McCall’s black dress

Two of my loved McCall’s patterns, 3326 and 3468, from my instagram.

This little number has been on the back burner for a while now, and I finished it a month or so back, and, yes, I love it.

I made the dress by combining two McCall’s patterns I have worked with before, I knew the fit would work, all I was doing was swapping the skirt and bodice, they had the same side seam closure, and are the same size, easy! McCall’s 3326, I first worked with a while back, then, McCalls 3468 was made a year or so back. I was undecided about a number of things, go wild with some stunning big silver buttons? Self belt, or nice vintage buckle? Or no belt? Shoulder pads, too much?

Big buttons or no?

I lined the bodice with a lovely white with black spotted cotton, used buttons from my mums old button stash, and I made bound button holes. Beautiful bound button holes.

Bound button holes.

I varied them slightly though, going for one ‘lip’ instead of two, this was due mainly to the bulky fabric, saved a bit of work, and I think works well. The fabric was fairly bulky, and stitching one lip seemed to work well, it sits nice and flat, and is, of course, functional.

Inside, the back of the bound button holes.

I don’t usually wear black these days, so this was a step out of my comfort zone, and I am dangerously close to making and wearing more black…

Fancy horse hair braid inside the hem, see? not completely black….

I added synthetic horse hair braid to the hem of this dress, something I tried with the skirt of my vintage suit.

This time, I trimmed it with red bias binding, this gives the hem a slight crispness, and when you swirl, a lovely edge, see?

Nice huh?

It is the shirt collar that I loved the most about McCalls 3326, it’s very simple to sew and – I think – so very chic.

Such a great shape!

See? So nice.

This dress is easily a stylish day dress, but throw on a hat, some gloves and it’s a sophisticated evening – or in my case – the perfect demure funeral dress. This baby had her first real outing to farewell my dear Nana Joy, a very talented sewist in her own right, always ready to praise or critique when necessary!

Angela xo