Linen Tie Front Dress – McCall’s 7950

The creation of this dress was sort of an accident. I saw numerous dresses on Instagram, Pinterest, and just about any store online was offering this summer dress. After seeing someone on Instagram with a black linen dress, I picked up the pattern. My intention was to use McCall’s 7950 and create View C in a shorter version, to mimic this very popular style this summer. However, my plans quickly changed.

Now I have been in love with mustard yellow for a few months now. I love anything linen and have a cute linen top made of similar fabric. I have a few different fabrics in my stash in this color, both solid and prints. A pair of mustard yellow heels even made it into my closet a few months ago. After looking at McCall’s 7950 for a few weeks, I finally decided to use my mustard yellow linen fabric that I picked up from Joann’s earlier in the spring. The fabric is beautiful and is the perfect weight linen for a summer dress.

I cut out View C but made it on the length of view A. After sewing up the dress, I immediately had a problem. The width of the bodice was entirely too big. I cut it out on the size 16, my recommended size, but I still had to take 4″ off of the width of the bodice. I did this by trimming down each seam until I had a better fit. Once attaching the bodice to the top, and hand stitching the inside bodice lining to the bottom of the dress, I had yet another problem. I just didn’t like the look of the dress on me. Instead of a cute summer dress, it looked more like a cute apron.

No way could I ruin this beautiful fabric. Luckily, I had another yard of the fabric leftover. So I removed the top and cut out the bodice for view A. At first I was hesitant about this because I never liked View A or B when I initially bought the pattern. I felt this was a style for a much younger person. I am so happy I made this change, as the dress is much more flattering on me. If I do not say so myself, much more stylish as well.

The only complaint I have about the finished piece is the straps. They could be much skinnier for a more flattering finish. Overall, I love the dress and have learned yet again that failures are only failures if you give up. Instead of having another piece in the messed up bin, I have my version of turning lemons into lemonade!