Sewing: McCall's M7385

I finished sewing McCall's M7385 recently, but I probably should have sewed it two months earlier to get the full use of it for summer. It's a great easy wearing dress for warm weather so I'm hoping that we'll get some hot Indian summer days in October. The fabric is a really nice medium weight cotton that I think I bought online from Mood on sale some time ago. I've always had issues with patterns that have waist line gathering, but I liked this one because the gathers do not cover the entire front and the waist seam also slants upward from the side. I did made a few small changes to the pattern.

• The pattern calls for lining just the side upper front pieces and I didn't want to do that because I wanted to keep the bodice cool and light in weight. I finished the armholes with bias tape cut from the fabric.
• For some reason, the pattern does not call for a front facing piece, which is odd since the front "lapels" can fold over and the wrong side would show. I added front facings and also interfaced the corner sections so that the lapels would be crisp.
• It's difficult to see in the photos but I sewed a button onto each lapel to keep them tacked down.
• I added a bit extra width to the shoulders and to the front armhole areas for a bit more coverage.
• I narrowed the skirt sections a tiny bit to cut down the fullness.
• I top stitched many of the seams, because that's just how I roll.

I like this dress enough that I'm going to make another one in a printed cotton stretch sateen that is a little less crisp with a little more weight. I'm thinking of using a contrast fabric for the front facing/lapel.