Our newest pattern is almost ready and I thought I’d tell you a little bit about it! I know it’s been a while since I’ve done this, but I thought there might be a few questions about this new pattern and her sister Who’s Got the Button, and I figured I could answer those here.
If you’d like to take a look at my inspiration for Who’s Got the Button, click here and go visit my blog post about it from 2017. In all honesty, the inspiration for Pipe Up is the same, but as I was deciding how to best update WGtB with my new sizing and branding, I got thinking on the things I could improve on with the original style. So, one could say that Pipe Up is inspired by WGtB.
On the surface, the new Pipe Up looks pretty similar to Who’s Got the Button, but they’re really quite different. The main difference being the sizing. WGtB is my very first pattern for Duchess and Hare and only had sizes 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8. The newest addition has TWICE as many sizes! 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 6x, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, and 14!! That’s a lot more growing room!
While they both have button shoulders, WGtB has a regular armscye which made piping pretty difficult, especially on the smallest sizes. As I was thinking of how to make the sewing easier, I decided that straightening out that curve and changing the sleeve to a dolman would do the trick. So, Pipe Up’s dolman sleeve was born!
While I love a nice loose fitting dress, when I designed WGtB it wasn’t quite as trendy as it is now. I had some complaints about how “big” the dress one and decided to offer an elastic waist option for those that wanted a more fitted look. So, Pipe Up has 2 waist options, elastic or relaxed.
The other main difference is that Pipe Up has more lengths to choose from. WGtB had one; a shorter length similar to my current vintage length. I decided to include 3 lengths with Pipe Up. The newest pattern has a tunic, vintage, or an above the knee length which should give anyone the length they prefer.
Both patterns have in seam pockets (as a lot of my patterns do) but I also decided to include the cute patch pocket shown above.
So, there you have it! All the ways these two patterns are equally great additions to your wardrobe even though they may look similar.
And just for fun, here is the very first dress I made in this style. Back in 2016, I sewed up this adorable mouse dress for my daughter but I chose to only do buttons on one shoulder. Well, it was VERY difficult to put on and even more difficult to take off. It needed to be open in both shoulders and overall it needed more ease so that kids could get it off and on without help. But it sure was cute, so I’ll share my tiny little daughter from 4 years ago.
Duchess and Hare 