TNT Stashbusting

Musings of a Seamstress - M6073

Hey Stashbusters!  How are you doing on your dress sewing this month? I meant to post about this dress two weeks ago, but Eric and I were celebrating our anniversary by going to Canada!  It was a blast! I may have bought one piece of fabric as a souvenir.  We’ll pretend like I didn’t do that for now though.

This week I am back with another version of my TNT knit dress, McCall’s 6073.  I have made this dress so many times I can’t even tell you what version number this one is.  I think maybe I should give this pattern a rest for a bit.  For this version, I used my redrafted bodice pieces to create a scoop neckline instead of the cross over V-neck.  I also did a quick and easy rolled hem.  That is my new preferred hem finish for knit dresses.  It is easier and looks better than a turned and stitched hem, in my opinion.

Musings of a Seamstress - M6073

For my fabrics I picked up two yards of this awesome Aztec coral and purple cotton jersey blend from Girl Charlee way back in February.  I had intended to use it for this dress and picked up a royal purple cotton spandex to go with it.  On the Girl Charlee site they looked like they would match perfectly together.  Unfortunately,  in person that was not the case.  The purple in the print was just too dark to match the royal purple solid.  Now, I have one yard of royal purple cotton spandex in my stash.  Bah!

Musings of a Seamstress - M6073

Luckily, I still had a little bit of navy ponte de roma from a few years ago when I did the Adoption Dress Project.  The navy looked great with the coral print, so it won!  In the end I used, 1.5 yards of purple/coral Aztec print for $9.38, and .75 yards of navy ponte de roma for $5.84.  The total fabric cost for this dress is $15.22.  I don’t think that is too bad for just the materials cost.  If you were to factor in an hourly rate of minimum wage for two hours, this is about what you would pay for a knit dress at Target.  I will take that!

Oh oh and before I go, I have to tell you some exciting news!  If you follow me on Facebook you probably already saw this last month, so I am sorry for being repetitive. But……I am one of the new bloggers for Cali & Co Fabrics! I am pretty excited about this opportunity!  Awhile back they posted a call out for bloggers on their blog and I applied.  I was surprised that I actually got picked.  The list of other bloggers is full of quite a few well known sewing bloggers.  I finished my first garment this past weekend and it should go live on their blog sometime soon.  Make sure to follow their blog to see all the awesome things my co-bloggers are making!

Me Made May Day 4: M6073

McCall's 6073 M6073

I know I said I would only post a weekly review of my outfits, but I was just so excited about my new McCall’s 6073 maxi dress I had to post it now!

Musings of a Seamstress M6073This is one of the four garments that I have made over the last two months that has gone unblogged about.  Today it was a warm 77 degrees.  Perfect temperature for sandals and a maxi dress.  I choose to wear the dress with one of my white cardigans today, but the denim jacket I recently made (also unblogged) would look great with the dress too.

This is only my second version of this particular pattern and I don’t know why.  I love this style.  My other version from 2012 is one of my favorite maxi dresses, so I feel like I should have made several others since then.  My review from then still stands.  I didn’t change anything from that

M6073 Musings of a Seamstress

For this version I used .5 yard of black ponte knit from Fabric Mart and 2.5 yards of black and white chevron ponte knit from Girl Charlee (I’ll leave this here, just in case.)  Both of these pieces came from the stash, purchased last year.  The total materials cost for this dress is $10.13.  Yep, $10.13!  I know that I could not buy a similar dress for that cost…ever!
So, where did the inspiration for this dress come from? Pinterest, of course!  First, the dress teal and leafy print dress here.  The style is
exactly what I made and love, but I was also intrigued by the idea of a print bottom with a solid top.  Then I found the  chevron dress here.  Now, as a bigger busted chica this version would not work well as I would not be able to wear a regular bra.  Too bad though because I do not have any dresses with this neckline.  Maybe someday in a shorter version. Anyways, getting back to the inspiration, I looked at my stash and realized I had the amazing variegated chevron and a solid black ponte.  It was a divine moment.

M6073 Musings of a Seamstress

The clouds parted, the sun shone down on me and angels sang.  Just for a moment all was right in the world.  Divine I tell you!

How many more versions of this can I/should I make?  The verdict is still out.