Review of McCall’s 7095

Hey Sewcialists! I have a new top to share today.  This was another garment that I made for the Pattern Review Wardrobe Contest.   This is McCall’s 7095 in view D, which I made way back in February. In keeping with my capsule collection theme, I choose to keep this top in the same color scheme as my McCall’s 7093 top.  In fact, I sewed the two tops back to back.

For this top I used 1.75 yards of Grayscale Tree Silhouettes Peach Skin fabric from Girl Charlee. I got this fabric during a Black Friday sale for $3.65 a yard ($6.40 total).   This was a gorgeous fabric that has been languishing in my stash since 2014, because I just could not decide on a pattern that would let the print shine.  I really wanted a pattern that would allow the full print to be unbroken up and M7095 does just that.  Then I needed a great lace for the yoke.  I went on one heck of a search trying to find the perfect one.  I ended up getting three different 1 yard cuts from Fabric Mart. I choose to go with this nylon crochet look floral, even though I had doubts it would work based on the scale of the print.  I am glad I ignored my doubts. It turned out exactly how I was hoping.  I used half a yard of this lace which cost $4.50.  The total fabric cost of this garment is $10.90.

The pattern envelope describes it as this:

Very loose-fitting, pullover tops and tunics have front and back gathered into yokes, and narrow hem.

Very loose-fitting is correct! It has massive amounts of ease built into the body.  This has some pros and cons for me.

Pro – It is great for hiding the tummy and showing off prints.

Cons – So much ease in the bust makes it feel a bit frumpy and underarm hangs below my bra strap

My solution to this was to take out 4″ at the side seam from each underarm and taper it down to nothing at the waistline.  This took out a total of 8″ from the bust area, which helped to prevent my bra from hanging out and making me feel frumpy.  The only other change I made was to eliminate the elastic and elastic casing at the waist.  For me, the elastic waist was one of the draws of this pattern.  After seeing that it was created with a casing I knew I had to nix it.  I hate casings.  They are darn near impossible to stitch straight and make them look good.  I much prefer to have a seam at the waist and make a casing out of the seam allowance of that seam. In my opinion it looks better because you do not have your stitching showing on the outside of the garment.

Add a belt!  This is one of my favorite accessories to add to loose tops, because it draws the attention to the smallest part of my torso while still camouflaging my tummy.  Here I am wearing one of my favorite wide black belts, but adding a different belt does give me an opportunity to add a pop of color to my outfit and change up the look.

I am pretty pleased with the final outcome of this top.  I think this can be a fun top to wear casually like I am here or dress it up.  The black and white color scheme allows me to wear this so many different ways  I definitely plan to wear this mostly casual with my colorful skinnies.  To dress it up I can see this top working really well tucked into a high-waisted pencil skirt.

I cannot say if I will make this top again in within the next six months or so.  I do enjoy it with the changes I made, but it is a unique top as it is.  I do not think I have room in my wardrobe for two tops like this.  This is the same reason I don’t think I am going to make another version of M7093 yet.