Is This The Perfect Summer Dress? Making McCall’s 7948 Sew Atelier M

Is this the perfect summer dress? Making McCall’s 7948.

This dress caught my eye when I saw it on the U.K. Sewing Bee a couple of years ago. Although I had it on my to-do list to make, it ended up in my stash until now. The only thing I regret is not making it sooner.

The Pattern

The McCalls 7948 pull on dress sewing pattern offers you a variety of sleeve and finishing options. The selection ranges from a simple A-line dress to a frilled peasant-style dress. It’s surprising that it doesn’t have blouse options, which would be a natural addition. The length shown is only one, but it’s simple to change it to a mini or maxi dress based on your preference.

The Fabric

The suggested fabrics are Dobby, Swiss dot, linen, and crepe. In my opinion, it would be equally effective in cotton, cotton voile, or chiffon when layered over a slip dress. I would even consider using lightweight wool or needlecord for a winter dress version.

I loved the look of the white dress on the cover, but I did not like the fact that you could see the joins. At the beginning of the summer, I bought a medium-weight white linen from a local shop, and it seemed to be perfect for this dress.

To add some subtle detail, I chose to add a braid. Thankfully, I found the perfect cotton lace braid almost immediately in my local market.

Making the dress

Firstly I washed both the fabric and braid to make sure that they were both completely shrunk. They both did by about 5% for the fabric and 15% for the braid. This meant that I did not have to worry when washing the completed garment.

As always I overlocked all the pieces to prevent the linen from fraying.

I followed the instructions for this pattern, and to be honest you do not really need them as it is an instinctive make. The dress comes together very quickly, there are no darts or zips to fit.

I chose to insert the lace braid rather than sit it on top of the fabric, as I preferred this look. It was fairly simple to do this as there was conveniently a border design to the braid. I chose to sit it on the overlocked edge of the fabric. However, if you do not have an overlocker, you could simply hem the fabric first.

Adding the gathered frill to the braid was fairly straightforward, and I chose to add just one row of gathers, so that the stitching did not show.

I did not add interfacing to the facings as I felt that it was not necessary, and it also showed through the linen fabric. I was actually tempted to line the dress, but in the end decided that it would be too hot to wear.

This is a relatively fast dress that a confident sewer can make in a day. I found it to be a rewarding make for the time invested.