McCall’s 8178 Dress Pattern

I bought this pattern in one of my recent pattern hauls. It’s funny because I almost didn’t buy t because I thought the pattern would be “too young” for me (whatever that means). But, I really like the style and ease of wear that McCall’s 8178 dress pattern offers. I’m glad I did get it. As it turns out, this is one of my favorite dress patterns I’ve made in a while.

Honestly, this dress started out as a wearable muslin. But, the result turned out so well that now it’s just my dress. I used a quilting cotton for this. The dress does use a lot of fabric. There are 10 godets that have to be added. Those godets are what give the dress skirt its flare. Sewing the godets is easy but a bit time consuming.

The three versions in the pattern of the McCall’s 8178 dress are: sleeveless, 3/4 sleeve with contrasting godets or 3/4 sleeve with matching godets. Clearly, you can make whatever combination you choose. I think a short-sleeve version for summer would be great! I would make the sleeves more of a bell-type sleeve rather than just short. That would look good with the flare of the dress. As you can see, I made my dress from all one fabric.

The dress goes together pretty easily. The pattern is for woven fabrics. Since there’s no zippers, etc it goes over the head.

The only change I made to this pattern was to lengthen the bodice by 1″. With this change, the seam hits closer to my waist. There is elastic in that waist seam. The only thing I would do differently the next time would be to add in-seam pockets. Since this originally started out as a simple muslin, I didn’t think to add them. But, next time for sure!

Springtime Favorites (Old and New)

Now that the days are getting longer here in the mid-Atlantic region of the US and the sun shines more often, I can’t help but think Spring. So, I wanted to share some of my springtime favorites, which includes patterns and some previous makes. While we all love getting new patterns, if you’re anything like me, you have plenty of patterns that may never have even been taken out of the pattern envelopes – LOL! This post will show some of those (purchased in previous years and purchased last month).

Years ago, I made this skirt using Vogue 8295. I actually featured it in a blog post back here.

This is a fun look that can be casual and comfortable as well. I used an older pattern to make this, but I like to share ideas for patterns you may already have.

One of my favorites is this jacket pattern. McCall’s 6172 is great for a classic jacket. I’ve made this twice already. The bright, sunny yellow is my favorite because it’s such a happy, springtime look.

M6172 jacket and M7906 skirt — McCall’s 6172 jacket and McCall’s 7906 skirt

And that skirt has also proven to be a favorite as well. It is McCall’s 7906. I intend to make this again, maybe in a solid (corduroy would be a good option).

As far as new (or newer) patterns are concerned, I’ll show you a couple of those to help you get your creative juices going.

I bought this stretch cotton sateen recently along with several packs of pink buttons in order to make a dress. I had this pattern (Butterick 6674) that I think will be a perfect match for the fabric. The dress might need to be lined since the fabric is a bit thin. Honestly, I haven’t made a dress in a while and I’m looking forward to having some for summer, especially.

A “moto” jacket on my list of things I want to sew. I bought this pattern right after it came out.

While I don’t want to use a glitter fabric for it, I might be able to find something suitable in my own fabric stash. This pattern has pockets which a bit different from a previous make. I might give this one a try.

I hope I have given you some ideas on projects you might want to tackle for yourselves. These are just a few of my springtime favorites. Although I’m not really working off of my list, I find that I am actually making progress. I have been able to check some things off!

How To Raise a Neckline

A couple of years ago, I made a YouTube video on how to raise a neckline on a garment (you can view it here). While that is probably one of my most watched videos, I wanted to do a little update. While the process hasn’t changed, I really want to show and tell you how to raise a neckline. That’s what this post is about.

The process is actually very easy. I have used this many times on several different neckline shapes (including V-neck).

The supplies you need are:

the pattern piece you want to alter
tracing paper or sheets of paper
a marker or pen
tape

You can watch the video above and I will try to explain as best I can.

The first thing do is tape down the pattern (just in a few places) so it doesn’t move around. I use removable tape.

Next, I trace the neckline from shoulder to the front fold. That’s what you’ll see in the picture above after this has been moved. I trace exactly as is.

Then, holding the tracing paper at the shoulder, I move the paper up as far as I want to raise the neckline. Originally, I said I don’t use this method for more than 1″. But in the video, I did this to raise the neckline about 2″. That’s probably about my limit. Anything more and I question whether I have chosen the right size or style of garment.

When the pattern piece is where I want it, I tape it down and true the lines (make them flow smoothly to the original lines). That’s it!

At the end of the video, you’ll see the finished garment where I used this process most recently.

Here is another way to raise a neckline as well. I have also done something similar.

Let me know if you have any questions. Altering the way I do it does assume that you have a good fit in the shoulder and elsewhere. As you can see, the shoulder seam doesn’t change, which is why I like using this method.

Thanks for watching and reading! I hope this helps someone out there!