Our colourful new Vintage Finish Linen has arrived in stores and online! These cheerful twelve colours are what your summer #memade wardrobe has been waiting for and we thought our Hydrangea colour would make a delightful pairing with the Leonie Dress, one of the new styles from the local fashion brand liam patterns! Read on for our full review, kindly modelled by Ella from our HO team.
Pattern Review
Leonie Dress by liam patterns
Local New Zealand fashion brand liam has released a range of printed patterns to sew at home instead of their usual seasonal ready-to-wear range, this includes twelve garment styles and four free easy to sew patterns to make accessories, designed to make the most of scraps and offcuts!
The Leonie Dress is a loose-fitting drop shoulder top or dress with an interchangeable waist tie and belt piece. The pattern comes with three style options - a top, midi-dress and full-length dress and it can be made with short or full-length sleeves. You can also choose to have the pleated belt and waist tie sitting to the front or back.
We made up view A for Ella, the full-length dress with long sleeves, in a size 8 according to the measurement chart. This used 2.8 metres of our new Vintage Finish Linen colour Hydrangea (130cm wide) and we cut the waist tie piece across the grain to save fabric. We made up the size 8 with no changes to the pattern and think the fit is pretty good on Ella! We would point out that this dress has a fairly generous amount of room in the body, and the neckline does sit quite wide on the shoulders. If we were to make up another, we would probably add a little to the neckline at the shoulder points, to make it a little more practical for everyday wear.
This is classified by liam as a Beginner Pattern and we would agree, if you're confident sewing bias binding, then the rest of the sewing will be a breeze!
You can purchase liam patterns online here and in any of their New Zealand Ruby stores.
We love how liam patterns are locally produced! All fibre used to make the pattern paper and envelope card is waste from or the by-product of sawn timber production from Radiata Pine forests in the north island of New Zealand. The pattern paper is milled in Whakatane, envelope paper milled in Kawerau and they are printed and assembled in Auckland. They're also FSC certified and 100% recyclable.
Fabric Recommendations
liam patterns recommend light to medium weight woven fabrics, we think a crisp cotton, like our new Liberty Poplin styles would accentuate the silhouette of this style well, light to midweight suitings would work for cooler weather and of course linen is ideal for this style in warmer months!
We can imagine the Leonie in an array of our new Vintage Finish linen faves! Our new additions below include White, Bone, Oat, Papaya, Dusky Orchid, Celery, Hydrangea, Red Brick, Marsala, Caper, Evergreen & Military Green.
The dramatic sleeves and cinched waist gives the Leonie Dress an ultra-chic, modern vibe which we love! This dress would be ideal for an upcoming summer soiree, and works beautifully in our linen! Share yours with us by tagging @wearethefabricstore using #thefabricstore