Lovely in Linen Dress- McCalls 8084

I made McCalls 8084 for my daughter in a red and black bubble crepe fabric for Valentine’s day. It turned out great and she loved it. She liked it so much that she asked for another one in a linen fabric.

McCalls’s 8084 is described as a semi-fitted dress with a tie front bodice and dolman sleeves. The tie front has a little keyhole opening at the bodice. There is an option for a ruffled sleeve or elastic cuff sleeve. It has an elasticized waist and length variations. There is also an option to do a hemline ruffle.

For my daughter’s Valentine’s day dress, I made the ruffled sleeve and the shorter length skirt. The recommended fabrics for this pattern are crepes, challis, stable knits and cotton blends. Linen is not a recommended fabric but I feel that it paired up pretty well.

For my daughter’s linen dress, I did not make the ruffled sleeves. I intended to but we didn’t buy enough fabric for the ruffles and when we went back to Joann to buy more, we ended up buying a slightly different shade of the fabric. Luckily, I had cut whatever fabric was left over from the dress to make slightly longer sleeves just in case the ruffles didn’t work out. I re-attached them and it turned out well. I still like the ruffled sleeves better but the regular sleeves have a more simple look.

For my daughter’s valentines dress, I modified the pattern so that there would not be a keyhole opening at the bodice. For the linen dress, I went ahead and stuck to the pattern which included the keyhole opening and it looks really cute.