The 1957 Clare McCardell dress pattern has been sitting with my patterns for far too long. When I heard about the competition from Evadress I knew it was the perfect time to stop procrastinating and make myself a fab dress. It takes a fair heft of fabric to make and sadly the bold monochrome print jersey I originally planned for it was short by about a metre! I ummed and ahhed over the pinstripe but I'm really glad I went with it. The grain in the raglan sleeves works beautifully and there's something very pleasing/potentially slimming about the diagonals meeting centre front and back.
It was all a bit of a dream to put together to be honest, the zip was probably the fiddliest part, as zips are wont to be, and I learned an interesting new technique inside the underarms or protecting the clipped curves with a small bias covering. It makes sense when you think about it, with no armscye seam allowance to protect it, that's an area of high stress to have just a clipped seam on.
The dress itself is wonderfully comfortable (I've been wearing it at work all day today - and I got so many compliments!) and the fabric is quite an easy-care and resists creasing quite well. The front of the skirt is a fairly straight pencil skirt look, it's the back where all that fabric went! A mass of pleats at the back give it a brilliant swish when walking and pulls the whole thing into a really flattering shape. I would have liked the sash a bit longer for the bow at the back but that's easily fixed for the next incarnation, which will almost certainly be in jersey this time!
