McCall's 6700 Maxi!

I finally made this pattern from my long neglected stash and love it!

I now see why everyone loves their maxi dresses!  It feels like I am wearing an ultra comfy pair of pajamas!  I was sort of afraid that I had missed the boat on the maxi dress adventure, but went into a nearby department store and they had at least 30 different maxi dresses to choose from!  I just hate being late for the show!

  
This dress is described on the package envelope as a pullover dress that has fitted mock wrap bodice, shoulder ties, elasticized shoulders and raised waist, fitted, narrow hem, thread carriers and self belt.  Well, McCalls, I have a few issues with your description.  First of all, I made this dress according to my measurements and it wasn't just too big but sloppily huge!  As you can see from the amount of fabric I am holding out to my side, I need to do some serious reducing here to make this work.

I thought about just dropping this on the floor and leaving it for a while, but I really love this fabric.  It's pretty and perfect for this dress.  So, I picked it apart and started again.

Much better!

As you can tell, I made some changes to this pattern.  I didn't want the back bodice in a v as I wanted some additional coverage so it is more work appropriate.  I can't just put layers on as I work with kids, I get HOT!!! and I hate sweating profusely and having them ask me why my face is wet.  So, I reworked the back piece and made it so it is one-piece and has a lot more coverage.  As you also notice, the neckline is super low, I mean you can see the model's bra on the cover photo.  I can't have my bra showing so I cut 2 inch bias bands, folded them lengthwise, pressed lightly and sewed to the neckline from front around the back and to the other front edge.  I did very slightly stretch this so it laid a little snugger on my body.  I did go ahead and gather the shoulder edges and gather those to the back shoulder seams.  I added the bands to the armholes stretching slightly so they hugged the bodice to my body--no gapping seen!  Yay!

Those were my modifications.  One alteration I made was to shorten the skirt by 2.5 inches.  I was so surprised being 5'7" and all, in fact I thought it may be a tad short and I would have to make my dress knee-length.  I used my cover stitch machine for the hemline.  I need to find some good tutorials on how to use the cover stitch as I feel very incompetent when using it.

 
I didn't even bother with the belt.  I don't like self-fabric belts made from knits so I just decided to use a regular belt.

I like my dress, it is super comfortable, when together fast and this dress is easy.  A beginner that has worked with knits would be able to have some success with this dress.  Just beware of how low cut the dress is (Obviously I am wearing a cami) and how over-sized this pattern is.   I am wearing a sweater with this because I found it in my closet and it matches perfectly and it's damn cold outside for July.  The high temp for the day is 68 degrees.  Crazy!

Thanks for reading!  I so enjoy your comments!
Sue