Green Lemon BHL Flora

To be quite honest, I’ve never been a huge St. Patty’s Day reveler. The extent of my childhood memories of this holiday include being at the zoo one year, hoping to goodness I wouldn’t get pinched by a stranger for not wearing enough green. In recent years, I’ve joined the crowds to enjoy the local St. Patrick’s Day Parade and giggled at the availability of anything and everything dyed a lovely shade of green!  However, opportunities to expand my wardrobe are always welcome, and for this reason I love St. Patrick’s Day lately – an excuse to add a little green into my wardrobe!

This year, my husband and I will be celebrating St. Patrick’s Day by watching some lovely friends get married! Of course, as per usual, I’ve taken advantage of this opportunity to make a party dress (weddings are the BEST.) and use up some lovely green crepe I’ve had in my stash. In the meantime, though, I’m here to show you another lovely green dress from last Spring – my lemon print Flora!

Higher necklines don’t typically work for me, and when I originally purchased the BHL Flora pattern, I planned to use the wrapped V-neck bodice option. I found some great, thick, home-dec weight fabric on the clearance shelves at JoAnn one afternoon though, and I thought it would be so lovely with the structured top of this version of the bodice. I planned to use that thick fabric to make up a dress for one of the weddings we attended last summer, but before cutting into that luscious fabric, I wanted to make sure I could even pull off this neckline! This lemon print fabric had been in my stash for awhile, so I decided a wearable muslin was on the agenda! (Sidenote – I made this dress while after we closed on our first home and were waiting to close on our current home. Though it was only supposed to be about 5 days, we spent about 3 weeks living at my In-Law’s, with the majority of our belongings packed into a UHaul… This was one of the only fabrics I had easy access to at the time!)

I was shocked at how much I loved the bodice of this dress. It fits quite well (not surprising, I’ve had great luck with BHL patterns always!) and the way the bodice darts align with the skirt pleats is SO pleasing! Due to the full, almost-circle skirt, the pattern calls for a wide cut of fabric. Unfortunately, being a standard quilting cotton, this fabric was only 44” wide. In order to make up the difference, I cut out some funky little triangular type pieces that I added to the bottom outer corners of the skirt front and back pieces – if you look carefully at these photos, you just might see the slight mismatch of the pattern along the bottom of the skirt side seams!! Luckily, this fabric conceals it quite well.

I first wore this dress to our local Arts Festival last Spring, and was shocked at how many total strangers stopped to tell me that they loved my dress. It is always so rewarding to get complimented on your me-made things out in the wild!! This dress has been worn many times since then, and is still just as loved by both me and random strangers. It’s also the perfect dress for the warming March days, and for not getting a pinch on St. Patty’s Day!

I hope you guys have enjoyed a couple of “throwback” posts in honor of wearing green this St. Patrick’s Day! I’m looking forward to sharing a couple of new green me-mades over the next couple of weeks. I’ve really enjoyed bringing a few new shades of green into my wardrobe – as I’ve mentioned before, I love green but I haven’t made many green garments!

Dress: handmade by me
Fabric: Lemon Print Cotton – JoAnn Fabrics
Pattern: By Hand London – Flora Dress – Variation 2 

I hope that you’re out and about wearing your green today! Let me know what you’re wearing and how you are celebrating – it’s always so fun seeing what different people in different areas get up to for fun holidays like this! PS – Did you know that up until 1798, the color associated with St. Patrick’s Day was blue? I would’ve been totally prepared for a blue holiday after my recent blue sewing phase!

• XX Elizabeth