Button Up Dress McCall’s Sewing Pattern Review

It has been interesting to try to come up with title names for these blog posts since sewing patterns don’t have names but just a number code. Anywhoo! I’m back with another sewing pattern review!

I’ve incredibly behind on my sewing projects for no reason other than I have been pretty unmotivated, which honestly is nothing new. My craft room is also out bedroom so sometimes everything feels so cluttered and its hard to find actual adequate space just to cut fabric. So part of me just feels like waiting to work on project until we move, but where is the fun in that?

Im slowly getting back into the routine of trying to work on some kind of project everyday, so i’m finally sharing my (rather short) review for another McCalls Sewing Pattern!

Choosing the Pattern and Fabric

It’s actually really funny because I was just reading my last review and I said I “Wanted to focus on making tops for a while” and then apparently went right back to making dresses. Sounds just like me!

I have really been having a personal battle of trying to have a simple wardrobe that isn’t too bold or extravagant, and just having a mix of different styles since there are so many different things I enjoy wearing.

This time I let myself go bold, with this super bright tropical pattern, it was too cute and happy for me to pass it up! I picked it up from Hobby Lobby, which I think has some pretty unique cotton fabrics that you don’t see at places like Joann.

I chose to pair this adorable fabric with the McCall’s Pattern # M7952. Which in my opinion is kind of a 50’s style dress that would go well with any bold pattern.

Initial Thoughts

Upon just looking at the pattern packaging, i didn’t really have reason to think this pattern would be too difficult. It had a few construction elements I hadn’t tried yet, which is to be expected since I haven’t been sewing for very long haha.

One of the first things I do, which I think is pretty standard haha, is take out the written instructions and read them over to familiarize myself with the process of making the item before I start. This also allows me pin point any steps I think I may have a hard time with.

Upon reading through the instructions, nothing really struck me as being super complicated although it took me a couple minutes to decipher the fabric cutting layout, which I usually tweak a little bit anyway.

I always like to save as much left over fabric as I can, so if I can rearrange the cutting layout to save a little more fabric i usually try to do that.

Construction

This pattern is pretty straight forward, unlike other patterns it doesn’t have a wide variety of different styles included, it is just slightly different versions of the same dress to suit your preference.

Overall, the instructions are very easy to follow, there really aren’t any curveballs which is why this review is going to be so short haha.

This was however the first time I ever did button holes! I was actually pretty scared to give it a try, but I am happy to report that if you feel the same button anxiety as I did, it is really easy! (and actually kind of fun). honestly the sewing machine really just does all the work for you once you mark where the button holes need to be.

I was happy that there were buttons instead of a zipper, although I have kind of gotten over my fear of zippers, I still like to avoid them when possible (which isn’t often haha). The buttons also give the dress a lot of character and you can have a fun little pop of color and get as creative as you want with the button design.

Hiccups

While the pattern itself was easy to follow, I did have a couple little hiccups during the construction process.

1. Pattern Pieces – This could just be because I am a beginner, but there were 2 or 3 pattern pieces in which the cut lines were rather confusing to know where to follow. From a beginner’s eye, it wasn’t immediately intuitive, so in the end I just kind of winged it, but I think I got it right??
2. Interfacing – Literally the first step is to iron interfacing onto all of the bra pieces and I went ahead and completely forgot to do it. I’m sure it would have been useful to have, but I still think my top looked good and felt stable and comfortable without it
3. Bow Hem – The second step is to sew a narrow hem onto the front bow overlay. I thought that this part seemed weird because the drape of bows is unpredictable, so you would likely have times where the wrong side of the fabric would be showing when you wear the top. I thought maybe there was an extra step later to address that, but there wasn’t. So if you have a problem with the wrong side of the fabric and the hem being visible, I would get a little extra fabric and have the bow be double sided, it may add a little bit of bulk, but i’m sure it would be fine.
4. Fabric Pattern – Again this is probably because I am a beginner, but if you have a single direction pattern, be sure to really pay attention to how you attach the pieces. I attached the opposite pieces quite a few times which cause some of the waves to be upside down and had to do a lot of seam ripping and restitching to fix it. Don’t be like me haha.
5. Straps – When I tried to measure how long i needed my straps to be, I tried them on with my posture being” proper”, however, in most cases I don’t actually stand that straight, so once I sewed them on, they were far too loose when I naturally slouched a little. So make sure you test our your strap length a couple times before you sew them on.

