McCall 6070, Double V Surplice Knit Dress (de Espana)

I picked up McCall 6070 last year because I was attracted to the casual breezy look of it. I'm not sure why I bought the pattern, as there is an almost identical view in Simplicity 3503, which I've already used to make my maxi dress. I guess I just like variety!

Samina asked about this fabric as the skirt to go with my ruched front top. It is a rayon knit that I bought in Barcelona in September 2009 while shopping with Paco! I love buying fabric as a souvenir, as it reminds me of the trip every time I wear the garment.

I did my usual small bust adjustment for a crossover front of shortening the crossover. In this instance, I'm not sure it was totally necessary. With both the front and back being equal V crossovers, the weight hangs evenly from the shoulders and keeps the bodice flat against the chest, unlike with a higher back neckline that can cause a top to ride forward, resulting in front gapeage. With this alteration on this dress, the center front of the skirt is a little shorter than the sides because of the shortened bodice. But no gaping, so I won't quibble.

I did *not* narrow the gathering area below the bust. It is the perfect amount of gather for my A cup, so I would think larger cups might want to consider slashing and spreading to add more room there.

Because the weight of the fabric holds the bodice flat against the chest, I did not use clear elastic in finishing the neckline as I normally would, just folded over and twin needled. In retrospect, I should have used the elastic--not to snug up the neckline, but to help support the weight of the dress. My rayon knit is rather thin and so I lined the midriff and skirt, which puts a lot of pressure on the bodice to carry the weight.

While this is better quality rayon knit than most (I have a whole rant of that for a later post), it is still rather wimpy with little strength and recovery. After a day of wearing, I realized that, with the progressive stretching of the rayon, after several wears the apex of the V was going to show my navel. So after the first wear I sewed ribbon "suspenders" in to support the weight. The suspenders are sewn to the midriff seam allowance (for maximum strength) and tacked to the shoulders to keep them in place. I haven't worn it with the suspenders yet, but a try-on showed that the shortening of the CF hem nearly disappeared and that the bodice felt much more secure than before. They do not create a line on the outside.

Because of limited fabric, I did a serger rolled hem on the skirt to preserve as much length as possible. However, the benefit of the rayon stretching is that I will eventually be able to put a regular hem in (the skirt is already about an inch longer than when it was finished a couple weeks ago). Looking on the bright side here, people.

For swayback, I shortened the waistline edge of the back skirt by about an inch at center front, tapering to nothing at the sides. I should have done something about the midriff and/or pleated the skirt lining rather than gathering, because the back fit is not gorgeous (doesn't hug the back but kind of hangs off the upper midriff seam), but it is not noticeable either.




This dress ended up exactly as I had hoped. It is cute with a little bit of style and also very comfortable to wear for summer. The downside of Super Special Souvenir Fabric is that if anything goes wrong with the project it is a little devastating. Luckily, there was nothing devastating about this! I left off the back tie, because that seemed to be just too casual for work, and I did not have any trouble with the shoulders falling off.

All photos are here and the pattern review is here.