Crinkle Cotton Slub Sydney Designer Dress

It's summer dress season, folks! It's the time of year that I want to be wearing a lot of fabric that never really touches my body in any way. 

Enter the Style Arc Sydney Designer Dress, which Style Arc says is an "architecturally designed cocoon shaped dress... mid length front and longer back along with the extended shoulder line completes this avant-garde look."

My Sydney is a size 20, which is one size down from where my measurements would put me. The fit is great. It's oversized in the skirt, on purpose, but the bodice fits great. I was a little bit concerned about where the bodice hit (not quite an empire but something else), but I quite like it in the end.

I used a pretty, summer-y crinkle cotton slub fabric in a kelly green from Stash. I love the texture and weight of this fabric!

I was worried after I started cutting out the Sydney dress that maybe I'd chosen a fabric that would be too stiff for the pattern, but the crinkle cotton slub turned out to to be the perfect weight and drape. It hangs nicely but still has enough body to maintain the balloon-like shape of the skirt. 

Speaking of balloons, this skirt reminds me of a deflated punch balloon. Do you remember punch balloons? I feel like these were the birthday party goody bag item of the '80s. Did I just pinpoint my origins on one of those regional colloquialisms maps by saying "goody bag"? I'm not sure if that's specific to where I grew up, but "rotary," "ding dong cart," "tag sale," and "grinder" definitely narrow things down significantly.

In any case, it is a lot of skirt, but I love it. Very dramatic. Style Arc recently released an expansion pack for the Sydney dress, with different sleeve and bodice options, as well as a more narrow skirt, but I think the exaggerated cocoon shape of the original is pretty amazing. I like the original bodice, too. Lovely neckline and cute cut-on cuffed sleeves. 

I skipped the in-seam pockets- they looked too small to be functional, and I'd read a lot of reviews of the pattern saying they were too low. 

This dress is long! You can see in the back it's below my calves. I'm 5'7" for reference.

I am in love with my Sydney dress! Dramatic, art-teacher chic, comfortable... ticks all my boxes. Head over to Instagram to see a video of it in motion.