Lilac Cover
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Lilac Showcase

The Lilac Dress and Leotard pattern is one of our absolute favorites. It is a staple knit pattern that can be a dress or leotard and comes chock full of options. With so many choices, you can sew many Lilacs with each one being a little bit different!

Lilac is a perennial fan favorite, in part because of the multitude of options it includes. Lilac has so many options, you can easily customize it to get the absolute perfect garment. It is also a favorite for modifications and hacks, since the dress and leotard versions lend themselves to a wide array of mixing and matching possibilities. You can follow the pattern to the letter, or with a little imagination you can make something unique to you. Today, we are going to list all the options included with the pattern, and do a Lilac Showcase to demonstrate some of the many gorgeous options!

Skirted Leotard and Dress

Lilac Options

Lilac is a dress and leotard pattern. It includes different choices for skirt length and type, sleeve length, colorblocking, leotard, and detail. Let’s review the options!

Skirt Options
  • Circle skirt peplum length
  • Circle skirt tunic/vintage length
  • Circle skirt dress length
  • Gathered skirt peplum length
  • Gathered skirt tunic/vintage length
  • Gathered skirt dress length
Leotard Options
  • Simple Leotard
  • Colorblock Leotard
  • Skirted Leotard
  • Skirt can be any of the options listed above!
Sleeve Options
  • Sleeveless
  • Flutter sleeve
  • Short sleeve
  • Long sleeve
Bodice Options
  • High V back
  • Low V back
  • Simple bodice
  • Bodice with sash/bow

Lilac Showcase

Here are examples of Lilac sewn many different ways, including multiple options, and hacks/mashups!

Simple Dress

Megan made this Lilac dress with long sleeves, and a dress length circle skirt.

Lilac Showcase
(Fabric from Crookshanks Fabric)
Lilac Showcase

Simple Peplum

Jackie made this darling Lilac peplum with long sleeves and a peplum length circle skirt.

Lilac Showcase

Lilac/Pepper Mashup

Lilac’s gorgeous bodice mashes so well with any of the Boo & Lu knit pattern skirts! Emily made this sweet dress by combining a Lilac bodice with short sleeves and sash/bow, and the tiered skirt from the Pepper pattern!

Lilac Showcase
Lilac Showcase

Lilac Swim Hack

Making Lilac into a swimsuit is super easy! Josie made this one by doing the simple (noncolorblock) leotard. She left it unlined, and instead added bands to the armscyes and neckline. She rounded out the V-back to make attaching the band smoother.

Lilac Showcase
Lilac Showcase

Skirt Leotard

Gail made this gorgeous leotard with the following options- skirted leotard which utilizes the colorblocked leo, peplum circle skirt, short sleeves, and sash/bow.

Lilac leotard
lilac leotard

Lilac Special Occasion Dress

Jessie made two types of special occasion dresses using Lilac with a tulle skirt. The first has the tulle skirt detachable which is useful for laundering or when the tulle skirt is extra poofy. The second has an attached tulle skirt.

For the first, the dress was made following the pattern exactly. This is a sleeveless dress with low V-back, sash/bow, and gathered dress length skirt. Then, the tulle skirt was made by gathering the desired amount of tulle, cut at the length of the Lilac dress skirt. A simple elastic waistband was made using the measurement of the bodice bottom as a guide. The tulle was gathered to fit the waistband. This way the child can wear the oversized tulle skirt with Lilac when desired, but take it off and have the standard gorgeous Lilac dress on its own for more freedom to move/play, and to make laundering easier. Below you will see the blue Lilac on its own, and with the tulle skirt.

Lilac Showcase
Lilac Showcase
Lilac Showcase
Lilac Showcase

The other way to do a special occasion Lilac is to attach the tulle skirt directly to the dress. For this, use a lightweight knit underskirt cut to the dimensions according to the pattern, minus a couple inches of length. Then layer several tulle skirts cut to pattern dimensions on top. This one was done with one lightweight knit circle skirt, several blue tulle circle skirts, and one snowflake embellished tulle circle skirt. Baste all skirts together, and then attach to the bodice as one. The bodice here is a sleeveless bodice with high v-back, and the sash/bow made from the snowflake tulle.

Lilac Showcase
Lilac Showcase

We hope you enjoyed this Lilac showcase! As you can see, Lilac is an extremely versatile pattern, full of options and ways to make it your own. If you sew up a Lilac we would love to see! Tag us on instagram @booandlupatterns or share in our Facebook group!

Happy Sewing!

xoxo Jessie

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