McCalls 6032 construction

I started making McCalls 6032 for myself last night, and I thought I'd share the construction of the front gathered feature.

It actually might be a bit difficult to see, but it's pretty cool. You sew a square of reinforcing fabric (I used silk organza) at the end of the darts on the front pieces. Here is the square in the middle of the photo:

Here is the right side view. All you can see is the white stitching of a curve in the middle of the photo.

Then, you slash to the apex of the reinforcing stitches and slash out to the curve in a couple of places. You fold those little slashed bits to the wrong side and topstitch them down. Then, sew up the darts, leaving holes at the points, already finished with the topstitching. Then, you sew the center front seam. (You'll see I decided not to match the print)

Finally, you make a little tube of fabric and slide it through the holes, stitching the tube's raw edges together on the back. The extra fabric just bunches up. It looks cool. I can't wait to work on this dress some more tonight after the kiddos go to bed.

I hope this was follow-able. I didn't really photograph enough steps to make it super clear. Hopefully I'll be showing this dress off this weekend!