Style Arc Anais Shirt Dress in ‘Rio’ from the Cruise Linen Collection

For those who are new to the Cloth Edit blogs, you may have missed the linen silk Anais dress I made in January 2022 It is a firm favourite of mine, and while I have been wondering what to make in my length of ‘Rio’, it dawned on me how much I love the cut and A-line fullness of this shirt dress. The Cruise Collection linens are light weight and are a dream for summer. I don’t shy away from bold prints, but this is my first bold ‘plain’ dress, and now I want more.

(Note - Cloth Edit doesn't stock Style Arc Patterns)

I made a belt for my first version of the dress, but as I prefer to wear it without, I haven’t made one for this iteration. There is lovely fullness around the curved hemline, but I love that it isn’t too oversized at the chest, shoulders and bust. I wanted mine a little longer (front and back), and as with my first version I added a couple of inches.  

In my first version I really had to compromise on the cuffs due to not having enough fabric ;-). Instead of a double layer, my original cuffs were a single layer, and a little narrower than the pattern. In my pink version I've made the cuffs as per the pattern, and so they look ‘neat’ when I fold them up.

 

Gold buttons feature on this version too, but I decided that more, smaller buttons (rather than fewer, larger) seemed to look better. I decided to group them in sets of three, and I think it elevates the whole dress. While I will wear this with sneakers most of the time, I love how it looks with my sparkly new summer slides.

 

My tips:
The two piece sleeves are a real treat in this pattern. My tip is to press them using a tailor’s ham so the seam doesn’t poke out in an awkward way. I suggest sewing the outer seam first, then pressing, before you sew the underarm seam.
I needed to ease in the neckline quite a lot to fit the collar on, but all was fine in the end. Ensure to stay stitch the necklines ;-).

I find it easiest to hem the curved hem by sewing around the edges using a 3mm stitch. I can pull the thread and ease in the curves beautifully, and press the neat hem up.

Other thoughts on this pattern can be found in the earlier Anais Blog.

Gabrielle x