Coral Peony Linen Dress

I decided to take a small break from making bags and, while a 'sort of summer' still remains in Scotland, I made myself a linen dress.

The Coral Peony Dress is made from a Vogue sewing pattern that I used previously and loved the design (see it here.) I like patterns that can be used with different fabrics as every time the result is a totally different look. 

I purchased this coral/terracotta linen fabric from Len & Blen and it is available on the Washpapa website. The fabric is manufactured in Poland. It is one of the most undervalued fabrics/fibres in my opinion. Yes, it does crease like crazy, that's true. But it can be treated as a design feature. Linen is much easier to grow than cotton and a variety of woven and even knitted fabrics can be made of it.

While I am composing this blog post, I can see a wall of rain through my window. So maybe I've missed the chance to wear my new dress this summer. But the fabric seems to be thick and dense enough that maybe I could layer it with the long sleeve top and thicker tights. 

I love the touch of this fabric, it is smooth and cool - nothing scratchy or itchy in a way linen is often associated with. 

We also tried to record a little video to show how bouncy and drapey this fabric is.

I was actually surprised how funky this dress looks. I must admit that I was little bit afraid of that 'linen ascetic look', but it is nothing like that. I even decided against sewing on different trims to jazz it up because the fabric is so beautiful that I let it speak for itself.