McCall’s M8213 Dress Finished- What The Dress Looks Like and What I Think of The Pattern

Hi everyone! Last year, in a post about my sewing plans for the season, I talked about making a dress using McCall’s pattern M8213. That was the last time I talked about it on this blog.

Since the publishing of the post, I made the dress! I didn’t want to take

This is what the dress looks like…

 

 

Ok, so I need to admit the photographs of the dress were not a good as I thought it would be. Even though the photographs are clear, I had some problems with breezes and light winds that caused me problems taking photographs of it.

I used black cotton sateen to make the dress. I also lined the dress with the same exact cotton sateen I used as the fashion fabric. The pattern does not call for a lining, but I wanted to add one anyway. The cotton sateen is thin, which makes me nervous to wear. Since I lined it, the dress is as opaque as I want it to be!

I really love the way it turned out! I especially love the straps. I can adjust the straps really easily and, because they are tied, they make super cute bows!

Aside from adding a lining to the dress, I made other changes to the dress. The first is I enlarge the dress to be bigger than the pattern actually is. The second is to elastic back.

It was simple to add this to the back of the dress, but it makes a huge difference in the fit and the way it feels to wear. I used two one inch wide elastic bands to back the back.

The reason why I made these changes was due to health problems I suffer from. When I made this dress, I would become very swollen and would make clothes harder for me to wear. Making a looser fitting dress with an elastic back makes the dress easier to wear when I am swollen and fit me even when I’m not swollen. Today, I am still suffering from these problems, but they are improving and so is my swelling. Also, the dress still fits me well!

As for the pattern, it is a simple pattern to make. Since I modified the pattern to be larger than my normal size and to have an elastic waistband, I don’t want to say too much about the instructions for the pattern. I do think the instructions are pretty straightforward, but I would still suggest beginner sewers should still work with someone, especially if this is the first dress they make. This pattern would be great to use as a first dress, but attention should be paid to finishing seams so they won’t fray. Since I lined the dress, I didn’t need to worry about that, but if someone follows the instructions, they will.

 

That’s all for now! Thank you for reading!