Love Notions Lincoln Top: side seam buttons!

A super cute and unique pattern just launched! It’s the new Lincoln Top by Love Notions, a boxy fit top with very interesting side seams! The best part is that the buttons don’t even have to be functional. You can sew them on omitting the buttonholes if you don’t need them to be functional or you can even use snaps instead. I love how this pattern can go from casual to dressy depending on styling and you can choose how you wear the button plackets – all the way unbuttoned, partially unbuttoned or fully buttoned. Let’s a take a look at the line drawing and sewing options!

Options

• 2 Neckline Options: Boat or Scoop
• 3 Sleeve Options: Sleeveless, 3/4 or Long
• 2 Lengths: Cropped or Standard
• 2 Binding options: Single fold or Double fold

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Here’s what I made: Cropped style with a scoop neck and double folded binding so inside has a nice clean finish. With the cropped view, the back is the same length as the standard length, but the front is about 1.5″ shorter. It gives a nice high low effect that I find so special! I did infact do the buttonholes so my buttons are 100% functional and that gives me the freedom to wear the top any way I’d like! I really just adore how the Lincoln looks half unbuttoned! So stylish! And I love versatility in a sewing pattern!

Fabric

• Light to Medium weight knits
• At least 25% 4-way stretch
• E.g. French terry, Ponte and Cotton/Lycra, Jersey blends and Double Brushed Poly

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I used cotton lycra and of course I took the opportunity to do some fun colourblocking! Duh! I have to say this fabric was a dream to combine with this pattern in terms of flawless stitching. But it may be a little too thick for the boxy nature of this style. This is the heaviest weight cotton lycra I’ve ever used and I think it may be more suitable for fitted garments, but I really wanted to use these colours! It did start softening up while wearing it so I’m hoping it will soften up even more in the wash.. fingers crossed! I used a much less stiff cotton spandex for my mock up during testing and it just hung much nicer so definitely something to be aware of when picking fabrics for this boxy fit.

I am literally obsessed with how the colourblocking turned out. It was a risky move combining pink and orange but I saw this photo on Pinterest and though it’s not remotely the same style or anything… the colour combo with the gold buttons just caught my eye! I had it saved on my Pinterest board for a while… and as soon as I saw the initial line drawing of the Lincoln Top pattern with the buttons down the side, I opened Pinterest to find this photo and used it as my inspiration for my final make. I couldn’t find nice gold shank buttons anywhere… you know… third world country problems *rolls eyes* but I did find these gold coin type metal buttons and thought they would match my pink and orange combo perfectly. The buttons have some nice weight to them which pleasantly surprised me too.

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Sizing

• XS – 5X
• Full Bust Option

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A major thing to keep in mind when choosing a size is how boxy this top is intended to fit. Grading this pattern is too tricky because of those side seam plackets so you’ll pick one size based on your largest measurement. Usually you’d choose your Love Notions size based on high bust, but this top literally has no shaping and the measurements are equal down the body of the top. As normal, you’d use the full bust piece if the full bust minus high bust is more than 4”. Lucky for me, my measurements fell into a straight size L. If this was intended to be hip length, I’d fall into the XL for hip but I have very low hips so my high hip fell in the size L. If your high hip falls into a larger size, I’d recommend going with the bust size for this pattern and leaving one or two buttons open to accommodate the high hip area. Otherwise you may end up with the top being too oversized across the upper bodice. But then again fabric plays an important role and it’s all down to personal preference. I recommend making a muslin to be certain.

Neck Binding

If you are familiar with Love Notions patterns, you know that Tami likes a clean finish on the inside. The instructions mention two ways you can sew the neck binding. You can either sew the binding to the neckline, right sides together, understitch, turn under, and topstitch then trim the excess, similar to the La Bella Donna pattern. The alternative and the method I used, is to turn under the binding again before topstitching so you’ll have a nice clean edge. Here’s an important tip: if using a thick main fabric, use a much lighter weight knit fabric for your binding. Because my cotton lycra was so bulky, I opted for a lighter sheer mesh type knit and thank the heavens, it was a great choice! My neck binding is pretty much flawless.. especially in comparison to my mock up version where I used the same cotton spandex for the binding as the main. The difference between the two is actually insane!

Speaking of finishing, the hem also has a nice clean finish that encases the placket edges in one go. It’s a neat technique that creates nice crisp corners. It would look even nicer if you use matching thread but I had none on hand so I just used white. I was shocked at how much my machine enjoyed sewing this fabric considering I’ve had difficulties in the past sewing this exact type of thick cotton lycra. It’s amazing what a nice fresh stretch needle can do! Change your needles people!

So there you have it.. Lincoln in a nutshell! I hope I’ve inspired you to grab this new interesting pattern and try it for yourself.. even with some colourblocking perhaps? Lucky for you… the pattern is on release sale for one week at $9! And guess what? If you use my coupon code: ISLAND10 you’ll get an extra 10% off (this applies to any Love Notions pattern). Yay! And here is my affiliate link. As a Love Notions ambassador, I will earn a small commission at no extra cost to you should you choose to purchase using my link. Thank you for your support!

So… which view? Standard or cropped? And if you do decide to mix up the colours… what two will you combine? Let me know in the comments!

Toodle-loo

Keira