Sewing and Slapdashery: the winter Kathleen dress (McCalls 7350)

I made a few attempts at getting over my inability to sew things, and this dress is another of those:

This is McCalls 7350, which I bought in the last flash sale for this view in particular. I thought it looked like a really versatile silhouette and I'm basically always looking for cute pullover jersey dress patterns. This one has a faux-wrap top and a faux-wrap skirt with a wide gathered waistband in the middle. I'm often drawn to waistbands and waistband detailing but in practice struggle to find ones I would actually wear, so I was quite excited to try this.

I got this jersey at Walthamstow Market, from my current favourite shop there (helpfully named "Fabric Store"). It's almost the exact opposite of my usual style, what with being white and having the exact kind of brown florals my grandmother used to have on everything, but nevertheless I was drawn to it, and I had this pattern in mind from the beginning. I rarely if ever name the clothes I make, but this reminds me so much of Gran that I've been calling this dress Kathleen without even thinking about it.

(The fabric is panelled, so the line at the back of the neck is a seam but the line across the back isn't.)

The dress wasn't exactly what I expected. The line drawing seems to imply bands finishing the front neckline, but it's basically just a great big drape with self-facing sections. You will note that it's sitting differently in almost every one of these photos, which in one sense I quite like but I don't know how I'll feel about it after wearing it out for an evening. It's quite easy to end up exposing sternum, which I don't prefer, but I'm also not exactly sure where to stitch it to stop that happening without messing up the drape.

Also, the skirt claims to be gathered, but as you can see, all the gathering is concentrated to a few inches at the centre back. I don't mind it so much on this version, but as a general rule it's also something I don't prefer, and for any subsequent attempts I'll probably try to alter the pattern to cut down the amount of fabric in the back skirt.

My intention in making this was to wear it to a party at the end of September, but as soon as I tried it on I realised that this was obviously the winteriest dress that ever wintered and it was going to have to wait a couple of months to be appropriate. I think a Christmas party where absolutely nobody drinks any red wine anywhere near me may be in order. (This is why I don't make white clothes.)

I think I probably will make this again. It's turned out very well (my boyfriend was particularly effusive, but then I suppose this kind of fabric is much more his thing than it is mine) and I think it'll be fairly easy to get wear out of it in the winter. I love the waistband and I love the way the skirt looks from the front, but I'd want to get some of the excess fabric out of the front neckline and centre back for future versions. This is one of those patterns that's ripe for mix and match, so you're probably more likely to see bits of it stuck on to other patterns than the whole thing made up like this.