Poppy Dress Design Details
Earlier this week I introduced you to our newest pattern, Poppy, and I’m thrilled by your response so far! Today I’m diving deeper into the individual design elements of each version and walking you through the style and design decisions we made during the production of this easy-to-wear dress.
The pattern description of the Poppy describes it as a versatile and playful dress, fitted at the shoulders and relaxed through the body thanks to tiered gathers in two lengths. Make Poppy your own with your choice of short sleeves or long sleeves gently gathered into cuffs. Use flannel for a cozy winter dress, make a breezy picnic dress in cotton lawn, or choose a glittery lamé for a special party look.
Let’s start from the top of the dress and work down. The Poppy is lightly fitted at the shoulder & yoke which anchors the bold, A-line shape to the body. In addition to helping me not feel lost in a dress like this, it also provides a good base to start working from fit-wise since the rest of the dress is quite oversized. At the neckline we chose a thin banded collar that compliments the gathering and allows it to shine. A thin center front button band adds to emphasis on the gathering and also gives the dress a refined touch.
The gathering at the front shoulders isn’t just decorative, we’ve rotated the dart into the shoulder allowing the gradual slope into the wider skirt panels to remain unbroken by a dart. The fabric of the bodice drapes nicely over the bust and allows the bodice to move freely with the skirt. Don’t worry though, we’ve marked the bust point for each size in case adjustments are needed!
At the back we’ve added gathering across the back yoke for two reasons. The first is rather than adding a pleat at the back, which wouldn’t make a lot of sense with the overall garment, translating that into gathering ties in with the front as well as the skirts. The second reason is to add additional room through the back bodice to maintain the desired silhouette.
Another thing you’ll notice about the Poppy is the slightly dropped waist, and I think this really sets it apart from other tiered skirt dresses. This was hotly debated during the production process and I think it really turned out beautifully.
I personally, as a human square, have a hard time wearing dresses and skirts that have a lot of gathering at the natural waist. Not just visually, which I also personally don’t enjoy on myself, I actually find it uncomfortable to have so much fabric sitting at my waist, even with adjustments to the pattern. By lowering the waistline it allows the bulk of the fabric to sit lower so every time I bend and twist I’m not feeling 3+ yards of fabric bunching up around me. It’s truly a freeing feeling!
In addition to comfort I love the look of the dropped waist with a full silhouette, it just moves so beautifully and perfectly allows for swanning around and swishing your dress to and fro, which obviously is a must when wearing the Poppy! You’ll also notice that the back of the bodice dips slightly at the back which allows the skirt to sit at a more visually agreeable spot on the body.
The Poppy Dress has two length options, two tiers which hit above the knee, and three tiers which hit mid calf. These tiers are beautiful but do be mindful they only work with certain width fabrics. We’ve outlined in the fabric requirements which widths to avoid depending on which style you’ve chosen. Any of the tier lengths can easily be adjusted to lengthen or shorten the skirt portion of the dress and that’s made even easier by a simple turned-and-stitched hem. We auditioned a deeper hem but it wasn’t a fit in a lot of the fabrics we tested with all the gathering.
The final aspect of the Poppy we haven’t discussed is the sleeves. This was a really fun progression during development. I wasn’t totally sure what type of sleeve would look best with the dress so we started with a straight, ¾ length sleeve, similar to the sleeve of the Farrow. During fittings with our fit models we eventually landed on two options. The first is a simple short sleeve. We loved this option because it was a sleek option that we felt emphasized the simple elegance of the banded collar and refined button band. It’s also a fabulous template to work from if you’re up for inventing your own type of sleeve and we think it keeps the dress from becoming overly feminine, which is always a concern for me personally. I particularly like it paired with the longer dress and the short sleeves slide beautifully under a cardigan or sweater.
The gathered sleeves are a more romantic option. We kept the sleeve cap smooth to avoid overwhelming the upper torso with too many gathers and aid the yoke in anchoring the body amid yards and yards of fabric. From there we added just enough gathering at the hem to achieve the look we wanted without creating a sleeve that was hard to wear day-to-day due to its size. The sleeve is gathered into a cuff and sealed with a button & buttonhole. I personally love wearing this sleeve with the two-tiered skirt best, that’s actually my favorite combination of all the Poppies.
So that’s how we ended up from idea to finished pattern! I hope learning about this pattern came to fruition has given you more confidence in deciding which version to sew up. Next up I’ll be showing off our pattern testers and giving you plenty of fabric advice so stay tuned for those posts coming up!
And don’t forget we have two discounts going on right now, our 20% off Poppy Launch discount, no code needed and a 10% discount with our fabric partner Yardblox, enter the code GL10FW24 at checkout. Both discount codes are valid until Sunday, November 3rd at 11:59 CST, Yardblox is limit 1 per customer, so don't wait too long to fill up your cart and start sewing your own Poppy Dress!
