Leonie Dress

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.

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.