Final Thoughts

Though my execution of this pattern wasn’t perfect, ie there are inside parts that aren’t sewn into place that you can’t see, but I have yet to hand sew them in; this is still one of my favorite things that I have sewn so far!

I absolutely love this fabric pattern and I think the dress pattern really fits my personal style. I highly recommend both the fabric and the sewing pattern!

I ordered a bunch of McCall’s patterns recently because they were have a huge sale where patterns that were normally $20 were only $4! So I will have plenty of new sewing projects to share with you soon!

Mickey Mouse Picnic Blanket Skirt

Hello everyone! Today I’m sharing my finished Mickey Mouse Picnic Blanket Skirt! I must admit that a tiny part of me thought that sewing would be less stressful than crochet can sometimes be, not that crocheting itself is stressful, but creating your own patterns definitely is.

I really don’t have enough knowledge about making clothes in my repertoire, so I knew that if I started sewing I would be following other patterns and wouldn’t have to stress about coming up with my own. While it has been nice to follow patterns where, hallelujah the math is already done for me, sewing isn’t quite a walk in the park.

It has been incredibly exciting picking out patterns and fabrics that I feel really suit my style and reflect my personality and interests. There have been plenty of times in my life where I envision a piece of clothing that I would love, but simply doesn’t exist.

Since this is me we are talking about, it is not at all surprising that I am always on the lookout for cute Disney fabrics! However, I am finding it challenging to find ones that leans more on the mature side (which honestly, I don’t know what I expected haha). So when I saw this plaid Mickey fabric at Hobby Lobby that wasn’t over the top tacky I knew I had to get it!

Right before I had found this fabric, I had also found The Picnic Blanket Skirt Pattern by Tilly and The Buttons, I immediately knew that this fabric would be perfect for it! Her pattern is free and oh so cute (and simple!).

The instructions tell you everything you need to know about getting your own measurements to make the skirt from scratch. I found it super straight forward and easy to follow, but the only thing that I personally decided to do differently was to forgo the pockets. I know, i know, I had the option to add pockets to something I didn’t?? Trust me, I would have, but I ended up not having enough fabric because I just guessed about how much I would need when I bought it. Learn from my mistakes and go to the store already knowing how much fabric you will need haha!

I’m super happy with how it turned out and that I can rock a little bit of my Disney love without looking like I don’t know that i’m not 5 years old!

DIY Quick Hanging Fabric Bulletin Board

I don’t know about you guys, but sometimes I get in this mode where all of my creative energy gets focused on making projects that utilize the material that I already have at home.

While I love taking trips to the craft store, sometimes you start to see your bank account slowly go down and you realize that you need to tone it back a little bit, after all you probably have some amount fo craft supplies back at home that need some love.

Now that I recently started sewing, I am building up a large amount of fabric scraps that I have been eager to find a use for. I have also been on a streak of trying to make practical home decor items. That coupled with my home office becoming more of a reality, I have been wanting to make a bulletin board for a while now, and it has finally happened!

Personally I made this with things that I already had around the house, but if you have to go out and get these materials, it really shouldn’t break the bank, especially when you use the everyday coupons at places like Michaels, JoAnn, and Hobby Lobby. It also easily can be finished in about 30 minutes! So let’s dive in shall we?

Materials

• 1 Fat Quarter of Fabric (18″ X 21″)
• 3 Yards of Pom Pom Ribbon
• 1′ X 1′ piece of cardboard
• 1′ X 1′ some kind of squishy material
• Optional extra embellishments
• Hot Glue Gun
• Scissors

For the “squishy material”, i’m going to be 100% honest, I don’t know what the stuff I used is called, but I know I got it at Daiso. It is reflective on one side and a plastic spongey material on the other side. In general just try to find something with a little bit more squish to put between the fabric and the cardboard.

