fawn lily dress
May 20th, 2014
If you are interested in sewing kid’s clothes you have certainly by now heard of Willow & Co. It is a group of 8 amazing designers who have banded together to create seasonal children’s clothing pattern collections. Their first collection is called Wanderlust: Glamping Edition and it has been praised up and down the internet.
Hayley from Welcome to the Mouse House invited me along on the Glamping Tour (thanks, Hayley!). I said yes right away and then took forever to decided what to make. There are dresses and tunics and ponchos and jumpsuits and oh! it was so hard to decide. In the end, I chose the Fawn Lily dress by Rock the Stitch. The design is absolutely lovely and the construction is incredibly clever.
One of the tricky things about this dress is picking what material you are going to use and where you are going to use it. If you do a quick google image search for Fawn Lily Dress you can see that the fabrics you choose can completely change the dress. The cap sleeves can be bold and contrasting or they can blend into the yoke and change the look of the dress entirely. I almost went that route (the sleeves and the yoke in the same fabric) with stripes for the top and big cats for the skirt. I still might make a dress with that awesome cat fabric, but for this one I decided to play with white & gray and bits of color.
I wanted the sleeves to be purple, but I didn’t want them to be PURPLE! So I split the sleeve pattern into two pieces. I love how it turned out and I’m happy it didn’t make the sleeve construction any more difficult–because wow! sewing the sleeves on this dress is kind of insane. This is what it looks like:
The sleeve construction on the Fawn Lily dress is like a fantastic magic trick. Unfortunately, you are performing a magic trick you have no idea how to do. Luckily there is no live audience watching you! Rebecca very patiently explains to you how to pull a rabbit out of the hat. I had to stuff the rabbit back in, pull it out, stuff it in, and pull it out until I got it right. Next time I make the dress, I will be a confident magician (and no rabbits will be harmed).
There are lots of lovely details in this dress: pockets, piping, bias trimmed seams, and those fantastic cap sleeves. There are also tons of ways to customize it. Just for the record I chose cap sleeves, cross over yoke, a-line skirt, above the knee length. But there is also a button up yoke, a pleated skirt, gathered skirt, pleated sleeve, and lots of different length options. Oh and the pattern goes from 12 months to 12 years. You could make so many many dresses from this one pattern.
And this pattern is just one from an amazing collection of patterns! Go check out the Glamping Lookbook to see all the patterns in the collection. And see all the other blogs who were part of the tour here:
Happy Glamping!
This is SO perfect… I absolutely love the contrasting sleeves!
Thanks so much for joining us on the tour. I knew you would do something amazing.
Simply stunning… Wow! I am loving those bright pops of color peeking from the grey. Beautiful!
this is perfectly awesome Meg! You completely rocked it:) Love your color/fabric combos!
I love your version! Great fabric choice. I was one of the lucky testers and I immediately fell in love with this pattern. So versatile and beautiful!
Oh, that is SUCH a beautiful Fawn Lily. Wow.
Thanks, Mie!
You’re best pattern mixer out there! Also, this is one of my favorite projects of yours of all time. So fresh, and so detailed!
This is sooo beautiful! I love secret pockets, too. :)
sarah M
Love this version of the dress. The sleeves are indeed purple without being PURPLE :) Such a fun pop of colour inside pockets!
So beautiful!
Wow, Meg. Just wow. I love the piping. Totally perfect fabric combo. How do you come up with this stuff?! Also, when is our next assignment?
ack! I know! It’s on the list!
WUT. Amazing!
This is stunning Meg! The split sleeves look amazing and I love all the different shades and prints of grey. I’d be very happy with one in my size.
Me too! The skirt part of this dress is actually from an old dress of mine that never quite worked. I should have upcycled it for me!
I love your fabric choices- especially the contrasting purple on the sleeves! So true about the sleeve construction being magic. :) I’m glad my first fawn lily dress was a size six with larger sleeves. I was planning to make a baby one but don’t know how those sleeves will turn out. ;)
I don’t know how a baby sized fawn lily is even possible! but too cute not to try!
DUDE this is so cool! The fabrics all work really well together and the sleeve detail you added is great. I need to make one of these. Like soon.
I’m totally in love with this version! It’s amazing! I have cut the fabrics for my very first fawn lily tunic. The only thing I need now is some time to start sewing…
Good luck–finding time and sewing it :)
would love an adult version.
i love the lines of the fawn lily – so cool. you did a super great job with this one, it looks perfect on your little gal! that piping is especially awesome.
OMG! I LOVE the split sleeve! You make the magic trick look good! LOL. Thank so much for sharing!!! (yes, I love exclamation points…but really, I am smiling all over!)
I want this exact dress for me please! LOVE these fabrics and your split sleeve is just perfection.
I adore that feeling of having no idea where a pattern is leading you or how what you’re being told to do is possibly going to work. When you can blindly follow the steps and then produce something clever it’s just the best feeling. You’ve sold me on this pattern for sure!
An amazing dress… those details! And perfect fabric choices – look forward to seeing the next!
I love your design and the fablic which you chose !