Julie in Dubai wearing her fabulous Nani iRo japanese printed linen wrap dress which was a somewhat troublesome make due to accidentally overlocking a hole in the front panel and having to recut.. but she got there in the end!
Bess downloaded the free pattern from Alice and Co at the V&A Museum in a flash and made up this Mary Quant dress with little to no alterations (unheard of for her- she nearly died of shock), the pocket took the longest and this was the second go as the first one looked like a fried egg! She used bondaweb to applique the daisy and slowed down her normal sewing speed in the hope she could sew accurately (more or less!). The black is a fabulous piqué weave viscose (very similar to a viscose twill) and the collar and daisy is a lightweight linen (probably not the ideal fabric as it frays like the devil but the colours were right and it more-or-less worked so don’t knock it!
Jane made up this old Karl Lagerfield pattern FINALLY after it lurking in the pattern drawer for nearly 20 years. The Linen is the Japanese designer nani IRO for Kokka. Jane had a bit of tweaking to get it right – too small on the bust but massive everywhere else – such as life goes with a pattern for the first time, but having been altered it is now PERFECT 😊
It’s got pockets!
It is lined in Venezia faced with extra light interfacing and there is a concealed zip up the back. The pattern is Vogue 1412 (long since discontinued but possibly available second hand).
Rudi the Siamese cat has to be in the photo too. Even if he didn’t get his ‘best side’.
This is a woven shot lightweight linen top made by Sue in France using the Assembly Line cuff top pattern. It’s a lovely simple make with elasticated cuffs, she plans to make it up in velvet for Christmas pressies. Perfect!
This is Braenna wearing her self drafted yellow linen circular skirt dress; made all on her own in the summer holidays. Isn’t she amazing? We ❤️❤️❤️!
David seriously rocking this brilliant Chinese dragons and houses print linen and cotton mix shirt. It’s a self drafted pattern (by his lovely lady Alison). We ❤❤❤!
Jane wearing her superb self drafted shift dress made up in Japanese nani IRO printed linen. Lined in Venezia and piped with fine satin (self made) piping.
Isn’t it fabulous? And we ❤ the shoes too!
Sue (from French France) made this fabulous linen and Sorona mix shirt using the Closet Case Patterns ‘Kalle Shirt’, Sorona is a new fibre made from corn starch that we hope will take off because added to linen it adds a fabulous softness and suppleness (less creases! Yayy!!). Sue used a bias maker to make the spotty inside collar.
Bess made this fab linen jersey cardigan using her tried-and-tested t-shirt pattern that has been cut up the front. The trim is a sequinned rick rack. It is possible Bess’s life is complete now there is sequinned rickrack in the world. Continue reading Linen Jersey Cardigan with sequin Trim and Iron-On Patch
Pamela sent us this photo after a season of wearing this self proclaimed favourite dress made up from her stash of heavy linen. Aside from the generally pleasing aesthetics of a colour block dress you get to do some quality stash busting. Win/Win! For the best results use like fabrics (weight/drape) and make sure they are colour fast for the cleaning. It’s a good idea to use those colour catcher sheets you put in the machine as a precaution.
She made it up again in Green (which we love) but the yellow remains the favourite.
Bess made this heavy washed green linen coat on a weekend retreat by staying up practically all night for two nights and not skiving at all. She had even come prepared with her two grosgrain trims sewn to each other already and the pattern fully adjusted to fit and toile tweaked.
The linen had been pre-washed 5 times to eliminate excess dye that could leach onto the cotton grosgrain, and the dry clean only Liberty crepe de chine silk lining is also pre-washed (it’s okay).
There are no shoulder pads but a bit of semi-tailored interfacing around the chest area is used to improve the structure (along with cuffs, facings and pockets), all the trimmings were hand sewn so as not to change the drape.
Here is Andy (the Mother of the Groom) wearing a fabulous raspberry heavy washed linen dress made for her by Anna Ash of I ❤️ Sewing .
The pattern is Vogue V1410 which has a wrap front rather than a front opening. The whole point of dressmaking is making exactly what you want* so of course these details are for us to alter!
*when I say we dressmake to get exactly what we want I mean within reason. We cannot alter patterns to remove a middle-age spread, or dropped shoulders, or [enter personal body hang-up here]. But we can dressmake to disguise these things.
Pauline made this fabulous denim jumpsuit using a 1970’s jumpsuit pattern from Simplicity (3322), she used a soft medium weight linen mix denim with floral painted buttons and hand embroidered pocket details.
