Linen fabric is what I love to wear in the Summer if I can get it. Minerva now offers a core range of mill washed linen fabric so I order quite a bit this time to test it out on two patterns.

This review is of the shorts I made using Kwik Sew 3814 and getting the fit right using Top Down Centre Out method developed by Ruth Collins or Ithacamaven on Instagram.

Back to the Linen fabric…
Locally I can buy light weight linen fabric. The colour range is really limited. The type of linen fabric available locally is also limited.
Minerva’s range has 26 colours to choose from. That’s a lot of choice and if you love linen, this is the spot to get that colour you have your heart set on.

The colour I’ve used is pastel green. You can see the green in the sunlight but in room lighting, this colour looks like pastel blue. This could be because my eyes are slowly not seeing all the colours of the rainbow as I age but whatever the colour, I like it.

As you can see in these photos, I’ve paired it with a teal based abstract floral print tee that I made from a previous Minerva remnant.

This pair of shorts were made after I experimented with Kwik Sew 3814 twice. Initially I used a cotton fabric and they were large. I had used the largest size without checking the hip width correctly. The second version was tested in medium using a very thin linen. The width was fine but the centre back and centre fronts needed tweaking.
On this version I was very happy with the width as this linen is mid weight and perfect for shorts or pants or jackets. The waistband on this pattern is curved so while I’ve stabilised the waistband with interfacing, the waistband does stretch out a bit.

At the centre back seam, the waistband also has a centre back seam so I can continue to tweak the fit of these shorts as I wear them. I’m wearing them a lot right now because it’s shorts weather.

I love this fabric because it holds its own and is great to wear when touring around with friends.

Now for the fabric. You know how linen crushes easily? Would you believe this fabric does crush but doesn’t show it too much on this dress. The fabric irons out really easily.
Finishing this fabric took some thinking and I decided on overlocking the seam edges but with a 3thread stitch and not 4 threads. 4 thread stitching adds more weight to the fabric. I don’t need additional weight to this dress.

Also when you iron this fabric make sure you use an ironing cloth to avoid adding shine to the fabric. I use a tailors ham to iron the seams open. Firstly ironing the seams closed on the wrong side of the fabric. Then I iron the seams open on the wrong side of the fabric. Lastly I iron the seams on the right side of the fabric using an ironing cloth and tailors ham.

When I initially sew each seam, I will press the seam open with the heat of my fingers to check my work before I iron the seam. That was I can easily unpick the seam and resew it correctly. The threads can be unpicked and pulled out easily at this stage. Try it!