Laura has made this beautiful Liberty Linen Dress. She’s used ‘Irma’ Sycamore Linen which is one of my all time favourite Liberty prints. It’s the print which epitomises the perfect English garden and looks beautiful on this summer dress.
The fabric: Irma is such a beautiful Liberty print with watercolour florals from the spring / summer 2013 collection. It was printed to retain the exact brush strokes and the tiniest pencil marks. Pretty drawn plants include euphorbia, poppies, astrantia and iberis which all blend together to create an etherial meadow. The Sycamore Linen fabric base is even and smooth which makes it great for clothing and draping projects for windows.
Liberty Linen dress: Inspiration for the dress came from combining several dresses in Laura’s wardrobe. She traced the outline of various elements of each dress to get the main shape. The end design Laura wanted to achieve was something loose, floaty and really comfortable. This style of dress works really with the linen fabric and makes it the perfect summer dress.
Laura made a last minute decision to change the lining fabric on the sleeve to the linen. It started out as dark blue but using the Irma fabric meant that the armhole blends with the main fabric on the front instead of standing out.
The bodice almost complete. This view is the back of the dress bodice before buttons and button holes. You can see the tie is attached to the sides of the bodice which makes the dress more fitted.
Finished button holes. This shows Laura’s dark lining fabric – chosen so that the dress won’t be at all see-through.
The skirt pleats. Stitching the pleats in place means that they stay even during the sewing process.
The finished Liberty Linen Dress. Laura has put a tie at the back so that she can have the dress as loose or as tight as she would like depending on the changeable English weather. This also means that you can vary how formal the dress looks.
She went for a walk in the gorgeous yellow fields of oil seed rape which is in full bloom at the moment in England. These sunny fields contrast so beautifully with the blue flowers in this Irma print. Both have such a vibrancy about them. There’s nothing quite like spring colour in England. Plenty of rain and sunshine make everything glow in the fields and meadows.
Laura said “I love wearing the dress and it was really fun to make. It makes me feel like the main character in a classic English novel.”
We have quite a few of these lovely Liberty linens – you can buy them here. Happy sewing.
Love Alice x
