Princess Seams

I found this really great pattern last year: McCall's 6741, and decided to try it as my skills were improving.  I just love the way the princess seam follows the curves of the body.  This dress is very flattering because it has the great fit of the princess seams, and the feminine fun of the flared skirt.  That said, I did NOT love sewing princess seams!  This dress has EIGHT of them (4 for the main fabric, 4 for the lining).  Well... it was certainly an opportunity for learning.  So I suffered through all eight of the seams, and by the time I finished I was ready to trash the dress and be done.  But I was actually very happy with the results!  I love the pockets too, even if I did put them together a little wrong.  By this point I was also a little better with zippers, so I consider this dress wearable.  I did use a cheap lining fabric from Joanne, and it was very uncomfortable, so I ended up cutting most of it out, leaving just a small portion of the bodice on the inside.  The main fabric is a nice linen.  It's a beautiful fabric, but definitely makes me wish I had a serger.

I revisited this pattern again this year.  This time I used a cotton poplin fabric with a little stretch.  It feels great, but I like the drape of the linen skirt a little better.  I made the dress slightly larger, because the linen one had very little breathing room, but honestly I didn't need to because of the comfort of this fabric.  I flew through the princess seams this time, and only built a small bodice portion of the lining.  That was a huge time saver, and the full lining really isn't necessary. So this version turned out really great, but I'm not crazy about the colors/print on me.  Guess I will have to make another one :)