2026 Birthday Dress | McCall’s M8575

gallery

Things used :

McCall’s M8575
4.5m quilting cotton dark nights butterflys floral : Spotlight
2m black bias tape
2m 1cm wide black elastic
1m 2cm wide black elastic
16″ invisible zip in hunter green

construction

This fabric came out around Halloween last year and I instantly fell in love with it. It was giving me Corpse Bride vibes and I knew I wanted to make something from it immediately, though none of the patterns I had in my collection felt quite right for it.

Cue the week of my birthday this year and I was browsing through the pattern books at Spotlight with my friend Anna and stumbled across this brand new McCall’s one, M8575, my mind went straight back to the fabric and I knew it would be perfect for it. I went to buy it then and there but my local store only had around 1.5 meters left and according to the pattern, I needed at least five. And if that wasn’t enough, they only had one copy of the pattern in stock and it wasn’t in my size. So I went home, checked online and placed an order hoping it would arrive before my birthday (spoiler alert: it did not).

The week after my birthday and everything arrives and I get stuck in to it right away, despite the current heat wave we were enduring. This heat wave (which was 35 celsius/94 fahrenheit) is what I’m going to excuse all my struggles I had with this pattern on.

It started to go together simply, I made the sleeves and front bodice cups with no problems, but then I had to attach the back bodice pieces and that’s when I started having issues. The top of the back pieces attach to the bottom edge of the sleeve, but only half way across the top of the back piece does. Next the side seam gets sewn together but the lining layer is meant to be left free and done later. I didn’t do this because it was too hot to read the instructions and I got confused, however I made it work in the end and you’d never notice my mistake.

The skirt portion was incredibly easy to put together, even if it was a long and repetitive process. Sooooo much gathering. But it went together without a problem thankfully.

I do love how this dress turned out, my only complaint is that the skirt is very heavy and drags down the top and elastic. If it’s worn with a belt, it helps to distribute the weight I found. I also wish it had pockets and that’s something I could have easily added myself, but because I was overheating when I made it, I forgot to do it!