McCalls 7599
Who’s ready for an Epic Fail? This girl!
So.. I messed up. I was so excited to do this 1950s dress pattern from McCall’s only to have my dreams cut short. Literally.
So this story begins at a tiny discount fabric store in Somerville Massachusetts called Sewfisticated Fabric. I first read about it online and just had to get there to experience it for myself. And I did experience it. And yes, it lived up to it’s reviews on Yelp. I came across some really special fabric and never paid more then $3.99 a yard (as little as$1.99). I left the store with armfuls of fabric that frankly, did not belong in a discount bin.
The crowing jewel of this mother load was this blue watercolored floral that was obviously a product sample. When the store owner commented on my purchases she pointed out this fabric and claimed it was for 2020 spring. I’m not confident if it’s for 2020; but I would not be surprised if it was intended for 2019. I wish I could tell you who produced or designed the fabric, but as it was just a manufacturer’s sample, there are little to no clues. The salvage is just a secret code which was misprinted anyways. It’s scary to think, but quite possible, that this fabric was passed over by the merchandisers and it won’t be moving forward to the market (hence why it wound up in a discount store). That would be such a shame. I mean LOOK at it.. it’s beautiful!
So, on to the fail..
I had purchased my usual 4 yards thinking I had more then enough material to create this dress.. but HA! Nope.. First of all the bolt was mislabeled (fair enough because it was a discount store and it was just a sample. They probably just threw it on an old bolt that was empty. So instead of the 60″ wide fabric, I only had 45″. So even if I wanted to make dress A (which um.. confession, I didn’t. I wanted dress B. Another mistake), I didn’t have enough. I was WAY, WAY off. I needed about 6 yards. If only I had realized this before cutting the first half of the full circle skirt. But I did not. Because lets face it. Mistakes are inevitable when you’re learning. So please feel welcome to learn from MY mistakes and double check everything. I got cocky and thought I knew what I was doing after the success of those first few dresses.
So there I was.. With half a full circle skirt cut out and not enough fabric to even make another full circle to complete the skirt. Not wanting to waste this exquisite fabric, I took to Youtube and came across this tutorial by Oaishe. With a few adjustments I was able to still walk away with a wearable piece.
I cut as much of the second half circle skirt as I could then trimmed both halves so that they were pretty even angles up to the waist. Then I sewed them together down one side and took a look. It was somewhere between a half-circle and full-circle skirt and it looked like it would work out just fine. I used an old invisible zipper that I had on hand. Although I still have to adjust/alter the waist to fit a little snugger, I have to admit it looks pretty cute. Perhaps this was a ‘happy mistake’ as we used to say in art school.
The only man who never makes a mistake is the man who never does anything.
Theodore Roosevelt
I still have this dress pattern ready to rock for the next time I come across an extra special 6 yards of heaven.
I’ll have to come back to 7599-B.
Sew & Pattern 