Pattern Review / McCall's M5094

I've been dying to share my first garment with you!  If you recall, I had planned it all out in this post a few weeks ago.  My goal was to finish McCall's M5094 (view C) in time to wear it to the shower I was planning this past weekend.  And I nailed it!  I finished it with plenty of time to spare and it looked pretty darn good for my first attempt at sewing a dress.

As promised, I have returned to review the pattern and talk about the adjustments I made.  This review is from the point of view of a somewhat experienced quilter and sewer, but a beginner when it comes to following a pattern.  Sorry about the photo quality.  I had to do my best with my camera timer and I JUST rolled out of bed, so no shots of my sleepy face and bed head.

After a ton of research, this was recommended to me as a great fit-and-flare pattern to start with.  It has some fun details like the cutout in the back of the bodice and the gathered bust but is fairly simple in shape and construction.  It is fully lined, which made it a little more challenging than I anticipated, but was worth it in the end.  I totally botched the zipper.  That's going to take some time to master I suppose.  This is a perfect pattern to get introduced to gathering.  The cups both have about 5-6" of gathering at the bottom and after looking up a quick tutorial I had no problem with this.  My next project has a full gathered skirt, so this dress was good practice. 

As far as fit goes, the directions instruct you to fit to the bust and take in at the waist.  I'm fairly square in shape, but I cut it based on their directions.  As I expected, even though the bust was too big, the waist just barely fit.  I let out the seams in the waist slightly and added a couple of darts to the bust and it fit like a glove. 

Whoops!  Forgot to close the hock and eye in the back!  It does close all the way at the top of the bodice below the peek-a-boo cutout.

I did make some adjustments as planned.  After I cut the skirt and assembled it, I hacked off about 7 inches.  I'm only 5'2 and this pattern is a tea length skirt (which looks great if you are slim and 6' tall).  I also added the sash belt.  I had some extra fabric and I felt like the dress just needed something a little extra to modernize it. 

I also attempted an invisible hem.  I underestimated how difficult this would be on a curved hem.  It's not perfect, but it looks pretty good from the front.  The busy fabric helped hide any imperfections and uneven stitches.

I definitely plan on making this again in the future.  It's a great little sundress and came together fairly easily.  I'm happy to answer any questions you may have about the pattern or the changes I made.  Ask away in the comments!

It is still available on McCall's website, but it looks like it is going out of print.  So snag it while you can.  I also found it on Amazon at a good price (that's where I purchased mine) and of course it might still be available at your local fabric store.  Happy sewing!