Pattern Review: McCall’s M7745 View B and C – Curly and Ruffled Wrap Dresses

I love the versatility of wrap dresses. They’re easy to make, adjustable if you eat a big lunch, and easy to layer. These wrap dresses are anything but conventional. 

Pattern: McCall’s M7745. View B: Overlay Dress Fabric: silky satin (Spotlight), Underlining: Poplin (Fabric Vision), Lining: pongee (Fabric Vision), Ribbon: grosgrain ribbon Shoes: Shayna, Miz Mooz. View C: Fabric: satin, Lining: pongee (Fabric Vision), Ribbon: satin ribbon 

What I love about this pattern 

View B 

Wow this is one extravagant wrap dress! The combination of the fluttery, off the shoulders sleeves, maxi length, and perfect V neck is really striking and not something I've seen before. You can learn about how to make this dress in my new tutorial video suitable for beginners. In this YouTube tutorial I through every step on how to make this dress in detail!

View C 

I adore the skirt for this dress! It floats and flows so well around my legs, yet doesn’t show too much skin. The ruffles are cute and fun. This dress is best made in a very light fabric, to help the ruffles sit right on the neckline and float around the skirt. 

What I don't like about this pattern

View B 

The sleeves are beautiful but not practical. The armhole doesn’t allow for as much arm movement as I'd like. I tried to increase the armhole as much as possible by shifting more of the flounce towards the armhole. I suggest adding a few extra centimeters to the side seams for pieces 6 and 7 before you cut out these pieces. 

There’s a lot of narrow hems for this dress! Honestly all the narrow hems for this dress probably made up half of the sewing time! Don’t be silly and try to roll the hem by hand like I did. Use a rolled hem foot to save your sanity! 

View C 

I think there’s a mistake in the circle markings on the bodice front. There’s no way you can ease the sleeve in between the suggest circle markings, so I used the marking for view B. Also, I didn’t understand the point of leaving the end of the seams open at the neckline. It seemed to create more work with no benefit, especially with how huge the neckline was.

I thought I could transfer all the fitting adjustments I made from View B to this dress and there would be minimal issues. Despite the fitting changes I made the neckline of this dress gapped very badly.  

Changes that I made

View B 

I made minor adjustments to improve the fit. For the bodice I found that the C cup in size 10 fitted really well. I still had to take it in by about 1 cm for each side seam at the underarm. 

View C 

In addition to the adjustments to the bust, I took in the neckline of this dress at each of the sleeve seams by about 10 cm overall. This fixed the gaping in the neckline, but the shoulder area is now tighter than I’d like. It’s still comfortable to wear, but if I bend to much it strains the shoulder area of the dress. 

What I could have done better

View B 

My narrow hem for the flounce looks a little wonky in a few areas. I still find sewing narrow hems on dramatic curves difficult, which is why I love narrow hemming feet! I had a lot of issues with puckering with this fabric. I tried really hard to get the tension perfect and I used a sharp, small point needle, but I still had puckering on the straight seams. The puckering actually got worse after I washed the dress, even though this is a synthetic fabric which shouldn’t stretch! 

View C 

I should have made a toile of this dress to help fix the neckline issues. I’ve learnt my lesson! You can’t transfer fitting changes from one view to another and get a perfect fit!

Difficulty 

View B 

Both of these dresses are labelled as easy, but I wouldn’t consider them projects for true beginners. This dress uses a lot of narrow hems, which may be challenging for beginners. Making curved rolled hems on the flounce is not easy to do perfectly, even with a rolled hem foot. I also found that the shape of the flounce doesn’t match very well to the bodice and it’s easy to create tucks. 

View C 

I found this dress easier than View B, simply because the ruffle is easier to hem and attach to the dress than the flounce. The raglan sleeves are quite easy. 

The Verdict 

View B 

The style of this dress is very couture, yet simple enough that beginners can make it (with a little grit of course!). The size of the sleeves is major issue which needs to be fixed before cutting out the sleeves. 

• Instruction Clarity: 4/5. The instructions are quite good, but I don’t think the shape of the flounce fits very well onto the bodice.  
• Fit: 4/5. Minimal changes to the bust and waist for both views. The sleeves are weirdly small. 
• Design Elegance: 5/5. The design is beautiful and flattering. 
• Final Product: 4/5. Beautiful dress, but sleeve turned out too small. This isn’t something I should have to adjust. 
• Overall: 4.25/5. I hope you’ll try making this dress yourself! 

View C 

To be honest this isn’t one of my best dresses and I’m disappointed I didn’t figure out the fitting issues earlier. It’s still a fun dress to wear every day and to work. Be aware of the issues in these dresses and make a bodice toile! 

• Instruction Clarity: 4/5. There’s a mistake on the pattern for sewing 
• Fit: 2/5. The neckline for this dress gapped open quite badly even with the adjustments I made before cutting the fabric. Be prepared to work a lot on the fit of this dress. 

• Design Elegance: 5/5. This pattern comes with some great designs for wrap dresses and it’s very reusable. 
• Final Product: 4/5. I’m not completely happy with the fit of the final product even with the adjustments, but that’s my fault for not making a toile. 
• Overall: 3.75/5. The design of this dress is really cute but be aware of the neckline issues before making it.