Category: mccalls 6028

Satin ‘n lace

~ velosews ~ 19 Comments
Here’s lace overlay dress I’ve been working on using White Tree Fabrics duchess satin and lace. McCalls 6028 seemed the best fit for the lace dress idea on my Pinterest board.
I do like this dress.
I enjoy working with lace and it seems to be everywhere these days. The duchess satin is firm enough and creates a defined shape without clinging to your body.

So the key to making this dress look great was to mirror the lace edges evenly, after getting a great dress fit.
This really shows how lovely lace is.
Balancing the curves is a key of this dress. The lace I used had a flower just inside the curve that I decided to use as the balance.

I’ve used blue lace on blue satin so it’s hard to see but it’s there.

Waistband and neckline
The waist band wasn’t my initial plan but I added the waistband so you can’t see the lace join. 
Before the waistband.
The waistband make the lace look consistent and continuous, especially for someone my height.
After adding the waistband and hand stitching the lace to the satin.
The neckline on the pattern is round so I’ve drafted it to a high v-neckline and adjusted the lining to suit is.

Sleeves
The sleeves were a small challenge too. A small change because I placed the lace flower on the same spot on both sleeves. 



I’ve used bias binding for the sleeve seams and then whip stitched them to the dress facing so from the outside you see more sleeve and less seam allowance.
Cutting the sleeve so the lace flowers mirror each other.
This lace is so impressive in real life. I think it deserves a light colour satin to really show the lace detailing. I’ll keep that in mind for the lace remnant I have.


I placed a sparkly buttons at the top of each sleeve, just for the effect.

Hand stitching
While this satin seams only needs overlocking, I did under stitch and hand stitch the neckline facing.


The sleeve seam is hand stitched to the bodice so you see more lace that seam allowance. The hems and sleeve seam allowances are bias bound.


I enjoyed the slow hand stitching of the skirt lace overlay to the skirt satin.
Basically I have a few formal dinners coming up and I now have a lovely dress I can wear and know it fits well.

Thank you White Tree Fabrics.

Getting it right

~ velosews ~ 20 Comments

McCalls 6028 has taken me a while to make this fit me. There’s a satin/lace dress I’m planning on making so I’ve tested this pattern three times because I want to ‘get it right’.

Version 1: Check cotton fabric

This version is a size 14 based on my current measurements and I used a green/white check cotton to test out my initial adjustments.
Forward shoulder adjustment and sway back adjustment were the two changes I made on the tissue. I did drop the bust apex by 2.5cm.
Once I made up the dress, it was too big from the waist up.

Currently unpicked and ready to be resized.

This print was a piece I bought in Portland 4 years ago so I was eager to see if this fabric was still a goer. I also practiced sewing in an invisible zipper on this finer cotton fabric.

Conclusion: Go down a size and raise the hemline.

Version 2: Heavy slub cotton fabric

This version is a size 12 using a heavier cotton fabric with the new adjustments from #1. 
The bodice back bodice needed taking in below the shoulders and the front bodice also needed taking in above the waist. 

You can just see the piping added along the front seam lines.
Once I tweaked the seams, I overlocked them. There wasn’t enough fabric for the facings so I used bias binding to finish the neckline and hem.

The back was very simple to construct – even the invisible zipper.
This is already a handy work dress.

This cotton fabric was a Spotlight find from a few years ago. I added a strange trim that I bought online to practice piping. This isn’t my best work so I’ll have to practice some more…

I’ve used the piping feature on the sleeve hem – again this is hard to see.

The invisible zipper sits really neatly on this fabric. I unpicked a RTW skirt and found the invisible zipper had two sets of stitching – one close to the zipper teeth and the other mid way along the zipper tape.

Conclusion: Try it again with the facing this time.

Version 3: Printed ponte knit

Size 12 using the facing pieces on ponte and making the sleeve ‘winter’ length.

The facing pieces added a bit of bulk and after wearing the dress, I’ve added a fine knit from the facing to skirt length to avoid the fabric clinging to me.

This pic shows the grey knit lining I’ve used inside the dress. This stops it from clinging.

I bought this printed ponte knit from Minerva Crafts UK when I visited their store last year.  Sam used the same printed ponte for her separates last year.

Everything lined up along the back.

The invisible zipper sat nicely on this version. I used a dark green thread so that I could see the thread when I had to unpick the seams.

Here’s a close up of the trim I added along the front seaming.

The sleeve pattern doesn’t extend to the wrist so I lengthened the pattern and rechecked the width of the sleeve. It took me a couple of goes at slimming the sleeves in. Otherwise I would have drowned in the print and I do like this print.


There are a lot of ways this dress can be made up and I think by trialling the pattern for fit, I’ve discovered a few ways this dress can become a favourite.

Here’s how this works together with my Quart coat for Winter.I’m hoping my chances of the satin/lace version works. I still need to adjust the neckline for the style that I want.
More soon.
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