I make a lot of things that don’t end up on this blog, and sometimes that’s because they are similar enough to the final pattern to make things confusing. I absolute adore this Protea dress, but I’ve waited some time to share it because I was worried about the fact that it is almost exactly the same as the pattern cover sample, but kind of isn’t. I made this Protea for myself whilst we were developing the pattern as a test run of some new elements I wanted to add. I loved it so much that when it came time to make the final sample, I knew we had to make the same dress again!
Let’s talk about the fabric first, because I love it so much and I have literally used every last scrap. It’s Holly Sanders Sandhills cotton sateen and this is such beautiful fabric – and I don’t just mean the design, I mean it has a lovely hand. I made this Protea dress, the final Protea sample and also an art smock for Birdie because hers mysteriously went missing at the end of last year (i call foul play).
Looking at these photos and the final pattern sample photos on my website you can see how much I have worn this dress as the colours have definitely started to fade. Is it weird that I’m ok with that and kind of like it? I learnt to embrace fading fabric a long time ago, as simple part of the process of our clothing developing it’s own kind of patina ;)
When it comes to the details i think the most glaringly obvious thing is the width of the neckline. This was the first square neck we tried for the pattern, and after going through testing all the testers wanted it to be narrower. Which I think was an excellent decision because after wearing this one for a few years it really does gape annoyingly in the front unlike the final pattern. I find myself constantly rearranging this neckline as i’m wearing it, so i’m glad we changed it.
The second thing you’ll notice is that this dress has three tiers. It’s the same length as the final Protea pattern, but for this first try i made three tiers. And i must admit, I love having three tiers in this dress. I really really wanted the final pattern to have three tiers. But the thing with designing sewing patterns is constantly trying to balance the details I love with what I think other makers will appreciate. This three tier dress was an absolute fabric eater – I used so much fabric and I know from past experience that no-one wants a fabric eater. So for the final pattern we reduced the tiers to two which saved a lot of yardage.
If you like the idea of a third tier, Holly made a tutorial in the sewalong that shows you how to calculate how much fabric you’ll need for it and what steps are involved here.
The last difference is the waist channel, it is a little narrower than the final pattern. That’s because i realised that if the channel was a little wider it offered the opportunity to use a thicker belt, as well as making that pattern piece able to be used as the waistband for the skirt view. I like making my patterns as modular as possible, and any time i can reduce the number of pattern pieces or complexity I will. Less pattern pieces means less paper for you, and more modular pieces means more ways you can use the pattern.
So at this point you can probably see why I’ve taken so long to share this make. I really adore this dress and wear it at least once a week, but it has enough different details that I didn’t want it to impact anyones impression of the pattern when we released it. I’ve been wearing it with my Jarrah tie front sweaters during our winter which has just ended, and thankfully is rather mild here in Perth.
I’m so glad I finally got a chance to share this make with you, and I hope you enjoyed reading all about the process of figuring out what details would end up in the final Protea pattern!
