Spring Dress Mash-Up

After a few years of t-shirts and sweatpants, it felt good to break out the dress patterns again. It took me about a month to sew this one up, and I enjoyed taking my time to make something nice. 

Pattern: McCall's Meadow Dress M8105 with McCall's Dawn Dress M8104 

Fabric: 2+ yds rayon

Cost: free

This dress is a mash-up between M8104 and M8105, mostly because I got the two mixed up in my head and thought it was one pattern. Once I dug them out and realized my mistake, I couldn't help but try making my vision a reality. The dress is mostly M8105 with the cut-on sleeves and sleeve ruffles of M8104. 

McCall's M8105 is actually a pretty clever pattern. The base is a simple strappy dress, but there's a tie overlay that attaches to the neckline and wraps around the body, giving it a faux-wrap style. It makes it very easy to fit but with a sophisticated draped look. 

What was not so easy was adapting it to have cut-on sleeves. That, and making it out of just 2 yards of fabric. I used every scrap of the fabric and puzzled through some fitting issues with the sleeves and the ties. Admittedly, I probably wouldn't recommend this mash-up, as the ties can pull a bit on the sleeves. But it ended up looking pretty good and even gives me enough movement for dancing. 

But I can't quite make up my mind about the sleeves. I love the flounce in theory, but on my body it feels like it overwhelms my frame. For our second wedding this month, I took the sleeve flounce off to try it the other way. What do you think? This is the second time I've sewn a project with the sleeves from this pattern and the second time I've taken them off, so there might be a lesson in there. 

As a bonus, the Mr. got to finally wear this coat I made for him way back when we thought we were going to a wedding in March 2020.