Riva — Linen Shirts, Pant and Short

I loved working with Linen for the first time. It was a pleasure to make the blouse. It was the first time sewing clothing in such a very long time and it was easy with your directions. I love the professional look. I will be buying more fabric.

The shirt pattern works out well. I haven't tried it in linen yet but my mock-up went together fine. I'm struggling with the shorts pattern. The zipper is backwards from the conventional orientation and so intuition is useless. It's confusing to try to reverse it all. The photos aren't big enough or detailed enough to be useful. Maybe if I already knew how to do this kind of zipper it would help a lot but I don't. Fortunately, just working on a practice garment right now, so no loss if I fail. (Sorry for the incomplete review below. Can't figure out how to erase it.)

Thanks so much for your feedback on our patterns. We truly value it so we can make them as clear as possible! I'm going to send you an email and I'll walk you through inserting the zipper. Lauren

I have made dozens of shirts and this one goes together like a dream. The drape of the back pleat is unique and fun. I got compliments and a request from a colleague to make one for her. Love it so much, I made it in two colors. I made the shorts...my first adventure into tailoring. The hardest part was the loop for the back pockets. After two failed attempts, I decided to cut a 2-inch wide bias strip and use my zipper foot and some cord to make piping. Then I stitched across one end to anchor the cord, trimmed the seam to 1/8 inch, and turned it. Perfect! I don't understand what is up with the back waistband. I will make it much narrower in the back and eliminate the raw edge to raw edge feature. Finally, the fly is the reverse of every other pant I own. Nest time I will reverse the application. Otherwise, this is a great, flattering pattern, and I will be using it for years.

when advertising your patterns online, it would be extremely helpful to make yardages for the sizes and the individual garments available so that we can plan how much fabric to buy when we are inspired by a sale and like a pattern we see. Spontaneous people would appreciate it.

Hi! Thank you so much for reaching out - right above the add to cart button there is a "View Size Chart" link and it opens up into details of sizes/yardage for that particular pattern. I will talk to the team to see how we can make that link more prominent. Have a great day!

I love this pattern. The double welt back pockets and the traditional fly front on the pants and the sleeve plackets on the shirt are so traditional. I'm particularly impressed by the treatments for the pants hems and the shirt collar as a way of saving my time. However, if you're impatient or a less experienced seamstress, this may be bit too much. The Charlie pattern, which I also love, is much easier. No fly-front, no double-welt back pockets, no sleeve plackets, and only one buttonhole. The high waist and sash on the pants may not be what you want, but the sash can be dispensed wit, saving yardage.