McCall's 4826

I went to the fabric store Friday to pick up something inexpensive to make a wearable muslin of this halter-top dress, and couldn't resist the navy-white gingham. Now I don't know which to do first in this dress: bake a pie or go milk a cow?

Yeah, it's totally farm-girly, but I'm kinda tickled with it, in spite of the fact that I'm 25 years too old and 25 pounds too heavy to wear anything like this in public. Which is fine, as it's intended for around-the-house wear only. I took a little bit of fullness out of the skirt, made pleats instead of gathers at the skirt top, left out the pockets, and made the halter-top fronts about an inch wider and overlapped more to reduce the extreme decolletage, which you can see in the pattern envelope here:

That skinny model can get away with a deep V neck, but I've got too much boobage for that. I went too far, though. If I make this again (which I might; I've got three yards in the stash of a gorgeous green and brown big fern print that cries out for a full-skirt treatment like this) I'll overlap a bit less. I briefly considered resewing that part of this one, but just couldn't be bothered.

I'm amazed, given the minimal attention I gave to pattern placement on the checks, that the gingham lines up so well. The sewing gods must have smiled on me as I threw this together, because the length turned out well, and it actually fits. All of which is amazing considering my utterly slapdash approach to this project: sew first, press later, didn't even press or pin the hem, just eyeballed it with a lickety-split, get-it-done-quick attitude.

The only downside to this is the gingham -- a poly-cotton blend -- is so lightweight I lined the entire thing with some white cotton lawn from the stash. So it was not only a lot more work, but is no longer the super-cool hot-day wear I was aiming for. If I do make this again I will use a more opaque cotton and only line the bodice (with the lightest, most breathable fabric I can find).