a very fall-like dress: McCall's 7561

I scored some lovely Stof knits the last time I was in Baton Rouge, visiting DD1, SIL1, and granddaughter 1.  I so love this stuff!  It is 95% cotton and 5% Lycra.  It sews like a dream!  

I knew I wanted a simple dress for fall that I could highlight with shoes, jewelry, or style.  I used McCall's 7561 as my base and added a super simple design with adding little bias strips across the chest...just for something different.  I see styles like this all over the place.  

Here is my base pattern: 

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I used the neckline of C, the sleeves of D, and the length of A & B.  

See what I mean about the shoes and jewelry?  I love these shoes! Super simple and minimal jewelry.  

So lets talk a minute about the neckline.  All I did was turn the neckline under 1/4" and secured it with fusible knit stay tape by Emma Seabrook.  Her company is called Seweyekeys.  Truly this is the best stuff in the world.  For the neckline, as I said I used 1/4" and for the sleeves and lower hem I used 1/2" tape from her as well.  

So, back to the self-fabric tubes I made.  I just cut two strips about 1 1/4" wide with my rotary cutter and a straight ruler.  After cutting, I sewed these on my serger, turned them, and pressed lightly.  Next I just played with the position and length until there was no pulling on the neckline.  It really didn't take very long to get this right.  Before stitching down, I measured both to make sure everything was symmetrical and after a very minor adjustment, I sewed these down.  

Here is the stitch I like to use on my regular sewing machine.  It is for stretch fabrics and works so much better than my coverstitch.  I really should just sell that thing.

And here is an obligatory photo of the back.  I like how it fits.  

So, as you can see above, I still need a tweak or two to fix the front.  I made my usual FBA, sloping shoulder adjustment, and swayback adjustment.  Those little folds at the armpit area are either due to my needing to create a dart with this very stretchy fabric or the tubes I added.  Honestly, they were not there prior to sewing those on.  Any advice would be appreciated!

Thanks for reading and I hope you are enjoying the remaining days of summer!

Sue