Hattie by Style Arc patterns is very urban hence my choosing this dress for my September make for Minerva Crafts.

Give me a wraparound style dress any day. I love them as they give me the illusion of a waist.

Lovely crepe

I chose this lovely crepe and I decided to break out and use this blush pink colour. It’s a lovely pink with skin tones so I felt this would be an ok colour to wear against my Winter skin colouring. We’re just leaving Winter behind here in Australia and I think this colour was a good choice.

This weight of this crepe is lovely for this dress style. Crepe can be heavier so when I chose this fabric, the description was very helpful. This was a good choice to pair with Style Arc’s Hattie.

I like the challenge of making dresses in woven fabrics but it can be challenging finding a fabric online that has the drape you want. The description of Minerva’s website made choosing the right fabric easy.

There are 22 colour choices of this high twist royal crepe dress fabric to choose from. Rose pink is the colour choice that drew my attention.

This crepe is good value at 60 inches or 150cm wide. It’s listed as light weight and is 100% polyester.

It irons very easily and Minerva always has this crepe available on the website.

Pattern changes

Hattie is described as Woven dress with a twist front and a 7/8 sleeve. I made the 8 at the bust and 10 size at the waist and hips. Having the multisize pattern makes grading so much easier.

When I’ve made previous Style Arc dresses, I’ve found the skirt length has generally been my length so the skirt length stayed the same.

My back is very curved so I did a sway back adjustment.

I graded this pattern and made changes to the shoulder positioning to be forward facing. I do this for all my projects. The shoulders were quite tight on the 8 size.

I also made this dress again one size bigger and added a zipper. The fit is more relaxed. If you wanted to avoid sewing in a zipper, go 2 sizes up for more wiggle room. If you’re shapely, add the zipper.

Style Arc patterns know that multisize patterns enable us to their patterns to our personal body shapes. They’re very skill and style empowering. What I appreciate is multisize pattern options give me the ability to make this garment when my weight fluctuates.

The finished pattern measurements are for size 10. There is 2” (5cm) between sizes so I tend to recheck this on my pattern pieces.

You really only need a tiny button for the backneck closure.

Construction tips

The seams are 3/8” (1cm) so I tend overlock the seams, where possible. I machine stitch internal seams for areas like sewing facings to necklines.

I machine sewed the front bodice to the front skirt. There was some excess fabric at the front bodice so I pleated this excess into the waist seam. Because this excess is under the front wrap ties, you can’t see it.

I also machine stitch to baste pieces together so I can check the fit of the garment. Remember to sew the front bodice to skirt from the side seams to the centre point. This gives you a better seam join.

Reality check

I made this dress mid-Winter and I found that I should have checked my body measurements twice. You know the saying, measure twice cut once.

So when I finally wore this version of Hattie, I should have made it one size bigger across my whole body.

This is the shoulder adjustment I did to the bodice so the shoulders fit better.

This experience made me realise I either have to upsize all my patterns or simply (famous last words) lose my Winter weight. Multisize patterns enable you to make the same style no matter what your size is.

It’s now 4 weeks since I made this dress and after eating smaller meals (no snacking) and training consistently, I’ve dropped a couple of kilos. There are still a couple more kilos to lose but I am really pleased that this dress was the turning point to stop and look after myself.