1950's Housewife Shirtdress M6696

After making the Deer&Doe Bruyere shirt and shirt dress, I decided to make my foray into the world of shirt dresses. And if you're going into the shirt dress world, of course one must start with the dearly beloved McCalls 6696: The lovechild of the sewing blog world.

Absolutely everybody has made or is intending to make this shirtdress. And with so much positive feedback from everybody, I went in assuming I'd have the same happy experience. I am proud to say this pattern is as great as everybody else has gushed about. It really is almost perfect.

The pattern comes with 4 variations and 4 cup sizes. It really is a pattern that produces many varying results. I went for the bodice from View D with the long sleeves and v cuffs and paired it with the skirt from View A. I loved the pleats and always appreciate a fuller skirt to hide my rumpity-rump a little. I cut a D-cup in a size 14. You mean no full bust adjustment? That sounds just swell.

This fabric is 100% cotton from Fabricland. It is from the quilting cotton section, but feels significantly softer than any quilting cotton I've ever felt. This is actually my first time ever using anything even resembling a quilting cotton. I started out using Ponte's and thick knits and then decided to try my hand at stable fabrics. My logic was that darts&fitting are more difficult than sewing with knits. (I think I'm still right on that because the entire concept of fitting still eludes me and I really make adjustments all willy-nilly and thus far they just happen to work out for me!)

As you can see, I've used a contrast fabric for the Collar and underside of the V-cuffs. This is Robert Kaufman chambray in Mustard. After using Robert Kaufman fabrics for both my Bruyere's I've fallen in love with the feel, the weight, and the designs of his fabrics so immediately ordered chambray in pretty much every colour way and pattern I could. You'll see more anchors and fishy's in my future.

I cut the fabric with the flowered stripes going vertical, except for the waistband, which I unconveniently hid under this belt, where the flowers go horizontal. You know..what every girl wants; her waitband pattern to be horizontal to really add some nice girth to her middle section. Yeah, real smart Chrystal...... Maybe think a little bit more beyond "ohhhh pretty" next time.....So belt it is!

Nice close up of those pleats. They were rather tedious to line up but my my my does cotton ever hold a pleat. Wait you knew this already? Oh sorry, I'm slow to every party.....Oh wait, that's a basic of sewing and ironing? .....So maybe domesticity isn't my forte.....But look pretty pleats!

My pockets are made with a black silk remnant I had in my stash. It's silk and doesn't add any bulk to my "Hellllllllllllllllo Hips" area.

And no I didn't centre my vine fabric on my button placket......your welcome type-A's

The buttons are totally generic blue buttons. Aint nothing special there....move along.

Now, the back of this bodice, I left with all the gathers. I like the billowy effect it has. It's a tad sticky-outy do to the weight of lack of drape of the cotton, but overall I think it looks good. The next one I make I'll take out the gathers from the top and just leave a little on the bottom.....must maintain some distraction from my rumpity-rump.

And for you Type-A's out there, I apologize for not lining up the vines from my yoke to my bodice, I just couldn't care less about such things. Look at it this way, I did a fairly good job of keeping them unaligned evenly?

And where the source of all my power comes from: The Wings. AKA the pretty yellow underside of my v cuffs which I topstitched with blue because, again, "ohhhhhhh pretty!"

Ps. Check out my goosebumps on my arm in the above photo. It was -25C when I took these photos. Cold weather can't hold me back! (I may have retreated inside when I could no longer press the shutter button due to lack of feeling in my fingers.)

Details

Pattern: McCall's 6696 View - Top of D with Skirt of A

Size: 14 - D Cup

Fabric: 100% Cotton

Alterations:

• Shortened the skirt length to hit just above the knee
• Sewed it completely by machine/serger - No hand sewing for this girl
• Moved the button placement to better suit my needs

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The Green Flowered M6553 that Could

Hello from California! I've just finished up a wonderful week in Los Angeles visiting my brother and to soak up some much needed vitamin D! and of course I brought as many Me-Mades as possible to showcase in the sunny weather!

I planned this trip a few months ago to celebrate my 25th birthday (champagne birthday all!!), but after the unexpected passing of my father at the beginning of the month, this trip became a time to be closer to my brother during a difficult time, to remove me from the emotional stress of home, and to help start the healing process. 

This is the pretty version of M6553 that I made the test garment for in my last post. but this one has much more beautiful fabric. I added some dimension to this version to help break up the print by using a solid charmeuse in the same green colour on the back yoke. The fabrics were the exact same except in a solid. Horray for easy matching! And I used a plain 9mm silver button on the yoke. 

You'd think that this would be an easy make since I finished the test garment only one day before, but alas, life does not continue without encountering a sewing quibble every once in awhile. And a perfect second make would just be too predictable now wouldn't it?

This fabric is the love and Bain of my existence. It is a satin charmeuse. Betcha didn't guess that by the look of it eh? Well, this fabric pattern is my favourite! It is actually a greenish-yellow hue (green=Love) and has the large floral in muted tones (adore)! So it Did seem like the perfect fabric. But it was shiny; bad-middle-school-prom shiny. ew. I don't do shiny. I can't. but the pattern and colours were so perfect. I needed it. I turned the shiny away and immediately realized the back side had the same pattern but with a matte appearance. perrrrrrfect. I like matte. And this also means the slippery side is against my skin. Mmmmm soft!

But like I said, this is satin charmeuse, and as it turns out, my serger has a huge appetite for charmeuse (om Nom Nom Nom says Mr.Serger). And this fabric did not want to do as told (And I spoke real firmly to it), it was slippery and went all nimbly bimbly on me. I had to strong arm it a lot to combat the liquid fabric qualities and my hungry serger. But I made it! Phew!

It is interesting to see the difference that fabric makes to the fit and appearance of a dress. My original is heavier and holds its shape well. This one has a fluid drape and lays flatter. Except for when the wind blows. This baby has some serious flow folks! I'm thankful for the modesty the hi-lo hem provides during the gusty weather a top the mountains in Joshua Tree National Park! I was flashing people left and right! I'm a real class act my friends ;)

The other thing I noticed with this version, as the fabric has no stretch, is that the arm scythe is much tighter and pulled at my armpit. I tried to remedy this by serging 1/2" out at the under arm. It helped alleviate some of the stress, but next time I'll know to deepen them to make room for my chubby armpits (serious issue folks! Haha).

And finally, due to the lightweight fabric, the pockets are rendered somewhat useless as just putting my phone in one pocket pulls the entire dress towards the weight in said pocket. I don't like the look; as if my flowy dress is being restrained. Flow free floral M6553 stallion! Flow free!

But alas, the time has come to say farewell. I've had a wonderful week in California with my brother and I look forward to returning in the future!

Details

Pattern: M6553

Size: 6

Fabric: Green Floral Satin Charmeuse

Cost: $12

Alterations: 

• lowered the arm scythe by 1/2"

All photos were taken in Joshua Tree National Park. Beautiful place! My dress appears camouflaged to the scenery which I kind of love!

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