I Wish I Knew How to Quit You, McCall's 6920

Some patterns just don't work out the way they're suppose to.

Remember McCall's 6920?

This gal made an appearance a few posts back as the pattern that ended up becoming my dress form. 

When I first made this pattern, I definitely chose the wrong fabric. I also found the shoulders to be super wide apart. When I sewed it initially, I also had some problems with the princess seams but that was user error, not a fault of the pattern.

What attracted me to this pattern was its simple lines and a style that, in theory, would allow for me to easily adjust where I needed to. That usually means pulling in the bust and waist, adding some extra width in the hips, and sometimes adding some length.

In my last post, I described a last-minute dress-making frenzy pre-wedding. Here's a recap of that, in case you missed it:

There was no time to snap pictures along the way, but I still have the 90%-finished dress as evidence of that fateful day.

I had this emerald paisley in my stash and it was just right for this type of project. I couldn't tell you exactly what type of fabric it is -- maybe rayon? I'm not normally a paisley person, but I'm a sucker for jewel tones and it reminded me of malachite. 

I made one critical adjustment by narrowing the shoulders. This is probably what took the most time given I'm not very good at altering patterns. It was tricky because of the 3 pieces of the front. I could probably pull out the pattern to see how I did it, maybe treat it as a learning experience because it mostly worked out, but what's the fun in that?

If I recall correctly, there were two big things that prevented this dress from happening in 3 hours.

1. I got overzealous and got ahead of myself and the directions. There was a specific order you were supposed to piece it together so that you could add the facing between the armhole and the neck and then turn it right side out and sew it all together. I missed that part and therefore had to unpick seams so I could fix it.
   
2. I did a sloppy job of attaching the zipper. One side was sewn in higher than the other, which basically made the dress unwearable. By the time this was apparent, it was wayyy too late and time to throw in the towel, especially since I also hadn't hemmed it yet.

In the pictures it's also quite wrinkly. The folds along the seams at the bottom of the skirt would disappear with a good ironing and if it was worn on a body with legs.

I don't know if I'll ever actually get around to finishing this one. I like it well enough but it's also not super practical for my life.

As for the pattern, it's probably time to retire M6920. While I love a good sheath dress, it's time for me to explore patterns that make more sense with the way I live my life now. It's kind of like the day I realized I was never wearing heels again because life is too short to have achey feet.

And on that note, I'll leave you with an inspirational message from one of the best movies of all time, She's The Man: