Reviews

Thank you Anne! Thank you so much for your thoughtful feedback — I truly appreciate you taking the time to share your experience, and I’m so glad you loved the pattern overall! The finished dress looks adorable! I did want to clarify the ruffle construction, as I took another close look at the pattern piece and instruction sheet for McCall’s 1694. On the actual ruffle pattern piece, the curved edge is marked with notches at each end and a dot at the center for the shoulder seam, and it specifically indicates that this is the edge to be gathered. The straight edge is the one marked for hemming and lace application.

I believe the confusion may come from the illustration on the instruction sheet. In the diagram, the ruffle is shown already gathered, and once a curved edge is gathered, it visually compresses and can appear almost straight in a small vintage drawing. Because of that, it can look like the straight edge is being attached, when in fact it’s the gathered curved edge sewn into the armhole.

There is also a structural reason the gathering is on the curved edge rather than the straight one. The armhole itself is curved, so the edge being sewn into it must be shaped to match that curve. Gathering the curved edge allows the ruffle to ease smoothly into the armhole while creating soft fullness. The straight edge is meant to hang freely as the decorative edge with the hem and lace applied. If the straight edge were gathered instead, it wouldn’t match the armhole shape correctly and the ruffle would not sit properly.

The tissue markings themselves follow standard drafting conventions — notches and gathering marks indicate the seam edge — which is consistent with how vintage McCall’s patterns were written. The instructions are definitely more technical and less step-by-step than modern patterns, so I completely understand how that visual could be misleading.

If I’m misunderstanding what you meant in your comment, please feel free to let me know — I truly want to make sure I’m addressing your concern correctly.

I’m always happy to help if a step in the instructions is unclear. If you (or any customer) ever have a question during construction, please feel free to reach out — I’m more than glad to walk through it and help figure it out together.

Thank you again for your kind words about the pattern and for sharing the thoughtful modifications you made!

if you have any other questions or need help please let me know.