Are you a linen lover?  From my experience with selling the fabric, it seems to be one of those fabrics that people either love or hate.  The haters are mainly concerned with the wrinkling aspect of the fabric.  But those who love linen, call them status wrinkles!

I’m an all natural girl, so while admittedly, I don’t have a lot of linen outfits in my wardrobe, I’m not one to turn down the fabric if something exciting crosses my path!  When this fabric arrived in store (it comes in black and dark navy), I immediately took home a piece of the dark navy (too much black in my closet) wondering what design I could use to showcase the two sides of this fantastic fabric.

I had the “ah ha” moment at one of the Sunday forums when one of the ladies (Thanks Marian!) showed her cotton top using Marcy Tilton’s Vogue 9193 pattern.

I liked the idea of split top where I could use the light side of the fabric on the top half of the garment, and the darker side for the bottom part.  It also had an interesting in seam pocket detail.  I chose to do the sleeveless top because it would be cooler to wear during the summer, and, quite frankly, because I didn’t have enough fabric for sleeves!

I also searched around for some fabric for the pants as the pants looked interesting with the repeating pocket detail.  Unfortunately we didn’t have a dark enough navy in the linen, but I did discover the dark navy narrow silk noile worked well with the linen.

The entire project was easy to put together.  The only thing I would suggest regarding the construction of the top, is to use a small piece of light weight fusible interfacing (I used sewer’s dream) to reinforce the “clip to stitching line” turn point of the pocket.  It is not suggested in the pattern instructions, but I like to use it to prevent future fraying in that area.

So why the title of this post?  Too much of a good thing?  I like the top.  It has an interesting design feature.  I like the pants since they have the same design feature.

However, I don’t really like the two garments together.  I felt there was too much fabric around the middle.  And who needs extra bulk there?  I could better see the top being worn with a simple pull on, narrower cut pant.  Also, the length of the top hides the design feature of the pants.  Or I could see the pants being worn with a fitted t-shirt or blouse.  Either of which would take away the volume of puff from around the middle.

So now I’m off to make a simple white t-shirt because apparently my current wardrobe is lacking such a basic.  Who’da thought!