After spending the entire weekend on the black dog, I finally got back to McCall's 7500 last night. It's taking me far too long to put together such a ridiculously easy pattern! Aargh!
I don't trust the fabric so I made some little interfaced reinforcement patches to put behind the pocket buttons. I appliquéd them to the outside of the dress (they're mostly hidden by the pocket cuffs) but I suppose if I had been classy I would have put them on the inside so only the topstitching would show. Oh, well. I cut squares of interfacing about 1" on each side, ironed them onto scraps of dress fabric, and trimmed them to a 1/4 inch or so seam allowance.
I don't trust the fabric so I made some little interfaced reinforcement patches to put behind the pocket buttons. I appliquéd them to the outside of the dress (they're mostly hidden by the pocket cuffs) but I suppose if I had been classy I would have put them on the inside so only the topstitching would show. Oh, well. I cut squares of interfacing about 1" on each side, ironed them onto scraps of dress fabric, and trimmed them to a 1/4 inch or so seam allowance.
Then I cropped the corners, folded the seam allowance over, and ironed it down.
I marked through the buttonhole so I'd know where to sew them . . .
. . . basted them down (I put the button tin inside the dress to baste against so I wouldn't baste the whole dress closed) . . .
. . . and topstitched them in place.
They make a much more secure base for the buttons than just cheesy cotton-poly. This isn't supposed to be a "nice" dress, anyway.
The directions for attaching the body to the yoke said to baste, then sew, then sew again 1/4" up from the first stitching line, then trim close to the second seam. Um, OK. That sounded messy so I sewed once and then finished the seam allowance in bias binding. I was afraid it would be too stiff but it doesn't seem to matter that much (at least, it's not noticeably worse than two seams would be). I didn't bind the two sides of seam allowance separately; I bound them both together. It just occurred to me--as I write this--that I didn't even think to use the zipper foot. Sheesh.
(This is inside-out.)
I got one pocket button put on and brought the dress with me today to sew on the other pocket button and the bodice buttons. These are some old white buttons I dug out of the big button tin. They're all the same style but the pocket buttons are bigger; 3/4 inch, think. The bodice buttons are about 1/2 inch. It looks sort of blank right now; I think the buttons will help.
Then, I tried the whole thing on. It's too short, of course, but then I don't have the ruffle on yet. The yoke is none too big, but the body is huge, which is weird since there wasn't much gathering involved. It will look better once it's been washed a few times and the fabric relaxes a little, and it looks a whole lot better with a belt.
Then, I tried the whole thing on. It's too short, of course, but then I don't have the ruffle on yet. The yoke is none too big, but the body is huge, which is weird since there wasn't much gathering involved. It will look better once it's been washed a few times and the fabric relaxes a little, and it looks a whole lot better with a belt.
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