Sewing Pattern Review: McCall’s M8084 Flowy Summer Dress

I really wanted a fun little summer dress and let me tell ya, McCall’s M8084 did not disappoint! It has pockets, pretty colors, optimum twirlyness for dancing AND it sewed up quickly. What more can you ask for? I’m already thinking of making it again in another color.

This is one of those patterns where McCall’s was giving them names and they named this pattern “Livia McCall’s”. I quite like the name Livia and think it’s a cute name for a cute little summer dress, so I’m going to keep the name.

This pattern was easy to sew and a great pallet cleansing project if you just finished doing a more complicated project. It has nice, deep pockets which seems to be an anomaly in women’s clothing and I was pleasantly surprised. A couple of spots in the directions were written a little strangely and left me scratching my head a bit, but that seems to happen often when I follow along with most written pattern instructions for the big pattern companies. In this day and age I really don’t understand why only the Mimi G sewing patterns have sew- along videos and wish everyone else would get on board so that we don’t have to fumble through the written instructions, but that is a rant for another day. Just take your time.

At first glance, I didn’t think I would be able to wear a bra with this pattern because of the way that the top ties in the front but I was actually able to just loop the ties around the middle of my bra and tie them which really helped to anchor down the front of the top and kept me from having to use fashion tape. As for modifications, the only change I made was to shorten the flounce at the bottom by about 1.5 inches because I wanted it to be short and sassy.

For the fabric, I used a Rayon Challis from Mimi G’s collection that I bought from fabric.com. It was the perfect weight of fabric for this project and allowed me to obtain optimum twirlyness at the bottom of the dress. It’s also nice and lightweight and breathable for summer time without being see-through.

Also, check out my new earrings! They are from Liv Evon Designs and are a part of her new Summer 2021 collection. The ones that I’m wearing are called “Sunny Dais with Flower”. Liv Evon Designs is a new up and coming name in the jewelry game. All of her pieces are handcrafted by the shop owner, Olivia, and are suited for people with sensitive skin. Be sure to check out the rest of her amazing summer collection here!
https://www.livevondesigns.com/shop