Pattern Review: McCall 7805

 Hello all!  

As I have been working on getting my Etsy shop updated and my blog to match....well....things changed.  I have been suffering from depression, anxiety and panic.  My mental health has been a struggle for years and it all came to a head recently.  I am in the process of getting divorced and my soon to be ex has moved out.  The high point of this is that I now have a sewing studio where I can settle for a little bit of sewing.

That little bit has turned into a LOT.  Since he moved out a little over a month ago, I have sewn the following:

- 9 tote bags (maybe more, I can't quite remember suddenly)

- 1 purse

- 2 throw blankets

- 2 toss pillows

- 2 cat bed pillows

- 2 draft dodgers

- 1 pillow cover

- 2 skirts

- 2 more face masks (cause this is our life now)

- and McCall's 7805 for my girl's Christmas dress.

The last item brings us to today's post.  I have a tendency to post mostly on my Instagram @the.poisoned.ribbon (I will have a link to it over on the side eventually), but I realized that with the new year coming up, I need to work on my blog as well.  So with that in mind, I decided to go ahead and work on my pattern reviews and some of my reuse posts.

Without further adieu....

McCall's 7805.

Made in a size 14 with Christmas Calico Cotton from Jo-Ann Fabrics. I bought 4 yards, which was a little more, but I can't always follow the cutting diagram due to space restrictions.  I, also, can't crawl around on the floor to lay out patterns because of three cats and my bad knee and back.  So, I always buy more fabric that I need to make sure that I can lay out the pattern without having to worry about length.  Also, to account for shrinkage of the cotton.  Which, oddly enough, the cotton didn't really shrink much.  I ended up having enough leftover for a face mask to match and some to hand over to my mum, who gets all of my scraps for her own sewing.

She opted for View D (the brown plaid pictured in the bottom left corner).  

This didn't look like a hard pattern to do and I am an experienced seamstress.  I have been sewing off and on for almost thirty years, either on the machine or by hand.  And - this pattern was labeled as being EASY.

And for the most part it was Easy.  The bodice construction went together fairly easily.  Unfortunately, I didn't think ahead on this part and didn't take any pictures as I wasn't planning on making a blog post about it, so I don't have any process pictures.  Please bear with me.  

The straps were easy enough, just a tube turned right side out and ironed.  

The sleeves were quick and simple, though my first problem came here.  The pattern picture showed the attaching of the cuffs to the sleeve, but they showed it placing the cuff (right side out) against the wrong side of the sleeve.  I didn't even think about it first, so I sewed it on and lo and behold -- it was wrong.  This made the seam on the outside, which didn't work at all and didn't make any sense because the sleeves were supposed to be lined, therefore hiding the seam from the cuff.  I ripped it off with the seam ripper and did it the right way.  At this point, I have sewed the sleeves to the main bodice fabric and have done a fitting.  I also added the collar to the bodice, which was easy.  It seems very loose and bulky, so I could only hope that it would fit better once the skirt was on and I had the buttons down the front.

This leads me on to the next problem.  The sleeves are supposed to be lined.  I cut out the lining following the pattern and sewed them together so that I could attach them.  Somewhere.  At some point.  The next step, however, had nothing to do with the sleeves.  Instead it was time to construct the bodice lining.  It went together just the same as the outlining.  But the attachment process just didn't make much sense.  I pinned the lining on at the sides and across the front, making sure to tuck the straps in at the small dots.  It wants you to attach the lining to the armholes - not the sleeve - so I did.  Turning it right side out, I did another quick fitting.  Still seems to be ok, but kinda large.  

Turning it wrong side out again, I set about trimming and ironing to get ready to attach the sleeve lining.  But there are no instructions to do so.  I read over the sheet over and over again.  It shows the sleeve lining attached for View B (which is really just the shorter version of this dress), but it doesn't give instructions for how to actually attach the sleeve lining.  I fiddled and fussed, but I just could not make heads or tails of the attachment process.  Eventually, I just gave up and left it raw.  She wasn't going to wear this dress a ton and if I have to I will go in and zig-zag the edges and trim it down.

So, here I moved on to the skirt.  This went together very easily, as it is only three pieces, the back which is cut on the fold and the two front pieces.  There is a facing for the skirt, which is where the buttonholes and buttons go.  This gets attached to the front pieces and the seams all get ironed down.  The bodice gets attached to the skirt, matching up the seams.  It all fit together quite nicely, so gaps or odd easing needed.  I sewed it together and did another fitting.  It was at this point that I realized the collar was just kind hanging there and the sleeve edge was still raw.  But, I had to fit the straps now.  I slid them into the little gaps that I left in the bodice construction and pinned them into place.  They aren't quite right as they fall down a lot, but this was where they wanted them to go.  I hoped that once the buttons were on and it was being work with proper undergarments, it would fit better.  (hint: it did)

Back to the instructions.  There are no instructions for what to do with the floppy loose collar.  The image on the front, clearly showed that it was attached to the tops of the sleeves, but there are no references anywhere in the pattern to make that happen.  I ended up turning over the top of the raw edge of the sleeve and top stitching the collar down.  It fit together fine, no gaps or gathering needed.  I just wish that there had been instructions.  

Time for buttonholes.  I really don't like doing buttonholes.  Mostly because I don't do them much and I always seem to get something wrong when I am doing them.  I practice a bunch with scraps until I am sure that I can get them looking right, then move on to the garment.  Surprise!  They all went in fine.  A little wibbly in places, but fine.  Buttons were next.  No problems there.  

Time for a try on!  It ended up coming out very nice.  I like it and so does she.  The biggest problem that I found, after completing it, was that the top was far larger, even with the option for cup sizes, than most other ones in this size.  The waist was fine, but the top really needed to be smaller.  She ended up making it work with a wide belt.  That really helped a lot and broke up the green plaid ocean. 

So...all in all, the end result was a nice dress for Christmas at the grandparents house.  I am going to be making this again, though next time the plan is to make this as a pinafore dress and to make a separate top for wearing with skirts and shorts.  I think that will work a little easier as I won't have to fight with the sleeves, but I suppose we will see when it's time.

For now, it's done and I am happy with it.

Let's move on to my scoring system for reviews:  I have a ten-point system that I am going to be using.   - 10 points is the best and usually means that I  love it!  

- 9-6 points means that I love it and there were a few issues that can be broken down bit by bit.

- 5 points means that it was iffy and there were issues

- 4-2 points means that there were problems and they will be highlighted

- 1 point means, well, I gave up somewhere along the way.

I give this pattern a 10/10 for the appearance of the finished garment.  It looks nice and has nice clean lines.

A 7/10 for sizing as the measurements were a little wonky compared to the same measurements for other patterns from McCall

And finally a 2/10 for ease of construction.  The instructions were a mess and I wanted to toss it in a heap so many times, but I didn't.  I wanted to beat this pattern and make it work, so I persevered.  I am glad I did.

There you have it.  I hope that if you try this pattern you have more luck than I did with the instructions.  I will likely follow up with another review on this one when I make the pinafore dress since it won't have sleeves.  

If anyone McCall's happens to see this...well, please take this to heart and make some changes to the instructions, or at least a FAQ update on the pattern entry on your website.  

Thanks all!  Have a nice day!