Stylearc’s Eme Dress is touted as the roundneck sister dress to their popular Adeline Dress (which I’ve made so many versions of)! Stylearc sent me a copy of the Eme multi-size printed pattern, but quite ironically I thought I’d sew a straight size 22 and I don’t think I’ll bother grading for my (inevitable) next version of this dress.
The illustration does a better job of highlighting the cocoon nature of the dress and also shows the 4 darts at the hem which give the dress the shaping.
While I often find Stylearc instructions to be incredibly brief and also frequently confusing, I’m pretty sure these instructions were the strangest ones I’ve dealt with yet. It wasn’t a huge problem because there was nothing particularly unusual about the construction of the dress, but I’m pretty certain they never actually told me to sew the bodice to the skirt. Fortunately, I worked that necessary step out myself. I also managed to attach the sleeve facing (although I’m not 100% certain it was how they intended I should attach them).
Also, I skipped adding the inseam pockets.
This fabric is a kind of sandwashed tencel from Harald’s Warehouse, which I visited for the first time over the weekend. The store had some real treasures that aren’t so commonly found including quite a lot of tencel, wool gabardine, and So Much More. Although the pictures look a bit like a struggles with the tencel puckering, the tencel was in fact a dream to sew and what looks like puckering is actually just scrunching in various places.
Size Details: According to the StyleArc size chart my various bits range between their size 22 at the bust, through to size 26 at the hips. Since I had success with their Adeline dress in a straight size 22, no grading, I also made the Eme in size 22. This still gave the ‘sack’ look I was after, but avoided me needing to grade.
My verdict- stay tuned for more of these dresses. Maybe with some patch pockets added.
