Celebrate Spring's Arrival with Floral Fashion

Floral prints are a perennial favorite when it comes to spring sewing and fashion trends, and this year is no exception. Floral fashion has been more prevalent than ever on spring 2013 runways, and that trend has carried over into the aisles of fabric stores and right into our sewing rooms. There are a variety of ways you can incorporate floral prints and designs into your own sewing projects. To help you, we've collected photographs of some of our favorite floral-inspired looks from past (and future!) issues of Sew Beautiful. We hope the photos will inspire you to cultivate your own floral favorites this spring.

1. Martha Demere used Lyn Week's "Frannie" pattern to create this green and blue dress from our March/April 2009 issue. Martha cut the collar from the high roll pattern included in "Frannie," but drew an eyelet edge and embroidered it by hand with a tiny blanket-stitched, scalloped edge using blue thread to coordinate with the fabric.

2. Laura Jenkins Thompson designed this revival of her ever-popular "Pascale" pattern in honor of the original design's 10th anniversary last year. Since the Pascale's first appearance on our pages back in 2002, we have featured it over 30 times, attesting to its versatility and popularity. On this version of the dress, which was featured in our March/April 2012 issue, Laura stitched bright yellow sunflowers against a beautiful sapphire blue silk.

3. Khristal Jouett designed this floral tunic using a vintage pattern she purchased at an estate sale, our "Dainty Designs" pattern and a pretty swirl-of-ruffles hem treatment. The dress was featured in our March/April 2011 issue.

4. This version of the "Pascale" was designed by Kathy Dykstra and appeared in our March/April 2012 issue. Kathy paired a floral print with a bright polka dot print for a modern appeal.

5. This adorable little girl's romper will be featured on the cover of our upcoming May/June issue. Designed by Janet Gilbert, this exclusive pattern was recreated from a vintage 1940s silhouette and uses a bright floral print from Liberty's new Classic Tana Lawn collection.

6. Connie Palmer crafted this fun daisy appliqué from ribbon petals. The project will appear in our upcoming May/June issue.

Flowers inspire a variety of other designs and embellishments in our upcoming May/June issue, like a fancy lace flower garden on Debbie Glenn's Italian organdy pinafore, functional flower pockets on the skirt of Trisha Smith's sundress and even a groovy mod flower appliqué from Kari Mecca, queen of whimsy. Pick up your copy of the May/June issue when it hits newsstands in mid-April. And be sure to check out our Spring Fabric Sale now, where you can find beautiful fabrics like Classic Tana Lawn florals as well as solids in cotton and batiste to help you craft all your spring projects.

Sew On, Sew Well, Sew Beautiful, 
Kathy and Amelia