McCalls 6559 -- Maxi Dress

My husband was away on a study leave for the month of July.  He took my daughter with him, and she spent the month in various locations -- at my mom's, at an old friend's, just with her dad.  I stayed to man the home front with my four boys.  It was a little different being a single mom.  Parts of my life were simplified because there was no husband and one less child to take care of.  Parts were more complicated because I was, in effect, a single parent, so all errand-running and problem-solving fell to me.  

But I did end up with some extra time here and there, and I used it to sew some things for myself;)

I made this maxi dress:

front view

The fabric is a very comfortable rayon knit from Joann Fabrics.  I used a universal needle, and I sewed the side seams with a short stitch length and a narrow zigzag setting on my sewing machine.  I raised the neckline by using a 6/8" seam allowance on the shoulder seam instead of a 5/8".

The pattern is McCalls 6559.

Dresses made from this pattern are all over the internet, and with good reason.  It sews up quickly, is comfortable to wear, and generally is flattering.  I cut a size 16, but it ended up a little large, so next time I may try a 14.  (It's taking me some trial and error to figure out what size actually fits me.)

There are only two pieces to this pattern -- a front and a back.

back view

To finish the neckline, armholes, and hem I used Londa's knit fusible stay tape.  I simply fused it to the edges with an iron, folded the edge over, and stitched using a straight stitch and a longer stitch (10 per inch on my machine).  I love that stay tape.  It really added stability and kept my stitching from being wavy.  I highly recommend it for sewing knits.  This dress stitched up with NO problem, and remember I sew on a vintage Singer 401.

This picture shows what the finish looks like on the outside (left) and on the inside (right).

Right now my goal when making clothes is wearability.  Sometimes I fall short.  A dress I worked on painstakingly -- it was fully lined, with princess seams front and back, just did not pan out.  After all that work, it did not fit right so I had to chalk the whole thing up to an "at least I learned something" experience.

This maxi dress, while definitely not perfect, is wearable and practical in this summer heat.  I learned some new skills -- I'd never used that stay tape before -- and worked on conquering a fear of sewing with knits.  For me, sewing is one of those things that I can get stuck thinking about and reading about and getting inspired by others, BUT I really need to just get in there and SEW and make mistakes and try new things to figure out what I'm doing.  And the enjoyment really comes from getting in there and DOING.  In a lot of ways, this has been a summer of DOING for me.