Simplicity 9886 Color-Blocked Dress

I decided to make this Simplicity 9886 color-blocked dress using some fabrics I had in my fabric stash. It wasn’t hard to find three fabrics to go together. It was more difficult to actually choose which ones of many to use 😂.

The Fabric

The pattern calls for the use of three woven fabrics. All of the ones I used are light to medium weight cotton blends. The blue that is the main fabric is a linen-like blend that I had bought at JoAnn Fabrics some years ago. The floral is from Hobby Lobby, purchased a few years ago. The yellow is a basic quilting cotton in a solid color. It’s a thin fabric which is one of the reasons it’s the smallest section.

The Pattern

In order to make things easier on myself, I chose to sketch out the design first. This was so important because I didn’t have to constantly think about how the pieces were going together. Mind you, I am not an artist so sketching is not my thing – LOL. But, it is so helpful to have this to refer to during the sewing process.

Sketch of the line drawing for the dress

This is a sketch of the line drawing for both front and back. Colored pencils make the sketch come to life and help in the visualization process. I’m not sure if you can tell from the sketch, but there are inseam pockets in the dress.

My Dress

woman wearing Simplicity 9886 color-blocked dress

Simplicity 9886 is not a difficult pattern to make. I think that all the preparations I did ahead of time helped a lot! The dress is View C, with the length of View A. The midi length is one of my favorites.

Because there is lots of stay stitching (which I recommend you do), you may find that you’ll use a lot of thread. But those stitches are important since they help to keep the pattern pieces from stretching out of shape.

It’s important to give yourself as little room for confusion as possible when making a color blocked garment. That’s especially important if you don’t do many projects like this. I used a very similar process when I made this color-blocked top.

Conclusion

Overall, I can recommend Simplicity 9886 color-blocked dress. It can be made for bold and bright colors, or you can choose something more subtle. I believe that with a bit of preplanning, you can have a successful garment completed in a short amount of time. The dress is comfortable to wear and I think it’s a good addition to my spring/summer wardrobe.

McCall’s 8244 Top

This is another project I made for my monthly Minerva make. While I didn’t get the fabric from them, I was gifted the pattern from Minerva. This is part of the #SewnWithMcCalls Minerva Challenge. I’ll add details for that challenge down below. I decided to make this McCall’s 8244 top. The only change I made to this was to leave the hood off of the long-sleeve top.

The Plan

Because this is a color blocked top, I wanted to make sure I kept everything organized the way I wanted.

The first thing I did was to make a sketch of where I wanted the fabrics to be. Part was based on how I wanted it to look, and part was based on the amount of fabric I had available. All of the pattern pieces are cut out on a single layer (right side of fabric faces up). One of the easiest and fastest ways of cutting out all of the pieces is to use a rotary cutter.

Sewing The McCall’s 8244 Top

Although the pattern calls for a 5/8″ seam allowance (standard for the Big 4), I used 1/2″ for the most part. I wanted to make sure that the top had enough room. There was no way I was going to attempt to do an FBA on these pieces. Thankfully, everything worked out really well.

Things worked out so well that this came together in a couple of hours. I sewed everything on the serger except the hems. Trimming the hems with applique scissors or curved scissors is really helpful to reduce bulk. Twin needle for the win to do all the hemming. I used scrap fabric for all the pieces in this.

I actually have leggings that match the paint splatter fabric at the bottom, so that could be another look for this top. This was actually more fun and less stressful than I thought it would be.

Minerva Makes and Challenge

Here are some previous Minerva makes I’ve made recently.

As far as the #SewnWithMcCalls Minerva challenge, anyone can enter if you have used a McCall’s pattern. You can check out their site to learn about the challenge rules, etc. And you can also get a free dress pattern (PDF).

*This contains affiliate links…

McCall’s 5252 Fleece Jacket

I have been on a mission this year to a) use fabric I already have, and b) to use many of the patterns I already have. I believe this is the third time I’ve made something from this pattern. Here’s one time and the other. McCall’s 5252 fleece jacket and vest pattern is a “misses’ and men’s” pattern with lots of variations. The pattern came out in about 2006, and I realize now that I bought this THREE different times! But that’s okay because it’s small-medium-large so now I have a pattern for every size. Much to my surprise, the pattern is still available on the McCall’s website.

I color blocked the jacket so that I could use the blue sweatshirt fleece I had leftover from the sweatpants I made. I used the orange fleece that was leftover from another project, as well.

Color blocking is a great way to use up leftover fabrics!

I had to shorten the jacket by about 4″ in order to make this and have enough material.

The pockets (two front side pockets and a chest pocket) can be closed with Velcro, although I haven’t sewn that onto mine. I do plan to make another one with fleece that is at the length the pattern’s supposed to be. If you make workout gear and you want a warm jacket to wear, this is a good option. I wanted something colorful to wear while walking. But I also need something warm. This solves both of those issues.

Planning my projects:

Generally, I’m really trying to plan my sewing projects well this year. Not only do I want to use the fabrics and patterns that I already have, I want to get better at matching up the right fabric with the right pattern. I know that every pattern will give you suggestions on what to use, but sometimes I have other ideas in mind. It often means taking the time to determine what type of pattern adjustments should be made before cutting.

Let me know in the comments if you’ve done any color blocking on your projects. Are you fabric stash busting this year?