McCall’s 8205

Hey y’all, I’m here today with my first ever “paper pattern” review. I figured it’d be neat to start incorporating some more reviews and thoughts about patterns I try into my posts, so I’m running with it. I purchased this pattern last May sometime when I saw it during a spring sale McCall’s site was having. Though I call it a “paper pattern” I actually purchased the PDF version from their website because it’s what I know, and I wanted to try it out (and didn’t feel like waiting for a JoAnn sale again lol).. I had ordered my first wax fabrics/Ankara from fabric.com a couple weeks prior and was trying to figure out what to make with them. I don’t sew with woven really, at all, so I don’t have many patterns on hand to pair with them. This skirt seemed like the perfect one!

A few weeks later, I had read the instructions a couple times, my fabric was pre-washed and ready, I had already downloaded, printed, and assembled the pattern. I was ready to go. Until I wasn’t 😅 Because we have these handy-dandy photographing devices always available, I snapped pics throughout the process, so I have an embarrassingly long photographic trail of how long it took me to sew this thing. Day 1 of work was the evening of 6/16/21. I got the pockets, skirt side seams, waistband, and zipper done. The next day, I understitched the waistband. On 7/29, I took a pic (Which I also posted on IG) saying that I only needed to close the waistband and hem and it would be ready. I didn’t know it would take almost a year for it to be ready 🙈

At the end of March this year, I was getting rid of a lot of fabric my stash, and as I was digging around, I found a bin that had some old sewing projects in them. One needed a snap replaced, a couple needed to be re-hemmed, but guess what else was in there? My skirt…the one I had never hemmed! I dug it out and had it on my mental “as-soon-as-I-get-a-chance” list. Last weekend, I finally got the chance! The hemming took forever though! I had to sew a basting stitch around the bottom, press the whole hem (which was about a full circle skirt), then press it again and pin it in place. The hemming video alone was 6 minutes long!

I really wish I hadn’t misplaced this skirt for so long, because I love it so much! The length is perfect (it’s tea-length), I really love the shape of it, and it wasn’t a complex sew. The particular wax fabric I used for this was a poly/cotton blend, so it’s lighter than the traditional 100% cotton ones II purchased. I am planning to sew this up again sometime in one of those because I feel like that extra weight and structure will make a gorgeous skirt! The skirt was a pretty straightforward sew and I got to try a new zipper technique (I think it’s just called the centered zipper). I will say because I don’t sew paper patterns often, I was a bit taken aback by the size that I measured into and thought “For sure it must be wrong”. For reference, I typically measure a 0 or 2 in PDF patterns, so measuring into a 10 felt like it might not work out. But it did! And it fit perfectly. Definitely a reminder to use your measurements and not your “usual size” when trying out a new pattern! I’d definitely make this again. I wore my finished skirt out to dinner and felt lovely in it.