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A review of Style Arc Hope Woven Dress

Reviewed by Mel Forrest on 20th March, 2022

The illustration on the cover of the Style Arc Hope dress kept catching my eye, but I resisted buying it because it is so similar to another pattern I have made (I Am Patterns Cassiopée). I kept dipping into the Hope dress hashtag (#SAHopeWovenDress) on Instagram which pretty much confirmed that the pattern is a winner and I was missing out, so I bought a copy!

I had recently purchased 2.5m of this lovely shirting weight cotton by Ruby Star Society which I decided to use for my dress, but I checked the pattern and saw that it required 2.5m of 58″ wide fabric and mine was only 44″. Not having enough fabric is one of my favourite challenges, so I pulled out all the pattern Tetris stops and managed to cut everything I needed (although I did have to make some compromises – the stripes on those sleeves are NOT symmetrical.) What I did not compromise on was that back bodice seam, which I managed to pattern-match perfectly.

I made my dress over a weekend and it was lovely to sew. I will mention that the Style Arc instructions are very minimal, so if you are quite new to garment making there may be some steps that are not explained in enough detail for you – just something to bear in mind. I chose to make the size 8 dress and I’m really pleased with the fit – it’s very comfortable to wear and has good proportions for my frame. The pattern boasts two skirt lengths – a knee and midi option, but for some reason my copy did not have the knee-length cut line printed on it. I managed to work out from the finished garment measurements that this should be 25cm shorter than the midi-length dress so I was able to draw my own line, but this was a bit annoying.

I really love my Hope dress and I’m so pleased I decided to buy the pattern! I haven’t worn it much yet as it has been quite chilly, but now the warmer weather is coming I’m looking forward to swishing around in it a lot. If you would like to see more photos of my dress, head over to my recent blog post here.