Easter Dress! McCall’s 5898 in Yellow Linen

I finished McCall’s 5898 in time to wear it for Easter! I have had the fabric (yellow linen/rayon blend with embroidered flowers in orange, brown and green, from JoAnn Fabrics) in my stash for more than a year. It felt great to finally get it done! Here it is, with the kind of wrinkles you get in linen after a crazy day of baby wrangling:

The pattern is from 1961. The illustration shows that lovely bouffant shaped skirt, but I believe that shape requires the imagination of the pattern illustrator and/or a specially made fluffer with extra fluff at the hipline. I wore my regular two-layer net fluffer, which has more of a conical shape. I generally have plenty of my own fluff around my hips, but in this case it wasn’t enough to get the skirt shape shown on the pattern envelope. Also, note that this pattern is not specifically designed for a bordered fabric. The bottom edge of the skirt is curved. I went ahead with my bordered fabric because it was a loose floral with an uneven top edge. The thickness of the border on my skirt varies a little because of the curved hem, but it’s not noticable with the fullness of the skirt and the looseness of the border design. This pattern would not work with a boldly striped border print, but it’s fine for this fabric. Details posted here.

I am obsessed with border prints. Speaking of which, I realized I never posted this one:

I found this fantastic fabric obviously inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright’s Coonley Playhouse window design at my local Hancock Fabrics. I have read that Frank actually designed a few dresses, but I couldn’t find any pictures or sketches. If you’ve ever seen one of Frank’s dress designs, please let me know! I used a very simple pattern from the 1980′s: Butterick/See & Sew 3887. This pattern is super simple and ideal for a 45″ wide border print. Details here.