McCalls 8108 – Halloween Puff Sleeve Dress

It might be November 2nd but uh… Happy Halloween?! Better late than never I guess. I made this dress back in September for a fun fall-themed evening at the Magic Kingdom. I have my friend Jess (@enasbazaar on Instagram) to thank for the McCalls 8108 pattern recommendation! She made an adorable version of this dress with some Snow White fabric and I fell in love. Puff sleeves, square neckline, mini hemline (ok, ok, the last one is *not* in my usual rotation) Either way, I was getting major Selkie vibes from this silhouette and decided to make my own version!

I always like to check the hashtag for each pattern on Instagram (see #McCalls8108 and #M8108) to see it in action. After some sleuthing, it seemed like a few sewists were having trouble with gaping at the bodice for McCalls 8108. I’m never in the mood to insert a zipper so I decided to draft a tie back and use elastic for the skirt waist band instead (more details on that below). This gave me a bit of wiggle room to fit the bodice as needed.

One last note about this pattern. I have fairly broad shoulders and still found that the sleeves would slip off if I wasn’t standing with great posture. This might be a sneaky way to trick myself into standing with my shoulders back (worth a try, right?!) Realistically, I’m just going to add another tie at the top to match the existing one and keep the sleeves up. That’ll wait until next year’s spooky szn though…

MCCALLS 8108 PATTERN INFORMATION AND SEWING MODIFICATIONS

PATTERN: McCalls 8108, View B (with modifications – see below!) – you can buy it here.
FABRIC: 100% Cotton
MODIFICATIONS: Omitted the back zip and added self ties and an elastic waist for the skirt instead. I the existing back bodice pattern pieces and then extended them out to a point. This youtube video from Jess Dang has a pretty comprehensive overview of how to put a bodice like this together and I found it super helpful! I also shortened the hem a bit (still not 100% sure how I feel about that decision…)