I wanted to make some more clothes for my holiday and one of the patterns which I had set my sights on was the Stylearc Patricia Rose dress.  Apart from the fact that it appeared a very comfortable dress, I am always rather intrigued by some of Stylearc’s approaches to things.  They often use a slightly different method of doing things than the traditional way.

Stylearc patterns have very little in the way of instructions and mostly the instructions set out an order of work with detailed instructions only for things done in the “Stylearc manner” or where there is a definitely challenging procedure.  The bit I liked about making this dress is that the band under the bust is not a band at all but rather it is a fold in the fabric in the bodice which is stitched in place once the skirt has been attached.  The “band” is in fact only on the front part and not all the way round.

The sleeves were a little long on this and I decided to do my own thing and not just roll them up.  My fabric was not very attractive on the wrong side and I didn’t want it to show so I took a very large hem up and then folded back the sleeve to make a cuff which was then stitched in place.

All in all I was very happy with it and I can see myself making another one of these in a plain linen which I think would show off the detail of it a little better than the print does.

Here are some photos (taken by my mother!) so please excuse the rather poor quality.