Setting myself up to faille

I started a full-time job this year. In an office, like what real adults do. Thusly, I need some work clothes. Enter McCalls 7091. (I was quite taken with McCalls current pattern range, so expect to see a few of them gracing my blog in the not too distant future.)

This may have been meant to be an evening/party dress but I am chronically incapable of not being overdressed.

The pattern fitted me as is and I did not plan to make any alterations beyond using the sleeves from another view (and binding them, rather than hemming). For the skirt I found an embroidered fuchsia remnant that had been in the stash for years and bought some black faille for the outer shell and bodice lining.

Pressing the seams takes hours. There are 12 seams and each gets pressed from both sides, then pressed open from the back and the front. An ironing ham is very useful for this - the curved seams lie so much better on a curved surface. Once the seams are pressed you then get to zigzag 24 edges. Thankfully by that stage you have what looks like a nearly finished dress to feel accomplished about. At which point you can do it all over again with the lining.

I was surprised to see that the underskirt did not continue the panels from the bodice. Instead it consists of three slightly flared panels gathered at the waist. Once I put the lining together I was somewhat concerned by the bulk at the waist caused by the gathers and how the fabric was a bit more balloon-y than fold-y, even though it looked to me to be of a similar weight to the photo on the pattern envelope. Then I attached the layers together.

Gone are the smooth lines created by all those seams. Instead the skirt suddenly bumps into a ledge at just the point on my figure where a ledge should not be. So it looks like I will be changing the pattern after all.