My tiered floral Sapphire Dress
In the leadup to the Sapphire launch, I thought it would be fun to do a series of posts about each of the Sapphire dresses and tops I’ve made for myself (this is the sixth). Plan is to post some photos along with a few notes on each one so you can learn about the fabric I chose and any mods or adjustments to the pattern pieces that I made.
Pattern
This is the Sapphire dress; however, as this was an early prototype it differs in one major way from the current pattern: the tiered skirt. I eventually decided that the bottom— which gives the pattern strong “Laura-Ashley-slash-Christy-Dawn” vibes* — was going to work better as a tutorial for the pattern rather than one of the default views. But for those of you who love this version — and believe me — I do love the bigness and extra-ness of this floral maximalist look, to be sure — let me know if you would like a tutorial for adding the extra tier — I could probably put together a quick how-to post to walk you through how I did it.
* I have mixed feelings about the whole prairie-girl slash trad-wife slash manifest-destiny-nostalgia style, which you can get a good sense for in this article by Ann Helen Peterson: Unpacking the Nap Dress.
Fabric
This is one of the first Sapphire prototypes I made, back in 2022. I bought this delightful Kokka lawn at Stonemountain and Daughter** back in the fall of 2021 as — turns out — I have a major soft spot for florals on green backgrounds. This is a cotton lawn from Kokka and it is particularly soft, light and comfortable to wear. Cotton lawn is a great choice for Sapphire - check out the post I did about “Choosing Fabrics for Sapphire” for more on this topic.
**Unsurprisingly it is now out of stock. But (!!) I did find it this morning in two other colorways (a pretty yellow and a delft blue) at Fabric Spark in Canada…so run don’t walk over there if you want to grab some of this print before it disappears forever.
How I wear it
It should surprise absolutely no one that I wear it with the Nani Iro double gauze jacket, LOL. B/c honestly why stop at one green floral when you can have two green florals at a time? There is no reasonable answer to this question. I do marvel at how well these two fabrics coordinate, having no other prior relationship to each other unless you count sharing space with eachother for a short while on my fabric shelf during which I am sure they became fast friends. I also love it over my bright yellow Astragal sweater.
Good news - the Sapphire Pattern is coming soon - so watch this space for updates on when it is ready! Get details and see more photos and posts over on the Sapphire page:
And get ready for this pattern with the notes and charts in my Get Ready for Sapphire! post.
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