Color Blocking the Greenbrier Dress

The Greenbrier dress is a ready canvas of color blocking potential! Maybe you have a fabric that you love, but not quite enough for the whole dress… try switching the bodice to a different fabric, or making a top length hack! Maybe you have a small amount of a print that you love, but only enough for one layer of the bodice. Find a solid or a coordinating print in a different scale, and let that last piece of your favourite fabric take center stage.

Do you want to start with some inspiration?

The one you’ve probably seen already is Meredith’s fabulous combination of Fableism fabrics. Look at the incredible use of stripes! Did you see the peep of stripe at the neck from using the stripe as the bodice lining? Love it. (With stripes, sometimes you need to be the boss of the grainline and turn the pattern piece sideways so the stripe faces in the direction that you want it to. Just be consistent between multiple pattern pieces, and check for any changes in drape or hand of the fabric in the crosswise direction before you cut!)

Other Ideas and Options

Here are a few other options from my cutting table. I have this rayon challis that I only purchased 1.5 m of, not really having a project in mind. The drape is fabulous for the sleeve, but I really don’t have enough fabric for the bodice or a skirt. I also have this linen-rayon blend dot print, so I think I’ll see how I can combine the fabrics to make things fit! I might have to get creative with skirt length or maybe even find a third fabric for the bodice lining… we’ll see. I’ll think about the zones of the design to help me decide – I don’t want things to get too choppy, so If I do need to bring in a third fabric, I’ll try to include it in a cohesive way, most likely in the bodice lining, or by splitting the back and front up. So, If I need to add a third fabric in a bigger way, I could make the Front Sleeve and the Back Skirt in the same fabric, and then the Back Sleeve and Front Skirt in the same fabric.

I learned from this dress below that simply using a different fabric for the skirt is cool but not my favourite. It looks more accidental than intentional. So either I’d use the third fabric somewhere else on the bodice or sleeve to pull it all together, or use a fabric that’s a bit more cohesive with the print than the one I chose.

Using a Border Print

One more way that you can shake up your fabric usage is to rotate the pieces to make use of a border print, like Saremy did here! She cut the skirt pieces sideways, so the floral print could encircle the hem.

There are a few things to keep in mind as you make your fabric plans:

• Pay attention to the piece cut quantities, and to what is cut on the fold! The Front, for example, is cut 4 because the bodice is lined with self fabric. If you decide to do the inner layer, which will be the lining, in a different fabric, it will be visible when the points of the bodice turn back, unless you’ll always have the tie in a bow.
• Do you need to make pattern modifications? Maybe you can make a top instead of a dress, shorten the sleeve a little, or skip the pockets, just to accommodate your yardage. Make sure you’ve done any changes for fit before cutting things out, too, in case you have to change the plan.
• If you’re buying fabrics in smaller amounts specifically for a color blocked Greenbrier, be a little generous in your estimate in case of skewed grainline, crooked edges, or fabric shrinkage. Crooked cut edges from the fabric shop do happen, and smaller cuts are less forgiving in how you can work around them, so err on the generous side.

Because patterns don’t really split up the pieces into individual fabric requirements per piece, we’re sharing approximate usages to help you with your planning! Like I mentioned already, I’m erring on the generous side both to keep the info on the chart simple and to give you a bit of wiggle room in your plan.

Now last of all, you’re maybe thinking about how your plan will look! Here’s a coloring sheet that you can use to try out some ideas. You can print it out and play with swatches and pencil crayons, or import it into Procreate or another drawing program and play with your digital swatches instead!