McCall's 7118 in Linen

I have been on the hunt for a sun dress pattern for a couple of summers now.  What I had in mind was a dress that allowed me to wear a regular bra.  There are plenty out there that call for strapless bras but I like my weekends to involve comfort and a strapless and comfort are never going to appear in the same sentence. 











 I came across McCall's 7118 and while I loved the look of it, strangely enough there were only a couple of reviews.    I was particularly drawn to the lovely double strap detail at the back.  A bit of research, however revealed that this dress is really low cut at the back and in fact sat well below bra line.  It didn't require a zip so I figured it was an easy fix.  A bit of draping over my mannequin and some careful measuring and I had my solution in the form of a raised back.  I drew my new lines on my pattern and proceeded to cut the pattern out.

I had some lovely soft pastel linen that I bought from Cotura Fashions at the end of last summer in their sale ear marked for this sun dress.  With no wearable muslin it was a bit of a risk using this fabric, but I went ahead boldly and cut it out.  Apart from the fit, my main concerns were that the fabric was just a little shear and in the bright light of day it would be see through.  After completing the dress I realised this was in fact the case.  Rather than using a synthetic lining, I chose a light weight cotton lawn in white as a lining.

I have to say, the biggest challenge of the whole project was getting all of those straps to sit nicely.  This required pinning on my mannequin and some very careful fitting manoeuvres to get it right.

Despite the extra layer of lining, my new sun dress is lovely and cool to wear and really comfortable.  I am quite keen now to have a go at one of the other views.