McCall's 7244 knit dress in black and white houndstooth

McCall's 7244 was released a few months ago and while I thought it was cute, I passed on purchasing the pattern. Until I started seeing a few reviews pop up in the sewing blogging world.  Sigh...it went on my "to sew" list and I waited for patterns to go on sale at my local Hancock Fabrics store. 

When I stopped at the store to buy the pattern, I found the perfect fabric, too.  A black and white houndstooth ponte knit.  On clearance in their "spot the dot"section. For a ridiculously low price. The entire dress cost me less than $12 to sew (not counting my time).

Ponte knit is one of the suggested fabrics, along with cotton kit and double knit.

I loved that the knit dress was designed with darts, as it saved me the time of adding darts to a dartless pattern. I did still do a small FBA (full bust adjustment).  I've done so many FBAs over the years that I can practically do them in my sleep, but if you're not sure where to start I'd highly recommend my favorite alterations book "Real Fit for Real People".  

Once the dress was complete, I discovered I will need to increase the FBA slightly and also lower the bust dart on my next version.   

The dress took me months to complete!  Not because it's difficult to sew (it's actually quite simple!) but I had so much on my plate that sewing just didn't take place. 

I started out carefully cutting the pieces single layer in an attempt to match the pattern.

 I had success in some places and others not so much. That's what happens when you spread the cutting and sewing out over a period of months. At least that what happens to me. I would find myself with a spare 30 minutes and quickly cut another pattern piece forgetting why I had waited to cut all the pieces at the start. Until I was at the machine preparing to stitch everything together.  Overall I still think it's not bad.

I did eliminate the invisible back zipper.  I found the combination of the knit and the neckline made the zipper unnecessary.

I like the finishing of the bodice and neckline on this pattern. There is a wide neck facing attached to a tricot lining.  Love the clean look and love how it feels when worn. 

One other small alteration I made was to raise the neckline by 1".  

The dress is shorter than I typically wear, but with black tights and either boots or lower heeled black shoes its work appropriate.

I'm really pleased with the way it turned out.  The ponte knit has a nice drape to it, and was so easy to sew. The dress has more ease around the waist/hip area than I anticipated making it very comfortable to wear. 

With an office that is a bit cold in the winter months, I add a cardi or this Chico's faux leather vest for added warmth.  The pic is my sewing buddy (who is getting rather elderly) when I had first purchased the vest and was wondering if the two pieces would work together.

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