it was the only decent cheap fabric at the store and my friend Jon said it reminded him of Jackie O. Plus the thickness meant no need for lining. The bodice went remarkably smoothly (attaching sleeves is fun!) but ruffling the skirt was amazingly frustrating (you try getting 100+ inches of fabric down to 25"... it's hard!). My strings kept breaking and in the end I had to draw the ruffle on only one string since I didn't feel like redoing the second string after three or four failures :)
The zipper was also death incarnate, but eventually I think it turned out okay, and I even added some bias tape detail:
But everything would have been dandy if it hadn't been for... the collar. As you can probably tell from the pictures it's really poufy and doesn't stay down and ironing doesn't seem to help. Also the notches are uneven, ha!
All-in-all it was a fun experience, though! I learned a whole lot but really it's all about practice practice practice. Now for the next pattern!
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