Jacoba on the amazing Wahiba Sands in Oman wearing her printed linen and viscose tunic dress – the perfect fabric to cover up yet remain cool in the blistering heat.
Look at that blue sky ~looks out of window at drizzle ~ look it’s blue! Continue reading Red and Jade printed Linen and Viscose Tunic Dress
Shirley made this floral print linen and cotton shirt after a long hiatus in sewing (I’m wondering if this is Shirley’s sewing after a break how good was it before?!). Cut with a v-neck band and 3/4 sleeves, this shirt is a great Summer wardrobe staple.
Marilyn off travelling to somewhere tropical and looking super cool in her floral stencil print linen and viscose shirt made with a Style Arc pattern “Elsie”.
Celia showing off her floral print linen and cotton flared dress made using New Look pattern 6390 (lengthened a bit). It is fully lined in cotton lawn and has an invisible zip in the back.
Bess made this super fine linen dress with black bird print for her holiday in Tobago, it’s made using her basic block with just the shaping from bust darts and a centre back seam. Nicknamed the frigate bird dress as the print is similar to the ubiquitous birds of the Caribbean.
It is unlined and the neck is bound with super lightweight satin bias binding.
Daiga wearing her beautifully fitted short sleeved denim blue wool silk and linen mix shift dress with lovely seam detailing and hem flounce. She made it using Burda 6640 and lined it in Venezia.
Elwen ready for her travels in her blue Irish Linen shirting weight smock dress. The yoke is a batik printed cotton. Armholes and neck are bound with bias and there is no zip.
Clair is Sunny Cadiz wearing her crewel embroidered Italian linen shift dress (her tried and tested pattern which Jane helped to fit many moons ago). We can’t emphasise too much how useful a good basic dress pattern is!
Whilst linen is notoriously creasy these heavy embroidered linens really don’t crease badly at all.
Sarah made up Vogue 9035 jacket pattern in this funky plasticised lightweight linen. She has used the reverse of the fabric for the cuffs and the hem panel on the back. Very clever!
Clair in Sunny Cadiz (okay, not sunny right now but it usually is!) wearing turquoise blue linen wrap skirt. The brown legs help. Fabulous.
Christie wearing her classic shift dress in this fabulous soft printed linen print. A well fitted shift dress is hard to beat, eh?
Lesley painted this brown linen dress using iridescent Markal Paintsticks and an Amy Butler stencil. I need to get myself some of those!
Elwen wearing her green Irish shirting linen dress to her brother’s graduation ceremony. She used Burda 6758 which she altered only in the bust (to make bigger), took in on the nape of her neck (it was gaping) and shortened it a bit (which was surprising as Elwen is tall). The bodice is lined in green cotton lawn, it was hand hemmed.
Chandra wearing her beautifully made reversible cotton skirt using a Liberty archive printed lawn on one side and plain blue linen on the other. The pattern is by Sew me Something and is called “Viola”.
Ruscha sporting her hand sewn silk chiffon shirt, which we at the Stone Fabrics headquarters are in awe of. She insists that it didn’t take that long to make and is a more enjoyable way to sew (she can sit in the garden and tinker away without noise). However it was made it is amazing. We love the mix of the two colour ways.
Also seen: linen and lycra stripey jersey skirt
Jane’s shirt made up once again in an embroidered and hand painted Linen from Italy. Jane was pleased with how economical this shirt was, getting all of it out of a metre (the facings were cut from the unpainted selvedges) -handy when the fabric is £85.00mt!
Jane’s amazing embroidered Italian Linen dress. This fabric is hand painted on top of the embroidery and doesn’t come cheap –it’s enlightening to discover what things cost when they are made properly and the artisans are paid a fair wage.
With such an amazing fabric you only need a very simple shift pattern, Jane used her block which just has bust darts, front darts and back darts so there was minimal chopping up of the pattern.
The fabric truly is stunning.
Not content with the £33mt fabulous blue Irish shirting weight Linen, Bess (with clearly too much time on her hands) hand painted spots all over it before making up this much loved A-line skirt.
There are belt loops sewn around the top and a length of picot edge petersham ribbon added as a belt.
The skirt is lined (Hong Kong style) with Cotton lawn and fastened with an invisible zip on the side.
Ann from classes wearing her floral printed ramie and viscose mix shift dress with frill hem. Ramie is a natural fibre similar to Linen, like linen it breathes well so is excellent to wear in the heat.
