McCall’s 6887 in Linen

If I had to describe the process of making this dress in one word, that word would be “meh.” Cutting the fabric was a bit of a nightmare because it kept shifting around on me. I’ve never run across that with linen before, but this is only my third linen project, so I maybe I just got lucky prior to this. I thought I did an okay job cutting despite the shifting, but as I started to get things sewn together, I realized I didn’t. I had some weird puckering on one of the side pieces of the bodice front when I picked it up that was nonexistent when my bodice was laid flat on my ironing board. I kept trying to figure out if something went wrong easing it in, but I finally accepted that the piece was slightly off-grain. And as I sewed together some of my skirt panels, I began to notice that they were slightly off-grain, too. At that point I decided to just skip the sleeves and get the thing done the best I could.

OAL_McCalls6887_Front OAL_McCalls6887_Back

Overall, it’s an okay dress. I sewed the size 12 with the D cup pieces. The fit through the bust and waist is great, and linen outer fabric and lightweight cotton lining make the dress feel amazing when I’m wearing it. After I took these pictures, however, I noticed something was up with the neckline. I had been so fixated on the bust, I didn’t even notice until now. I needed to make the shoulders less sloped, which is a modification I’ve never needed to do before. In fact, I’ve had to do the opposite! Making the shoulder angle less dramatic would have made my neckline lay flatter as well as the shoulders and back. Oh, well! I’ll probably wear it as much as any other dress, despite its flaws. It just feels really good on.

OAL_McCalls6887_Side OAL_McCalls6887_Hem

Since the dress wasn’t going that great, I decided that I might as well experiment a bit with the hem. I did a rolled hem using my rolled hem foot which I’ve previously only used on my linings. This fabric was too bulky at the seams to get a consistently rolled edge all the way around, so after I did my first pass, I switched the rolled hem foot for a basic foot, turned my rolled hem up once, and sewed that. It made a nice narrow hem and hid all of the oddities of my first pass. I’m really happy with the way that turned out and will likely do it again in the future.


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8 responses to “McCall’s 6887 in Linen”

  1. The neckline/shoulder slope thing is so weird! The bodice (appears to) fit perfectly otherwise.

    1. It does fit really well other than the shoulder issue! I’ll probably use this pattern again in the future but be sure to fix that shoulder.

  2. As it’s only the shoulders it should be really easy to fix. The end of your shoulder fits ok so you should be able to pinch out that area of excess so it lies flat. If it doesn’t work it is only a small area to sew again. Do it after your OAL photos though!

    1. It’s really not an easy fix. I’d have to take the entire dress apart to access that seam because of how I attached my lining.

  3. Oh, it’s gorgeous! I would love to learn sewing! This dress is so inspiring! I love your style.

  4. It’s a cute dress! Sorry that the fabric fought you all along the way, and yeah, that shoulder and neckline is a little off, but I don’t think it really takes away from how cute this dress is! I hope you can wear it and forget about the hassles it gave you (and just make a note on the pattern for next time). 🙂

  5. kim

    Where you shop for yarn and fabric? And how do you afford it? I get so discouraged when I want to make a project. I am in Kent, just a hop from Seattle. Lovely work.

    1. I shop at Pacific Fabrics and District Fabric.

      I don’t know what to say in response to the question about how I afford it. I can afford it because my income and budget allow for it.

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