McCall's 6282 Knit Dress

Here's the finished dress, I made collar/view C and sleeves/ view A.  I'm pretty happy with the result and think I'll get lots of wear out of this one.  I do quite a bit of fitting while sewing, as the pattern designers (Palmer/Pletsch) suggest.  I really gave plenty of thought about whether or not to add a bust dart.  After it was done, and I pin fit the dress, I hated them; now that all is put together, I'm glad I did.  I changed the gathers on the dress, they are supposed to go across the waistline but I lowered them to the high hip line- I just don't want extra fabric at the waist, they made a rectangular silhouette.  I used a JET lining from Jo-Ann's fabric and made it a teenie bit smaller, like Spanx!  That worked out great.  I also used a twin needle on my Bernina 1530 and it produced a smooth and beautiful hemline; I'm pleased with that.  I love the fabric, it's a cotton with Lycra from FabricMart, the soft-toned animal print is lovely.

Here's what I liked about this pattern:

• The basic draft, which included a lining
• Collar and sleeve choices

I didn't like:

• Instructions- I think they were a bit confusing and would probably cause a beginner to make mistakes.
• Sizing.  I felt this pattern ran a little large for a knit dress and I had to tweak quite a bit.  To be fair I did use a very stretchy knit, but I still think it should have been drafted smaller through the middle.