McCalls 8107 -- Polka Dot Dress

I am allowing myself to sew winter things through February, but my daughter is sick of the cold weather and has moved on to sewing spring and summer things.  She purchased some white cotton fabric with black polka dots (the polka dots are very slightly raised) from Joann Fabrics and she rummaged through my pattern stash for a style she thought would work, settling on McCalls 8107, a basic princess-seamed but now out-of-print pattern.

Because her fabric was white it needed a lining, and for that she used a nice white broadcloth from Hobby Lobby.  She was afraid it would make the dress too heavy, but actually the weight of the lining feels good, and both fabrics are all cotton so the dress should be comfortable even in the summer.

The directions for sewing princess seams must have been good.  I was expecting to help with that part, but she already had them sewn and had done a great job before I even knew she had started.

However, the directions for the rest of the dress were terrible.  She used the directions of view I, because that view has a lining. The lining was attached with bias tape at the neckline and sleeves (she used black for contrast).  BUT -- and this was the terrible part -- the zipper was put in last, after the dress was sewn together.  And instead of sandwiching the zipper between the lining and the dress, at that point the lining and dress were treated as one.  The zipper was very difficult to put in with the rest of the dress sewn up.  I put the zipper in for her, and I had to redo it several times to get it to be acceptable.  Not fun!  I DO NOT recommend this method ever.

The dress by itself is a little plain, so she added a patent leather belt for waist definition.  After driving around to at least five different stores in a fruitless attempt to find one, I finally ordered one from Ebay (under $10 for a real patent leather belt - plus it is delivered right to your door!).

My daughter added 1 inch to the hem length which left very little room for an actual hem.  I'm trying to get her to add 3 inches to patterns (she is 5'9"), but for this dress we used hem tape to make a narrow hem.  The lining was hemmed an inch or two shorter.

Here is a close-up of the fabric and the bias trim:

We almost gave up on this dress, but I'm glad we didn't.  My daughter looks lovely in it, and she has gotten to wear it already during one of our warmer weekends.  It also looks cute with a black cardigan.