A Firework Style Arc Kate Dress

The Style Arc Kate Dress has been around for quite a while and there are many lovely versions out there in blogland, which I have been admiring. I am happy to say that I have finally got around to trying the pattern and I have not been disappointed.

From the Style Arc website: "KATE DRESS: Fabulous versatile wrap dress – easy to wear, great for any occasion."
This is a perfect description for this classic style, and the pattern has met all my expectations.

Style Arc Kate Dress

This fabric was purchased recently in my binge shop at Spotlight (Queanbeyan). It's a poly/spandex knit in a very busy print called firework. I wanted to try this dress in a busy print because I was worried that all my lumps and bumps would be very obvious in a solid colour. I think the print has worked well camouflaging my problem areas, so that was a win.

The fabric requirement for this dress is 3 metres at 150cm wide. I only had a little over two metres of the firework fabric, so by using a creative cutting layout and shortening the sleeves to 3/4 length I was able to eke it out of the fabric available. I did have to cut the back piece out running in the opposite direction to the front pieces, but this is not a directional print and I don't think it is noticeable.

I tried to position the pattern pieces so that there was no unfortunate print placements and I am pretty happy with the outcome. I did make a few small changes to the design after conducting quite an extensive amount of internet research. The general consensus was that this pattern runs extremely long. I'm sure I read somewhere that Style Arc have shortened this pattern recently. I only purchased my copy recently and I only had to shorten it by 3cm. 

I was not keen on the belt tying at the back. I thought it looked a bit too young for a woman of my age. I lengthened the ties so that they would go right around me and tie at the front...a much more grown up look, in my opinion. I found the ties were positioned a little above my waistline, so next time I will lower the waistline by about 3cm. To be fair, the line drawing is quite accurate and shows the ties to be quite high and this would probably work quite well if they were tied at the back. The tucks at the waistline on the outside front piece were extremely fiddly to sew in this slippery knit and I did rather a sloppy job of it. Thank heavens for the busy print, this is not too noticeable. Next time I might try eliminating the tucks by cutting two of the under front pieces, which others have done with success.

 I absolutely love this neckline. It's quite modest and workwear appropriate and just sits beautifully. The pattern suggests sewing rubber swimwear elastic (clear elastic) to the neckline, turning over and stitching. I elected to make my own binding out of some white cotton/lycra.

I cut a strip of binding approx 5cm wide and a similar length to the neckline. I folded it in half  lengthwise and pressed. Then I overlocked the binding to the right side of the neckline (using 10mm seam allowance), stretching the binding a little as I sewed. I then cut off the excess length of binding, turned the binding over the seam allowance to the inside and secured with a twin needle. This has created a nice snug neckline with no gaping issues.

The wrap edges of the front pieces were secured with some Bondaweb Iron on Adhesive and then stitched down with a twin needle. The hem was turned up twice at 1.5cm and secured with a twin needle. I often have problems with skipped stitches when sewing poly knits, but this one behaved quite well.

Notes for next time:

• Lower waistline by 3cm.
• Lengthen waist ties to reach right around waist.
• Remove 3cm from hemline.
• Cut two left fronts (one pair) to eliminate waist tucks.
• Use binding on the neckline.

As you can probably tell, I love my new Style Arc Kate Dress. It feels so comfortable and so feminine to wear. I already have some fabric in the stash ear marked for future Kate's.

Happy Sewing