McCalls 5027 dress - in progress

Today I cut out the pattern pieces for McCalls 5027 dress - view C (the leftmost orange one in the sketch below - without the decorative beads though).

I wanted to make view A (the print fabric in the sketch above), which is the same as view C except it has added godets - seven triangular pieces that you add in between the seams of the gored skirt, toward the hem, to add more flare. I had to compromise for view C because I was 20 cm short on fabric. I didn't want to use any other fabric because I'm trying to use up fabric from my stash rather than go out and buy more.

What to do when you don't have enough fabric for a dress or a skirt?

1. Check the pattern layout. It's possible that if you are only 10-20 cm short, you still might be able to fit in the pattern pieces. Burda Magazine's fabric measurements have an excess of fabric (they tell you to buy a bit more than you actually need). That's OK, because it's good to be on the safe side. McCall's/Butterick/Vogue patterns, on the other hand, from my experience so far, call for the exact amount of fabric needed. If you don't have that much fabric, the pattern probably won't fit.
   
2. Shorten the hem. Sometimes the dress's hem is longer than you wanted anyway, and shortening the hem on all pieces will allow them to fit in. Keep in mind that dress/skirt hem length can really change the way a dress looks, and I wanted to have as much room to play with the hem as I possibly could. Finishing a dress, and seeing that it is 5-10 cms too short, can be pretty disappointing.
   
3. Skimp on the seam allowances. If the pattern calls for a 3-4 cm hem, you can change that to a 1 cm hem, and then the pattern pieces might fit. This method will work if you really need only very few additional centimeters of fabric.
   
4. Combine another fabric. If the pattern might look nice when one or more pattern pieces are cut from another fabric, it could be a good idea to try that out. Waistbands, facings, linings, etc., are great candidates to be made out of a different fabric (see this dress). If the dress has a horizontal seam at the waist, you can make the bodice a different color than the skirt (which is what I did here when I ran out of fabric).
   
5. Swallow your pride, go to the store, and buy more of the same fabric (hopefully it's still available), or use a different fabric that you have enough of. If you want to buy more of the same fabric, take your fabric with you to the store to make sure the shades, texture, etc, are exactly the same.

Any other ideas? 

Well, in this case, I preferred not to use any of these solutions. My fabric really was missing 20 cms (the pieces really didn't fit), I didn't want to shorten the hem, making the seam allowances smaller was not enough to make up for missing fabric, combining another fabric was too adventurous in this case and might result in a somewhat clown-like dress, and I didn't want to bother going to the store and buying more fabric when I had option C without the godets, with plenty of fabric to spare.

this is a godet pattern piece (7 are needed) - you can see how much fabric is missing.

I love how you keep learning from every project. So I'm not complaining! If the dress is a success, I'll probably make another with godets :-)

Anyway, here's the fabric - I had 2.20 meters of it (needed 2.40 meters). It's a medium weight woven cotton with a bit of stretch. It was on sale for 15 NIS per meter, so the fabric cost 33 NIS (about 9 USD).

isn't it pretty?

How did I choose which size to use?

Ah, the tricky business of choosing pattern size... I ignored my hip measurement because the full skirt allows plenty of room even for my generous hips. Waist and bust wise I was probably supposed to go for a size 12, but I prefer a closer (albeit not skin-tight!) fit. The pattern envelope and the pattern pieces indicated the finished bust and hip circumference - bust circumference of a size 10 was good (maybe even a bit big - we'll see, hopefully not!), hip circumference was borderline. I figured since the fabric has a bit of stretch, the hip measurement might be fine as is, or I can always take out some fabric at the many seam allowances (1.5 cm each) between the gores. I didn't feel like making a muslin and I hope I'll be fine. If I were to make a muslin, I'd only make the bodice part, in order to check the waist and bust. So I ended up cutting a size 10 without any modifications.

I've already started sewing. This should go by really fast. I think I'll install a lapped zipper - it's pretty, it's quite easy, and once you finish the raw edges at the top, you don't need a hook and eye to keep the back of the dress closed all the way to the top. Also, since the zipper is completely hidden, you can get away with a zipper whose color isn't exactly the same as the dress.

Here's a good lapped zipper tutorial:

More about this dress soon!