Bird Dress with pointed collar and sleeve
Please note: The pattern previously known as “Washi” has been renamed “Trillium.” Read about the name change here. The Expansion Pack has been retired; please visit the Trillium Page for inspiration and links to tutorials.
After the response to yesterday's pink Washi top (wow!!) I'm not sure I can follow it up with anything better, but hopefully you'll love this dress as much as I do!
One of my favorite prints from the recently-released Waterfront Park line from Violet Craft was this elegantly simple bird print. My friend April gifted me with this fabric when I visited Sew to Speak in Columbus this summer so I'm happy I got a chance to make something fantastic with it!!
This dress is the Washi Dress of course, with the addition of a pointed collar and a new sleeve, both of which will be pattern pieces included in the new Washi Expansion Pack (which I talked about more in yesterday's post).I love the pointed Peter Pan collars that seem to be everywhere lately. I wanted a small sleeve that would really go well with the pointed collar, and the answer is clearly a pointed sleeve. I also know that many of you loved the Hello Pilgrim dress that I posted a long time ago, and I feel like this pointed sleeve would also look really fantastic with a big bow and recreate that look quite nicely. My first version of this dress had both a black collar AND black sleeves, but it was crazy I tell you. I tried it on for Mr Rae and my first thought was "this is way too Minnie Mouse, isn't it?" and he was like, "yup." I still think making a version where the collar and the sleeves are the same fabric would be great, it just didn't work this time.
The collar is easily finished with a bodice lining, so instead of using shirring in the back on this one, I used the bottom of the lining in the back to create an elastic casing, which I think will be really nice for those of you who fear shirring with elastic thread. I used elastic in the back of the Motif Madness Dress and the Time for Tea dress, and it works really nicely.
What do you think? Do you like the pointed collars? I'm including both curved and pointed Peter Pan collars in the Washi Expansion pack, so that should be really fun!! Can't wait until it's ready!