This dress is so easy to wear and a perfect statement piece for my otherwise very muted daily wardrobe. Every time I throw this dress on it makes me smile!
Spring is the perfect time to sew up something fun and flirty for the Beach! I’m so excited to share my favorite make of the seasons- this ruffled caftan style dress! This is the Marina Dress from McCalls, 8090 made up in a beautiful Italian Cotton Woven paisley print. I’m in LOVE!
Spring and Summer are my very favorite seasons to sew for. Bold colors, beautiful basics, lightweight layers and Beach Dressing! For this make I wanted a bold floral caftan style dress with a Lily Pulitzer feel but in my favorite shade of Lavender and Periwinkle. I found the most beaughtiful Italian Cotton woven at Marcy Tilton and knew I had to have it. The scale is dramatic without being overpowering.
Inspiration and Planning
I looked through my season’s mood board and new I wanted something a bit shorter for walking on the beach with a bit of added detail. I decided to buy some similar colored poplins for my accents and used them for the insert on the collar panels for a bit of pop.
All the Details:
#MarinaMcCalls
Misses’ Dresses & Belt
Misses’ loose fitting dress has skirt tiers and sleeve variations. B: Lace trim.
LEIGH ITALIAN COTTON WOVEN
Marcy Tilton
Pastel floral and paisley in shades of purple outlined in black on a white background in an inspired design, deadstock from an Italian mill. The base fabric is a light/shirting weight plain weave cotton with a smooth hand, 24½” repeat and light soft drape. Perfect for a shirt, blouse, skirt, dress, soft pants or sophisticated children’s clothes.
Pre-treat by wash/dry gentle.
Italy 58″
The star of this dress is the Fabric! The print is so pretty I wanted to keep the design classic and simple to show it off. I love the color and the cotton itself is lovely. It feels amazing on.
Pattern Adjustments
I altered this pattern my lengthening the Center Front and Back main dress panels. Combining pieces 3 & 9 for the front and 4 & 10 for the back. I cut each on the fold lining my pieces up before cutting for pattern placement. I placed my patterns directly on the fabric to test where I wanted to lengthen and then added scrap paper to my tissue to adjust, trueing the seams.
This dress is altered from View B. After lengthening the front and back I did one large ruffle for the bottom and the ruffles for my sleeves. I cut my ruffles in one long strip and then cut that in half for a front and back that were then gathered so I only have seams at the side seam.
I took this pics last weekend at the beach- my new got to location for photographing my makes. There’s a lovely shaded walkway that’s nice and quiet. The Beach is definitely my happy place!
This dress was fun to sew up from start to finish. Having a clear vision you can transform just about any pattern. I love how the ruffles turned out! And I’m not usually one for ruffles! McCall’s patterns like this are perfect for beginners but fun to adapt and make them your own as your sewing skills advance. With a gorgeous print like this one you really can’t go wrong!
You can watch this dress in action on my YouTube channel, and watch the earlier planning video to see how I planned out this look. Hope you’re enjoying some beautiful weather and enjoying some relaxing sewing time! Let me know what you’re working on? Do you have any fun Spring makes in the works?
Watch on YouTube:
Thanks for reading! Until next time, Happy Sewing!