What’s the collective noun for linen shirts? For bullfinches it is a bellowing, I rather like that. A bellowing of linen shirts.
These are all made by Lesley using a discontinued Vogue pattern No 1476.
All the linens are light to medium weight, you can find more linens HERE
Bess wearing a white linen jersey raglan sleeved t-shirt with ‘modesty’ panel, and black viscose pique wide leg trousers.
Bess has a bit of a linen jersey obsession, this is the fourth (at least) she made of these tops in as many weeks. This was lined in a bandeau panel with a very stable white cotton jersey, the same jersey was used to bind the neck.
The trousers were made from a stash of Viscose, a slightly piqué weave cloth that drapes beautifully but has a lot of ‘substance’. There’s a fly and button closure and then ribbons that tie to the side.
Both patterns are fairly unrecognisable from their origins, but the trousers were Burda 8087 and the top is Burda 6990
You can find other linen jerseys HERE, the viscose trousering is kind of unique, we will buy more if we ever see it, but you will get a similar drape with Worsted Wool suitings
Raspberry pink embroidered linen shift dress made by Pamela. You can’t really beat a shift dress, eh? Timeless.
Embroidering linen might not make it crease less, but it will look like it is not so creased.
Find more embroidered linen here
Bess on top of the world wearing linen jersey camisole and red and white spotty linen skirt. The camisole pattern was made by drawing round an existing vest. The front and the back are the same which makes it super easy to construct (no markings!), Soft elastic binding was used for the straps, Bess made a few of these for her holiday and got the making time down to 20 minutes. The skirt was made a few years ago (fabric long since sold out 🙁 ), due to the linen being so fine Bess lined it with white ‘Riviera’ lawn. Double belt loops were attached to hold a decorative saddle stitch grosgrain belt. She’s had a lot of use out of this skirt.
You can find lots of Linens HERE
Angie’s magenta linen skirt suit modelled by her daughter
Fabrics and Notions:
Magenta mid-heavy weight linen
Purple Venezia lining
Two-fabric covered buttons (you can get these done at Harlequin)
Invisible zip (skirt)
Medium weight iron-on knitted interfacing
Pattern :Vogue V1127
Lesley wearing her fabulous box pleated hooded linen shirt with placket.
Fabrics and Notions:
Coral medium weight linen
Lightweight iron-on interfacing
Buttons
Jane (the boss lady) wearing her laminated cotton pink spotty raincoat with stripe yoke and contrasting spotty lining with detachable hood, and pink linen fly-front trousers.
Fabrics and Notions:
Jacket:
Pink and turquoise spotty laminated cotton #3021
Pink and turquoise stripe laminated cotton #3022
Anbo spotty American printed cotton.
Separating turquoise chunky zip.
Dyed turquoise shell buttons.
Clear plastic back buttons.
Trousers:
Pink heavy linen
7″ Dress and skirt zip
2 x buttons
Viscose iron-on Interfacing
Patterns:
Jacket: (discontinued) Anna Sui for Vogue #2424
Trousers: Burda 2938
There is no interfacing or stabilising in this jacket as the laminated cotton is very stable. Jane rarely makes things for herself, or in this kind of fabric and has been frequently saying, “I’m really pleased with that jacket!”. It makes all this rain ALMOST bearable.
Lulu wearing vintage Vogue dress made with swimmers printed cotton and pink linen bolero, all made by Jane.
Fabrics and Notions:
Dress:
Swimmers print cotton
Riviera cotton lawn lining
Cover buttons
Covered belt
Bias binding
Pattern: Vintage Vogue V2960
Bolero:
Pink Heavy Linen
Swimmers print cotton
Button
Piping
Lulu wearing Italian Designer knit dress, and Miaow wearing her heirloom embroidered linen dress.
Fabrics and Notions:
Lulu:
Italian Designer knit cotton and mixed fibres
Stay tape
Bias binding
Miaow:
Off-white linen
Riviera cotton lawn
Zip
Button
Lace inserts
Ribbons
Pam wearing her printed linen and ramie a-line skirt
Fabrics and Notions:
John Kaldor Printed Linen/Ramie
Invisible zip
Venezia lining
Piping and bias binding
Maddison modeling Bess’s proofed linen coat (quilted with wool wadding) with wiggly eye epaulettes. Zipping in the panels and sleeves undo to reveal white proofed linen pleats.