Construction

First you are going to cut out your piece of cardboard to 1′ X 1′. I had a box from Bath and Body Works which is why the cardboard is a cute gingham, it happened to be the perfect size!

Once you have your cardboard cute out, you can place it over whatever squishy material you are using and trace over it

Cut out your squishy material and hot glue it onto your cardboard piece. Since hot glue dries so fast, I glued an x onto the middle of cardboard piece and lined it up quickly with the squish material to keep it more structured. I then peeled up the edge pieces of the material and glued it down all along the edges.

Cut off any excess that you may have. It you traced and cut perfectly, but if you are kinda lazy like me, you will probably have a little bit of excess.

Place the 1′ X 1′ piece over your fat quarter of fabric. The fat quarter should be a quite a bit larger than the cardboard piece. If you wish to trim off most of the excess to use for something else, do that by all means! Just make sure you have at least 1″ of excess fabric around each side.

In the picture I had the squish side facing toward me, but don’t do that! haha. Make sure you have the squish side of the square against the fabric and have the cardboard facing you.

Simply fold the fabric over the edge of the square and hot glue it down. Similar to the way you glued earlier, since the hot glue dries really fast probably do little sections at a time to make sure all of the sections get glued down securely. The hot glue, as you can assume, is very hot so have something other than you hand to press the fabric down onto the glue so that you don’t burn yourself.

Once you have it all glued down, the back won’t be beautiful, but you won’t see it, so no harm done right? Flip the piece over and start gluing on your pom pom trim in small sections with small dots of hot glue. This is literally the part that took the most time and even then it was only 10-15 minutes.

Once you get all of your pom pom trim glued on, you should have some ribbon left over, which you have use as your hanging string by gluing it onto the upper back of the board.

Additionally you can add any other little embellishments that you wish to add to the corners. I had these fabric flowers that I needed to use for something and this felt like the time to do it! Once you make any additions you’d like you are done!

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial! As always if you have any questions or want to share your finished product, feel free to do so in the comments or on instagram!

Bow Tie Top McCall’s Sewing Pattern Review

Since I recently started sewing, I thought the best way to share my projects (with a purpose) is to do some sewing pattern reviews whenever I make a new piece! Do people do sewing pattern reviews? I swear I have seen them before, but of course now that I am specifically looking for some to reference, I cannot find a single one. I’m sure it’s a thing though.

While this isn’t the first pattern that I am following, I think it is likely going to be the first review that I post because I am so incredibly behind on taking photos of the finished garments (woops), but let’s go on and dive into this pattern review shall we?

Choosing the Pattern and Fabric

So when I began looking for a new pattern to follow, I knew that I wanted to focus on making tops for a while. The first pattern I ever followed was for a dress that wasn’t quick beginner friendly, so since then I decided that I should step back for a few projects and learn a little bit more before I tackle dresses again.

I am super guilty of being attracted to clothes that may be cute, but aren’t super practical or comfortable, so with that in mind I wanted to try to find patterns that I knew would be flattering, but also easy to wear.

I’ve only realized in the past couple years that I am truly a girly girl at heart, so if something has a bow on it, i’m immediately drawn to it. With that in mind, is it any wonder this is the pattern that I chose?

I decided to go with the McCall’s M7752 Misses’ Top Pattern.

I have been loving browsing the fabric aisles and there are so many cute fabrics I grab for smaller projects, but when it comes to choosing fabrics for garments, I have been rather picky.

Recently I have noticed that I tend to play it safe with the colors and patterns I choose for my clothing, not that there is anything wrong with that, but I have been wanting to step out of my comfort zone lately. I saw this bold colorful wave pattern and knew it would be great for this blouse. I know this fabric pattern is a little funky and not for everyone, but I really enjoy it!

