McCall's 6070/Simplicity 3503 - Brown & ivory floral knit dress

I received the lovely gift of sewing time this afternoon for Mother's Day, and was able to complete the knit dress I started before going on vacation. It isn't maternity, but does have an empire waistline and gathers at the CF and CB, so I thought it would work for my growing bump another month or so. And, I can wear it as a regular dress after the baby is born. (That's the remains of my splotchy sunburn on my legs.)

I LOVE these ITY knit dresses. This is the fourth I have made (see here, here and here) and they get worn and worn all summer. I can wear them with a pair of sandals and look put together, then throw them in the wash and not have to worry about line drying, ironing, shrinkage, etc.

This fabric was a fairly recent (last 6 months?) purchase from Denverfabrics.com. The dress design gets a little lost with the dark color. Perhaps I should have picked something lighter or even a solid. Oh well, I love it all the same. I might add beads to the bottom of the back ties if I can find something suitable in a small quantity.

Okay, so this is actually a frankenpattern. (I think I first heard that term on Trena's blog. What a great word!) What happened was I picked up the McCall's pattern first. I liked the gathers along the tops of the shoulders, the overlapping front a back pieces, and the back neck tie. When I got it home and actually examined it, the instructions have you put a row of elastic along the top and bottom of the midriff band. That seemed a little weird. Then I decided I didn't care for the amount of skirt fabric gathered into the band. I put it aside to think about it for awhile.
Here at the back you can see what those elastic casings are doing to the midriff band. I personally just don't think that's the cutest look.

Somewhere along the line I stumbled upon Simplicity 3503. It has a similar design with gathered drop shoulders and a crossover front and back. I passed over it initially because it's just too darn low for me. But I liked that the midriff band was contoured unlike the straight across McCall's band. Also, the skirt was an A-line cut with gathers only along the CF and CB. I put them both together, using the top of McCall's and the band and skirt of Simplicity's. I used a very stretchy knit, so had no worries about it coming together with any problems.

I'm off to cut out my next project, a cropped trench jacket. Got to keep up with my jacket quota. I hope you all had a very happy Mother's Day.