McCalls M7352

Fabric: Fabric: 100% Linen from Joann’s

I wanted an unlined dress for summer — something I could throw on in August to stay cool when I’m at farmer’s market or the grocery store. I also needed a sample of this pattern for my princess seam fitting class, so I dove into my stash and came up with this cheap linen, conveniently forgetting my own adage: “Cotton wrinkles when you look at it. Linen wrinkles when you THINK about looking at it.” So, please excuse the wrinkles. I literally walked from the ironing board outside to take the pictures. Sigh.

Anyway, since this dress is unlined, the side seams are French seams, and the princess seams are flat felled seams that wrap from the hem in the front, over the shoulder to the hem in the back. I am inordinately proud of how smooth they are over the bust, (even if the photo looks like they are wrinkled. Sigh. Again.) The zipper is hand picked, and hand embellished. The idea for the embellishments at the hem and zipper came from my American Sewing Guild’s Couture Group, which spent last month’s meeting exploring the hand embellishments of Alabama Chanin. So, thanks, gals, for forcing me to revisit embroidery after so many years!