I’m really excited to finally write a pattern review for the infamous M7969! I finally hopped on the M7969 bandwagon and it lived up to the hype! This is one of the few McCalls patterns that I feel lives up to it’s “easy classification”. If you’re new to sewing or a seasoned sewist looking for an easy make, I recommend it! I sewed version “A” hacked into a top, which seems to be a very common choice based on the IG hashtag.
Picking the fabric
My M7969 is made with a super lightweight cotton shirting. I wanted something lightweight, but not too fluid, as that was what seemed to be working for most of the other makes I saw on Instagram. I think if I were to make it again I would do cotton, a cotton/linen blend, mora slub, or silk noil. You could make this in something with a fluid drape, like a rayon or a silk, but it might create a less structured look.
The pattern and sizing
If you’ve read my blog before, you may know that I’m not the biggest fan of big 4 patterns. I typically find their directions to be vague and their “easy” classification to be often inaccurate. However, this particular McCalls is actually quite easy, without any really tricky parts. There are a few times when the pattern calls for hand sewing, but I am particularly adverse to hand sewing so I just used my machine.
Choosing a size in big 4 patterns is always a bit of a shot in the dark for me. I find that many of the patterns have loads of ease, so it usually makes sense to size down. In this case, I made an XS despite the package suggesting a medium for me based on my measurements. I think I made the right choice, any bigger and it would have been very oversized.
Hacking into a shirt
Hacking version “A” into a shirt is quite simple – you just need to shorten the skirt piece significantly. I cut my skirt piece to be 10 inches long because I didn’t’ have much fabric to work with. If you have the fabric to do it, I would recommend cutting the skirt piece longer than you want it and just taking out the length you don’t need when you hem.
The skirt pieces are also quite wide to account for the gathering. Since my shirt would be more cropped, I wanted to make sure that the shortened skirt piece would lay nicely and didn’t have too much volume. To ensure this, I cut about 6” off of the width of each the front and back skirt pieces.
Final thoughts
So my final review of the M7969 is that it’s a great go-to pattern for your stash. I’m already looking through my fabrics to see what else I can make with it. My tips for making this pattern are:
- Fluid fabric, like silk or rayon, is going to give this shirt a different look with less volume.
- You can skip the hand sewing if you’re like me and prefer to speed things along.
- This is one of the few “easy” mccalls patterns that’s actually easy.
- This pattern has a lot of ease, so you may want to size down if you’re between sizes.
- If you’re hacking into a top, cut your skirt (this is the bottom ruffle piece of the shirt) longer than you think you’ll need just in case.
- If you want slightly less volume, you can take width out of the skirt piece – I took out 6”.
If you’re looking for inspiration for this pattern, check out my pinterest board.