Initial Thoughts

I had purchased a couple different patterns when I picked this one up and actually didn’t intend to make this one first because I thought it seemed a little more difficult than some of the other options. However, once I opened up the first pattern I realized that I accidentally purchased the wrong size. I wasn’t about to let a night of productivity go to waste, so I decided to do this pattern first after all.

Upon reviewing the instructions, I realized that this pattern is a McCall’s “Create It” pattern, in which you are supposed to mix and match different parts on the pattern to make your ideal top! I hadn’t seen a pattern like that yet (and clearly didn’t realize that when I purchased it). While I thought this was a really cool idea, I also started to think that it might make the process a little more complicated to understand, thankfully it didn’t!

Construction

There were quite a few mix and match options for this pattern, but I decided to go for the bow front (2), single peplum (6) and straps (4)

Overall, the instructions are very easy to follow, there really aren’t any curveballs. This was my first time following a McCall’s pattern and the construction process is definitely more refined than the cheaper patterns out there.

Not that it is revolutionary, but this pattern calls for lining and boning, which were two things I never worked with (1 of which I still haven’t worked with). I did partake in trying out lining for the first time, but I decided to forgo the boning. It didn’t specify, but after a few try on’s I feel like it would only have been necessary if you decided to make a strapless top. I’m sure it would help give the top more structure, but I still decided i didn’t need it.

This pattern also called for an invisible zipper, which I was pretty terrified of, I have purposefully been avoiding projects with zippers, but much to my amazement I actually found a really easy way to install them, as long as it’s a back zipper. Ultimately you baste the opening where the zipper will be closed, press the hem open and sew the zipper onto the pressed hem and when you are done you seam rip the original basted section and voila!

Hiccups

While the pattern itself was easy to follow, I did have a couple little hiccups during the construction process.

1. Pattern Pieces – This could just be because I am a beginner, but there were 2 or 3 pattern pieces in which the cut lines were rather confusing to know where to follow. From a beginner’s eye, it wasn’t immediately intuitive, so in the end I just kind of winged it, but I think I got it right??
2. Interfacing – Literally the first step is to iron interfacing onto all of the bra pieces and I went ahead and completely forgot to do it. I’m sure it would have been useful to have, but I still think my top looked good and felt stable and comfortable without it
3. Bow Hem – The second step is to sew a narrow hem onto the front bow overlay. I thought that this part seemed weird because the drape of bows is unpredictable, so you would likely have times where the wrong side of the fabric would be showing when you wear the top. I thought maybe there was an extra step later to address that, but there wasn’t. So if you have a problem with the wrong side of the fabric and the hem being visible, I would get a little extra fabric and have the bow be double sided, it may add a little bit of bulk, but i’m sure it would be fine.
4. Fabric Pattern – Again this is probably because I am a beginner, but if you have a single direction pattern, be sure to really pay attention to how you attach the pieces. I attached the opposite pieces quite a few times which cause some of the waves to be upside down and had to do a lot of seam ripping and restitching to fix it. Don’t be like me haha.
5. Straps – When I tried to measure how long i needed my straps to be, I tried them on with my posture being” proper”, however, in most cases I don’t actually stand that straight, so once I sewed them on, they were far too loose when I naturally slouched a little. So make sure you test our your strap length a couple times before you sew them on.

Final Thoughts

Overall I really enjoyed this pattern/ garment. The fact that it was mix and match as really fun and easy to follow. I mean part of making your own clothes is to make them super customized to your style right? So this is the perfect kind of pattern to make something that is true to you!

Although McCall’s patterns are a little more pricey, I really loved all of the detail of the pattern and the quality of the finished garment as well, so I will definitely be getting more of their patterns in the future!

If you are thinking of trying this pattern out, I hope any amount of this information helped you out!

An Adventure Into Sewing

Hello Everyone!

If you read my last post you will know that I have been going through a bit of a creative slump lately (honestly when aren’t I though?). Every time this happens I feel like the reasons can vary, if I can even pin them down in the first place (sewing pun intended). However, along with the reasoning being different, the solution is often different as well.