Fabric and Notions:
Chartreuse proofed linen
White proofed linen
Wool wadding
Black continuous zipping
wiggly eye buttons
Black cotton grosgrain
Spot printed viscose acetate lining
Cover buttons
Pocket zips
Eyelets (umbrella pocket)
Viscose iron-on interfacing
Pattern: Bess’s own
Kitcat wearing smocked linen dress with cross over back.
Fabrics and Notions:
Spotty printed linen.
Smocking
Buttons
Lawn iron-on interfacing
Jacoba wearing floral printed linen skirt with frill detailing.
Dee wears this elegant purple embroidered linen mix shift dress
Fabrics and Notions:
String embroidered linen mix
Purple Venezia lining
Medium weight knitted iron-on interfacing
Invisible zip
It is a good idea to make a toile (a roughly made up dress in inexpensive fabric) when making a shift dress with this flattering wide neck style so that it doesn’t gape. A toile is ALWAYS a good idea when making up a pattern you haven’t tried before, but it is especially important for this neckline which has a tendency to gape. Dee made this up beautifully.
Bess dancing at her cousin, Gemma’s wedding, in her super-comfortable red linen cap sleeve jersey dress.
Fabrics and Notions:
Red linen single jersey
Stay tape (shoulder seams)
Pattern: Custom made
Bess wearing Navy Linen and Cotton Herringbone suiting jacket and skirt.
Fabric and Notions:
Linen/Cotton Herringbone Doublecloth Suiting
Venezia Lining
Large anorak snap fasteners
Invisible zip
Viscose iron-on interfacing
Pattern: Custom made (variation on a bought NafNaf suit)
Lulu wearing her lovely silk and linen shift wedding dress, holding her daughter, Kitcat, in her printed cotton seersucker ruffled dress and matching headband. Gemma to her right wears an embroidered cotton bridesmaid dress.
Fabrics and Notions (Lulu):
Turquoise silk and linen
Silk habotai lining
Silk organza feather trim
Invisible zip
Iron-on lightweight interfacing
Fabrics and Notions (Gemma):
Embroidered lightweight cotton
Venezia lining
Invisible zip
Lightweight iron-on interfacing
Fabrics and Notions (KitCat)
Printed cotton seersucker
Cotton lawn (lining and collar))
Button
Extra-Lightweight knitted iron-on interfacing
The silk organza trim gave Lulu’s dress just the touch of something special she wanted for her wedding dress without making it too impractical or unsuitable to wear at subsequent posh do’s. A shift is the most flattering of dress, and easy to make fit really well.
Rebecca wearing her princess line floral print linen dress
Fabric and Notions:
Printed Linen
Medium weight knitted iron-on interfacing
Invisible zip
Pattern: McCall’s 8107
Jane wearing a linen jacket to Bess’s wedding, made with pink and green panels, embellished with machine embroidery.
Fabrics and Notions:
Fuchsia Pink & Lime green heavy washed linen
Small self-cover buttons
Satin bias binding and piping cord
Venezia lining
Viscose iron-on interfacing
Pattern: Custom made
Kitcat modelling smocked white linen dress with lined sunhat (Made by Jane)
Fabrics and Notions:
White medium weight linen
Pink and green embroidery threads
White cotton Riviera lawn (lining)
Self-cover buttons
Traditional smocking is time consuming and quite tricky to do well. It is important you pick a fabric that has an even and straight weave, and that markings are done incredibly accurately. It is becoming a lost art, and should be encouraged as it is lovely (and practical)
Bess’s amazing quartz-crystal covered white linen cap-sleeve a-line dress. (made by Jane)
Fabrics and Notions:
White heavy washed linen.
4kg quartz crystal bead chips
Stretch silk satin (bodice lining)
Covered boning
Fine white Riviera cotton lawn (skirt lining)
Red satin bias and fine piping cord
Invisible zip
Lightweight knitted iron-on interfacing
Pattern: Custom made
The beading on this very special dress took three months by Jane (and her small army of helpers), the whole dress weighed so much Bess had to give in to Jane’s request that she be allowed to bone it (Bess doesn’t like being contained), as without boning the weight was pulling down and giving her a flat chest. The boning and the waist stays, although on a stretch satin foundation, were enough to support the dress.
Bess in her proofed linen mac (originally white, but had a little accident in the washing machine. It’s fine! She likes pink too)
Fabrics and Notions:
Ivory proofed linen
Red proofed cotton
Anorak snap fasteners
Viscose iron-on interfacing
