McCall's 2571 View A

Welcome to pattern review for McCall's 2571 maternity separates View A.

Notice it was originally priced at 85c I paid like 4.99 plus shipping on ebay lol.

In my mind I envision mimicking the artist, my goal is to make two jumpers, two blouses, and two pants. Which should give me these three outfits that I can later mix and match. I'd like to stick to the same color pallete of the artist if I can, I'm going to try to dig fabric out of my stash versus buying it. I am not anticipating making any changes to the design but we'll see where the fabric leads me.

Look A-

I've chosen this really cute cotton jersey print I picked up on sale at Joann's about two years ago for the jumper. The pattern says 'Recommend for knits' so I'm assuming this is an okay choice. I don't have my serger moved to my new place yet. I actually don't have a sewing space at the new place yet, im currently using the dining table 😅 so this challenge is a challenge in a few different ways. I'm also 27 weeks along at this point! So far that hasn't affected my sewing g ability beyond back pain. But we'll see how it goes 😳

The plum fabric is polyester crepe also from Joann's, I purchased a good 10-15yrs ago. There's probably close to 8yrds. I had always planned to make a big ball gown out of it, but it never happened, and probably isn't ever going to. So now it's a blouse and I'll find other ways to use it and make seperates.

I promised my husband I wouldn't use pins, so here I am with all the cans using them as pattern weights and I'll tell you something. Cutting on the ground, difficult, cutting on the ground while pregnant very difficult, cutting on the ground while pregnant using cans instead of pins- not sustainable at all. We'll have to revisit this conversation.

So here's the part where I dropped the ball, I stopped taking pictures ☹️ I'm realizing now as I write this that I got caught up in the challenge of sewing without a serger.

JUMPER A

I started with the jumper, that should have been easy, it's 12 pieces. Bodice front, bodice back, skirt front, skirt back, facing front, pockets.

The pattern called for a facing, but I self lined with the same fabric instead. In retrospect that was a mistake and I should have done a knit binding. You live and learn.

I also made the mistake of interfacing the bodice which is good for wovens, bad for knits. This gave me a stretchy skirt sewn to a firm bodice. Things are shaping up poorly.

With some difficultly I attached the stretchy lining to the bodice. The skirt goes together easily, but then I have to attach it to the bodice where I end up with a lot of puckers.

I finally hemed the whole thing and put it on. It's not a hit, the bodice is too big, making the skirt balloon, and the whole thing looks too long because I'm short. My husband says it looks like I'm wearing a mumu or apron.

It was so unappealing I didn't even take a picture 😵 next time I'll make him take pics of my mistake 🙃 again, this is kind of a learning process.

BLOUSE A

I took a couple days break and sewed up the blouse, which, I followed directions on and had almost no trouble with 🫣 I did put on the sleeves wrong and had to take them off and start again. But otherwise smooth sailing and a feeling of accomplishment. Yay for confidence!!! I really do know how to sew!

I did forget my zipper foot at my parents house so I had to put in the zipper with a regular foot (not easy, I do not recommend). I really like the folded collar though, it has a turtleneck look without being a true turtleneck.

Back to the jumper. I pulled the bodice off and cut it at the back seam 1in (2in total) then put a in a gathering stitch on the front bodice pulling it in so the bodice would be more narrow and a better fit under my bust. Then I measured the bodice to the skirt and adjusted the skirt to fit the bodice. I also took 5in off the hem so it sits at a better length on my short legs.

As you can see it looks alright but the top looks kinda funny. I honestly think the problem is the interfacing so I'm going to take it apart. Again 😅

I removed the bodice, from the skirt, then pulled the top apart. Most of the interfacing came up fairly easily, where it didn't I very carefully used scissors. I didn't pull it off of the darts, because I didn't want to redo them. I the stitched everything back together (this time using a zig zag to make my life easy 😮‍💨) at the arm and neck holes I used a 3/8 stitch. Once the bodice was put back together I attached it to the skirt and voila!!! Jumper is done!!!

So what's my rating of this pattern? Well all of the problems I encountered had more to do with me not following directions and less to do with the pattern being difficult. So I would rate this as good for moderate sewers. If you can put in a zipper, facing, and collar you should have no trouble with this pattern. Just please follow the instructions and stay away from knits.