Green Madras Babydoll

Years ago, I thrifted several yards of a green/cyan/beige cotton madras.  There was enough that I had considered making a suit for the kiddo, but his style (and leg length) no longer work with that idea, so I decided to use it for the idea mentioned a few posts ago, of making a variation of my fake Burda 6401 that would be somewhat of a fake McCall's 8197 (which I have, but I am irritated by its scooped back and lack of interfacing.)

The main difference between 6401 and 8197, when viewed from the front, is that 8197's neckline is significantly more scooped, and the waistline is higher.  The first attempt at the pattern variation was a bit too scooped in the neck and high in the waist.  At least I figured that out before attaching the skirt, so I only hassled with removing (and re-using) the sleeves.

The neckline is no longer bra-revealingly low, but the waistline could maybe go up a bit more if I really want to emulate 8197's lines...which...maybe, maybe not.  This still definitely works.

I figured out, a few Fake Burda 6401s ago, that the sleeves are cut so the cuff angle is as flat as I want, but the hanger I use for these photos is wider than my shoulders are, so it hikes the sleeves up a bit.

This close-up does show some of the many flaws in this fabric, but the fact that it's 100% cotton makes up for that--it'll be fine on a humid summer day.

I'm not sure what's changes in my mind, that I used to do quarter inch rolled hems on dresses like this, no problem, but I've been choosing less-obvious hems in the last few weeks, opting for another blind hem on this one.

It's not the most concealed stitching, but it's good enough.

There's still white thread in the serger, but I don't think I have any other colors that would match better anyway.  And, yes: pockets!

(I'm not sure why the bottom edge of the pocket bag seems to be diving so far into the hem here, because the hem is stitched securely all around.)

McCall's 8197 has a back as scooped as the front, and I'm sure I could make a variation of this pattern that also does that, but that's very much one of the features I don't like about 8197, so I set up the scooped front pattern piece to work with the existing back pattern piece.

I am slowly rebuilding my summer wardrobe of cotton pullover babydoll dresses, trying to be more intentional about fabric choices this time.  I first made them because of body image issues combined with "let's just put a bunch of random stuff together"--which was fun (well, not the body image part), but led to some weird design decisions that, ultimately, weren't really ~me~.  With the amount of stuff I've sewn over the last two years, I have had to learn to admit when things should be let go, and hopefully use that to learn to maybe not make some things to begin with.  Maybe.