Emerald Wiltshire Dress
I got the incredible opportunity to work with DuckaDilly’s Emerald Wiltshire from their latest exclusive Jewel Box collection. I love every single print in the collection both individually and together, so choosing a print was a hard task indeed. The Emerald Wiltshire caused my heart to skip a beat, so I knew it was love with this print!
It features the most beautiful combination of emerald green (of course!), aqua blue, a jade blue/green, and metallic gold. Truly, it is an eye-catching print despite the simplicity of the design. Each color so perfectly complements the others. Also, it is worth noting that a solidly great green is a bit of a Liberty unicorn. It's not too difficult to find strong pinks and blues and multicolored wonders, but a swoon worthy green is a rare treat, so major props to DuckaDilly for filling the green gap in such an amazing way. They really nailed it.
When I see a single print I adore as much as this one, my immediate inclination is to make a dress or some other garment so that I can wear it as often as I please. I have been wanting to make the Deer and Doe Orchidee, which is a charming vintage style dress. I thought that the print and pattern would suit one another perfectly, so I set out to make it a reality.
It turns out it was a stellar choice, because this dress is one of my favorite dresses ever. I love that the print shines, not just because there is glittery gold, but because the print itself is just perfection. I added gold bridal buttons to the bodice to bring out the golden berries in the Wiltshire.
The skirt is so lovely and full, and I was pleasantly surprised to find that I actually love the midi length, something that I generally try to avoid. I added pockets to the skirt because all dresses need pockets. The addition of pockets required me to change the construction a little since there is a side zipper from the skirt to the underarm, but I found that placing both sides of the pocket on a single side of the zipper allowed me to keep both. Perhaps I’ll do a tutorial in the future to better explain that construction method because it's always valuable to know how to add the functionality of pockets to a beautiful dress.
Aren’t the sleeves so pretty? They are so charming and feminine. I love that they are puffed a bit but are not so full as to look silly. I think they complement the rest of the dress so perfectly.
Do you love green as much as I do? If you do, you simply must pick up some of this Emerald Wiltshire while it is still in stock. After all, a Liberty print this beautiful won’t stay on the shelf for long! What would you make with this print?
Until next time,
Meredith
Olivia Jane Handcrafted
