McCall's 7014 Red Dress

赤いワンピースを作ってみたくて、作ってみた。
型紙は以前も使ったマッコールの７０１４番という奴で、前作ったのはストレートスカートバージョンだったけど、今回はフレアバージョンで。
あまりにも赤すぎて、クリスマスかバレンタインしか着れないかも。

I wanted a red dress, so I made one.
But maybe the red was too red that I'm afraid I can only wear it for Christmas and Valentine's Day, or a Chinese wedding.

The pattern I used is McCall's M7014. My previous version was a straight skirt and this time I tried the flare skirt version.

I made a View C, a sleeveless with flare skirt version. As the photo below shows, I actually tried to make a View D with 3/4 sleeves. However, I encountered issues with armhole and I had to ditch the sleeves.

Like my previous version, I used knit fabric instead of woven. I used poly/lycra scuba knit with embossed pattern. 

This was my first experience with scuba knit, so here are some of my thoughts of the fabric:

- Beefy! Very substantial. 

- I had to test various combination of thread tension and presser foot pressure. 

- Used longer stitch length.

- Ripped seams show. I don't know if it's the scuba knit or the embossing, but once the needle poked a hole, it stayed visible.

- Good for cold weather. I guess I do not want to wear this in summer time.

- Surprisingly, pressed very well. The below photo shows pressed seam on left and unpressed seam on right. 

Last time, I cut a size 12 and went through a lot of alteration. This time, because the scuba knit has very good stretch and recovery, I went down to a whopping size 6 to fit my upper back. The back fits well and no pool of fabric for my sway back. Love the back contouring.

Changes I made:
- Let out side seams at waist 3/8" to accommodate my rectangular body.
- Pinched out about 5/8" from back neck for gaping neck and blended in to CB seam at about 4" down.
- Trimmed off a bit of the flare from the skirt's side panels.
- Changed the front neck slit to a V neck.
- Bound the arm holes with purchased double fold bias binding.

As I mentioned earlier, I originally wanted sleeves, I did put one sleeve in. However, it turned out not wearable. Because this pattern is made for woven fabric and I made it a more form fitting than the pattern's intention, the arm hole was too low, the sleeve was very uncomfortable when I moved my arm up. The arm hole did not have enough fabric to even attach a bias tape as a facing and that's why I had to use bias tape to bind the arm hole. I'm glad that the color of the pre-made bias tape matched the dress very well.

Things I should do differently next time:
- Don't use ivory color lining for a very red dress.
- Raise the arm hole.
- I could pinch a bit at back princess seam at the arm hole.
- I should probably stabilize the neck line. I don't know if the V shape will hold in this dress since I did not apply any stabilizer (The V neck was totally an afterthought).
- Trim the bust darts. I did not even think of trimming (I had never sewed fashion fabric this beefy), and I had some sub-par pressing, and one of the darts looks pretty bad.

Comment from the Man of the House: "the neck line is too floppy." He is even more critical than I am.

I had fun sewing and I think the dress looks rather fancy for a poly knit dress.