Think of summer clothes and Linen often springs to mind, well I want to let you into a secret, it’s just as lovely in the autumn/winter too.
This particular linen is called Lagoon Luxury and it’s from Minerva’s Exclusive Linen Viscose collection. It’s the most beautiful print, a true work of art. It starts at the top with a blue sky and clouds and moves down to include exotic flowers and birds and finally at the bottom has tropical fish swimming around. This is my second time working with linen viscose from Minerva’s exclusive range and I really am a big fan of this basecloth. The addition of viscose to the linen means that it creases far less than traditional linen but it still has that wonderful texture. It’s so lovely to sew with, it holds a press beautifully and just glides through the machine. It does fray easily though, so needs to not be over handled and then overlocked or the edges finished as soon as possible. After its first wash it is lovely and soft so feels great next to the skin.
I spent a day feeling sad looking at this beautiful fabric because I knew I wouldn’t be able to include all of the print in a dress. It felt like a crime to leave even a small part of it out, but a full length maxi just wouldn’t work with my wheels. After much deliberation I settled on the Cadence dress from Love Notions, as this gave me a good length and a full uninterrupted panel of fabric down the front to show off the print. I decided to include the clouds at the top of the print and have the Heron at the front. Unfortunately the little fishes didn’t make the cut but I will be saving them so I can include them in some other project in the future. I could envisage them on a t-shirt or something like that. I didn’t have enough fabric to be able to pattern match the ruffles, but I don’t think it’s worked out too badly.
I’ve not tried a pattern from Love Notions before and really liked the fact they offered a Full Bust option and that their pdf patterns only needed trimming on the top edge instead of the top and a side. Their patterns are layered too so you can select the exact size (or sizes, in my case) and just print out what you need so this makes it much easier to see what you’re doing rather than having lots of sizes all together. Their print instructions did leave a page out though (which was quickly remedied once I’d realised).
The pattern is a shift style dress and gives the option of a waist casing, 3 lengths and 5 different sleeve options so is very versatile. I chose the knee length version (which looks a lot lower seated) and of course I had to go for the flared sleeves. (Those of you who regularly follow me will know I’m a sucker for a feature sleeve!) I left off the casing because I didn’t want to break up the print on the fabric.
The instructions are very clear and even include fitting advice such as how to grade and move the bust darts up and down which I thought would be really useful if you were new to fitting.
The dress was very quick to sew and came together in no time at all.
I started this review by saying Linen was good for winter too, but I have to admit that I may well use this dress for a summer wedding I’m attending next year.
I would definitely recommend trying the Linen Viscose and also this pattern.
(Image Descriptions: There are six images showing Yvonne sat in her wheelchair in her conservatory. She is wearing a shift dress with flared sleeves. The fabric is adorned with birds, flora and foliage. The images are all taken from different angles.)
#MinervaBrandAmbassador, #MinervaMakes, #MinervaMakers, #SewOver50October, #LoveNotionsPatterns
#CadenceDress, #CadenceDressShownSeated, #LagoonLuxury, #MinervaExclusiveFabric, #DisabledSewist, #SewistsOfInstagram, #MeMadeWardrobe, #SewingMakesMeHappy, #SewnShowedSeated, #IWearWhatISew, #MeMadeEveryday, #SewingWithViscoseLinen, #ILoveSewing, #DisabledSewing, #CurvySewist
Leave a Reply