Wearing Ease and Style Arc

There was no hesitation in setting up an account, when Style Arc announced they were releasing their patterns into retail stockists. Although, at this point  I’d never personally made-up a pattern, (I do own one but never made it up to date!? ) I have instructed  Donja, a weekly Sewcial sewist, through the make-up of numerous Daisy tunics a Hedy  Dress and last week a Trudy Tunic 

I just love the shapes and styles along with the  fabulous modern spin the designs offer, as well as that each pattern also offers sizing from a size 4 through to 30!  just brilliant. The moment they arrived, I delved right in and selected a pattern to make-up – all for research purposes you understand ? First up was the Ethel top, closely followed was   Emma’s Ethel Pants and then last week I made the Eme dress.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Following chats with customers and fellow sewists on social media, similar questions on “sizing and how do you know what size to pick?”  kept cropping up, so I decided to run a quick post to cover some of these points, hopefully  you will find this helpful if you  are considering dipping in to these fab patterns.

Please note information is only based on my two makes, feedback from Emma’s experience and previous makes with Donja; oh and I’ve also looked at some of the patterns that  are in stock and are on my to do list!  

Okay, well each Indi pattern company have their own unique way of presenting instructions and sizing layout and Style Arc are up there with this…don’t panic  though,  it’s just that everything is compact on to the A0 sheet – I guess it helps cut down on product  costs, which at the end of the day they are reasonably priced and from an environmental aspect helps cut down on paper waste and print. 

Each pattern gives the finished garment measurement for a size 10, (The Eme dress does give all sizes ) it then state the increment increase between each size ( average 2 inch increase per subsequent sizing)

The patterns I’ve worked with so far appear to have a generous amount of wearing ease, however, knowing the starting point is important e.g  what measurement are starting with as a standard size 10? Sizing charts are available on the Style Arc website here  

But have taken the liberty of copying this over for ease toady 

 

Womens Size Chart – Inches

Image Sourced – https://www.stylearc.com/

My normal method of sizing is to work on my upper bust measurement and add the required FBA ( Full Bust Adjustment) the same approach has been adopted with Style Arc but due to the amount of ease, I omitted the FBA  as personal preference is not to wear my clothing with that amount of ease. 

E.g  Start with your upper bust measurement- mine is 38″ the closest to this is size 12

A finished size 12 garment size is 46.1/8  giving a wearing ease of a minuscule over 8 inches. 

My Full Bust is 41.5 which would mean i would need to add 3.5 inch FBA to achieve the design ease – A wee bit excessive, for my wearing tastes  but not unrealistic. 

Instructions were stepped in order and clear;  I think that perhaps they seem seem minimal due to the font size being smaller than regular sew pattern instruction thus giving the illusion that they are sparse in content. 

So there we have it- hope this has been helpful, so you can calculate your sizing. 

 

Thanks for stopping by xxx