 Hi you guys! Lindsay here. Welcome back to my channel, Inside the Hymn. Well I am so excited to kick off another sew-along with you guys. It is after all national sewing month here in the United States and I think in Canada too. So I thought that this month would be appropriate for me to do another sew-along featuring a learn-to-sew for fun pattern from McCalls. If you've been following for a few months then you remember I did a learn-to-sew for fun pattern sew-along back in March possibly. I'll have that sew-along linked for you in the description box. We made a really cute kind of like halter top lightweight drapey beautiful little shift dress for spring and summer. So be sure to check that out if you haven't seen it already. But this month's sew-along is going to feature McCalls 7991. It is this really cool wrap front with a ton of different options. You have this dolman sleeve aka a groan on sleeve. You have a sleeveless version and you even have a long sleeve version. And then you have two skirts either a fitted skirt or a kind of flared circle skirt. So I did a little poll on my YouTube channel and asked you guys which version you wanted. I am not personally a fan of the fitted skirt for me so I pretty quickly narrowed it down to the fitted skirt option and then let you guys pick the sleeve. The dolman sleeve one so I'll be making this bodice with this skirt here. But obviously if you're participating in the sew-along and you want to do sleeveless or you want to do the fitted skirt a lot of the sewing skills that we're going to discuss to make the version I'm making can also be applied to any of the versions in this pattern. So some things to note about this dress pattern is that it is designed for knits. And I did that intentionally because I've done a sew-along for a jumpsuit. I've done a sew-along for a woven dress. I did a sew-along for like a little blazer thing. But never ever have I done a sew-along featuring a knit pattern. So I thought it'd be really nice to kind of teach you guys a little bit about knits. Teach you guys some sewing tips on how to sew with knits. That way you really could choose any pattern you want and use my tips for sewing with woven or sewing with knits and be able to navigate really any pattern that's out there. This particular pattern comes in the alphadumeric sizing. So you have what is it? Small through extra large. And all of the sizes that are available are in one pattern. So we don't have to go to the store and try and figure out which size pattern we're going to get. All the sizes are in this one pattern. So that's great. So head on out by the one size of the pattern that is available. And then you're also going to need some fabric. So I did a bunch of research into fabric. I have some fabrics that are available to you from Joanne as well as fabric.com because I know they ship internationally. So let's get talking about the fabrics that you can use for this project. So here's what I found when I stopped into my local Joanne just the other day. First up is this floral print stretch velvet. It's got enough stretch to it but also enough weight to hold the shape of the skirt. Next I found this really great ribbonet. This would be especially well suited for the flared skirt and fitted bodices. Then there's also this double brushed poly. A ton of different retailers are carrying double brushed poly and it comes in a ton of different prints and colors. So if you can't get to a Joanne's store yourself, find any double brushed poly and you will be set. They also had this sweater knit in the clearance or like the red dot section. It's a little too thin for the fitted skirt in my opinion but would look great as the Dolman sleeve flared skirt like I'm making. I also found this brushed rayon jersey and fell in love. This one comes in a few different colors and would be perfect for any of the fitted versions. And finally from Joanne we have this peach skin stretch crepe. I think that the fitted bodice and flared skirt would look particularly good in this fabric because it's structured enough to hold up to the fitted bodice and will give the skirt a beautiful flare. And over at fabric.com I found these three options. First a Liverpool double knit. As you can see this fabric comes in a ton of different prints. It's a double knit meaning two layers of Liverpool knit fabric are attached giving it a crepe-like pebbled texture. Liverpool is kind of known for its texture. Double knit is when two fabrics are fused together. So you kind of combine all that. That's what this fabric is like. It has 40% stretch too. So the double layers make it substantially enough for the fitted versions and the stretch make it drapey enough for the Dolman bodice and flare skirt. Next is this bamboo rayon jersey. Again it comes in a ton of different colors and patterns. It's described as ultra soft and medium weight with about 40% four-way stretch for added comfort and ease. The rayon made from bamboo gives this fabric a luxurious feel and a flowing drape making it perfect for the Dolman sleeve and flared skirt. Finally I found this PK knit. Similar to double knit, PK knit is two layers of fabric that are fused together. It only has 25% stretch putting it