McCall's 6123 Completed!

I am way behind in posting, but since it's mostly due to sewing that's a good thing!  Here's the McCall 6123 made in quilting cottons:

I love it!  It's a little brighter than I normally wear, but it's very cool and light feeling.  Here are the alterations I made:

-added 5/8" to CF bodice as a full bust adjustment
-darts in the back bodice pieces in the waist since there was way too much fabric
-forward should adjustment

I think that's it on fit adjustments.  They were pretty easy and now I am finally feeling like I know what I need to do to make a pattern fit me.  Having said that, there was still room to take in the side seams, either a lot or a little depending on the wearing ease I wanted, particularly right under the arms.  I've left it as is for the present because I don't want a form fitting dress for the hot summer!  I might go back later and take in the side seam under the arm because that is big which you can see a little in the picture.

Other pattern changes:

-contrast strips sewn on differently
-bottom small floral for the back was cut as one piece, rather than with a center seam
-used flat construction rather than in the round
-fully lined in cotton batiste

For the contrast strips, the pattern direction you to press up 3/8" on one long side, then sew the other unfinished long side into the seam, topstitch and edgestitch.  I hate measuring such long strips and burning my fingers while pressing them up.  I'm not too keen on all that topstitching and edgestitching either, so I changed that part.  Instead I checked the finished width on the contrast, doubled it, and added seam allowances and cut them out.  Then I folded narrow sides in half, pressed them and stitched the raw edges directly into the seams, leaving the folded edge free like this:

I'm using the stick to hold up the folded edge here so you can see that it's not stitched down.  Doubling the contrast adds a little more bulk to the seams, but I serged them all and they seem fine.  Plus the trade off in a little bulk versus all that measuring, pressing and topstitching was worth it!  I did topstitch above the contrast to anchor the serged seam which I'm not sure you can see well in the picture.
Now, for a little surprise!  So my heirloom sewing skills wouldn't get rusty, I added this to the bottom of the lining:

It's a Swiss embroidery with entredeux on either side, attached on one side to the cotton batiste and to some French cotton lace on the other.  Kinda fun and like a pretty slip underneath, isn't it? 

I am very pleased w/ the dress--no hemming, either on the dress itself (the green contrast took care of that) or the lining (the mini fancy band).  I've always dreaded zippers but had to install an invisible zipper for the first time last year.  It wasn't as bad as I thought and now I think I love them!  The internet really helps a lot!  I looked up invisible zippers and am so grateful for the tutorials I've found in various places.  I even got the back of this dress all matched up at the waist, using a technique I read about in a fairly recent Threads magazine issue:

And if you'll look below the waist, you'll see that I matched the pattern of the center back seam of the large floral all the way down to the small floral band at the bottom!  The small floral band at the bottom was cut as one piece, rather than two.  Not sure why now, but it made sense when I did it.

I have more projects to show, but that will have to wait until another time!