on the lower end of what's suitable for our pattern. The site also says it has a full body drape meaning it probably wouldn't work for the Dolman sleeve but would make a beautiful full skirt and fitted bodice. The weightiness of it would also make it suitable for the fitted skirt as well. Okay I bet you're all dying to know what I am going to be using for mine. I actually got a lightweight French terry. I believe it has some rayon in it and it has this beautiful I guess those are roses. I don't really know my flowers but this beautiful kind of all over not all over but a patterned floral motif. It is a French terry so on the back side it does have all those little loops. It is very soft very comfy and I chose this because I'm doing the Dolman sleeve. I really want it to be lightweight enough so that those sleeves under the arms where all the fabric kind of has to fold in on itself isn't super stiff and weird. I want it to kind of drape over my shoulders over the bodice really beautifully. This is also going to mean that the big flared skirt is not going to be as flared because this is so lightweight and drapey. The flare of the skirt is really going to fall down around the curves of the body and be you know definitely a wider skirt but it is going to fit closer to the body than say like a ponte knit or something like that that is just so stiff that it just sticks straight out. So the big thing to take away from picking when picking your fabrics for this pattern is to first keep in mind which version of the pattern you're making. If you're making the sleeveless version you can get away with something that's a little bit more structured like a lightweight ponte knit but if you're making the Dolman version you really want something lightweight and drapey otherwise you'll have like I don't know like big puffy weird folds underneath your arms and maybe that's like a look you're going for it's definitely a choice that you see and ready to wear sometimes but in my opinion for me I like it to be lightweight and drapey. Some other things to keep in mind is that you really don't want to go for something super super thick and heavy honestly no matter which version you're making so just try and avoid anything that's like a super thick cable knit that would kind of be odd or even like a scuba knit that would also be very strange and you also want to pay close attention to the amount of stretch that is available in the fabric you choose. So the pattern is asking for 35 percent stretch there's a little bit of wiggle room there if it's not exactly 35 you'll be fine but definitely not something with minimal stretch that wouldn't work something with more stretch like 50 four-way stretch that would be fine too I suspect that this one has more than 30 percent stretch or 35 percent stretch but because I'm not making the super fitted version that kind of doesn't really apply to me if you are making the sleeve version or the sleeveless version I still think it would be fine it just it's just a matter of you know how much ease and so I'm not sure that having too much stretch is a bad thing but definitely not having enough stretch that would be a cause for concern so make sure it at least has 25 or 30 I think you'd be able to get away with that um and anything up from there would be okay too just know the more stretch that it is the more kind of like uh flimsy I don't know a better word the more like delicate the more um just difficult would be another word to describe it the higher the stretches you know it'll be a little bit more difficult so maybe try and stay within the like 25 to 50 maybe um but I have a lot of great suggestions that I've picked specifically for this pattern so if you're completely unsure uh then just choose one of those there's lots of great patterns solids lots of great colors um for you to choose from just pick one of those and I think you will be good to go so that's going to cover today's video uh the sew along is a four week sew along so that it fits within the month of September today we talked about the pattern we also talked about fabric next week is going to be dedicated to cutting out your pattern I have some tips for cutting with knits so that's going to be exclusively uh set aside for one whole video and then the following week we're going to sew everything we're going to sew the bodice and the skirt it's pretty straightforward I think my version probably has four pattern pieces if you are making the sleeve version I think you have a fifth pattern piece and if you're making sleeveless then you only have three pattern pieces I believe I haven't opened this yet but so it's not a complicated so it's just um with knits you just it you know it's just a little bit different so we're going to spend a whole video just talking about sewing this guy up and then the final week of September we are going to do our big reveal so you'll get to see my finished version of my dress what it looks like and yeah that'll be great so it's going to be sew along Saturday genius I know um so come back here every Saturday to see the next steps in making McCall's 7991 I hope you guys are really excited about this I am as well and until next time I will see you all very soon bye