La Bella Donna - More Inclusive Than Ever

Pattern - Love Notions La Bella Donna
Skill Level - Confident Beginner
Fabric - Discovery Fabrics Bamboo French Terry
Skills - Hemming, Pressing

Love Notions' popular pattern, La Bella Donna, has been re-tested and re-issued.  This super-easy and oh-so-comfortable pattern is now sized XS to 5XL.  What's more, it now has a full bust pattern piece. It comes with three sleeve options; short, three-quarters and full length.  You can make it with the scoop neck or have a hood or cowl instead.  And for finishing off?  Hem, facing or shirt band.  It comes in shirt and tunic length.  As usual, there are so many options!

The pattern calls for medium weight knit fabrics with at least 40% stretch, and I chose to make mine from Discovery Fabrics' Bamboo French Terry in a lovely periwinkle blue.  This fabric has beautiful drape and stretch and is so comfortable to wear.  Everything I've bought from Discovery Fabrics has been top quality and the service is great.

I chose to make my latest La Bella Donna with three-quarter sleeves as I'm always pushing them up anyway.  It's such a comfortable length for me.  There's a long cuff, but the seam is above my elbow - the perfect spot.  This is a very quick pattern to sew - so few pieces!  Body, optional cowl/hood, sleeve cuffs/bands - that's it!

I don't know why I haven't made a cowl neck for myself before - I just love it.  And for a person "of a certain age" it's a perfect neckline!  Made in my French Terry, it drapes beautifully.  And once I sewed the cuffs and cowl on, all that was left to do was hem the bottom - I told you this was a quick pattern!

You have a choice of a band at the hips to finish or a hem which can simply be turned under a half inch and stitched, or faced and stitched.  I decided to hem.

You know I can't review a pattern without throwing in a hint or two, and since La Bella Donna has that flattering curved hem, I thought I would show you how easy it is to hem a curved edge.

The first thing I did was to turn the hem under .5" and secure with lots of long pins.  And then you notice that the curved hem gives you lots of bulges.  Don't panic - it's easy!

This is where your steam iron comes into play - I hate ironing, but I can't sew without my steam iron. Simply press the iron on the bulges and they shrink!  And now you can see why you use long pins.

And just like magic, the bulges are flat.  And if you wind up with a tuck or two, it doesn't matter because it's on the inside of the garment.

Let's look more closely:

Before

After

After you've stitched your hem (I did mine on my coverstitch) you may notice some waviness.  Time to press again.

I turn my  iron sideways and slide it gently down the body towards the hem.  And any waviness is a thing of the past.

La Bella Donna - which is Italian for beautiful lady - is a pattern that is quick and easy to make and the result is an attractive, comfortable garment.  There are so many options that you can make it time after time and each one will be unique.  If you bought this pattern in the past, you can get the updated version in your Downloads on the Love Notions website.  If you don't have it - you need it!  You can get it from my affiliate link below.

Love Notions La Bella Donna sizes XS to 5X

Help Is On The Way!!!

I'm an administrator on the Love Notions Pattern Support page on Facebook and we often get requests for help from members new to sewing.  Love Notions has a team of administrators standing by to give help with the Love Notions patterns but there's a ton of information on the Love Notions website itself.  The menu bar on the Love Notions home page will give you links to so many helpful blog posts and articles

The Help Menu

This is where you'll find basic help.

Here you'll find information on log in problems, how to download and print your patterns, how to use the amazing layers function - things like that.

The Blog Menu

This has links to all the blog posts on Love Notions patterns and you can even search for blog posts on a specific pattern.

Maybe we've even done a sewalong on a pattern you're interested in or need help with - all of the sewalongs are linked on this page.

Resources

Then there's the Extras menu.

There's a wealth of information here but I'm going to talk about the Resources link in the Extras menu.

If you're not sure where to take your measurements, there's  a link here to a page you can download.  It shows you exactly where to take your measurements, and if you print it off, you can keep your measurements on the diagram.

There are links to articles on fitting, blending sizes, making alterations to patterns to fit your unique body, techniques such as changing necklines, and a host of other helpful items.

And then there are links to hacks and techniques.  Want to do a cold shoulder on a shirt?  Add a zipper to a pocket? Add a hood to a pattern that doesn't have that option?  You'll find instructions here.

And finally, there's the handy sewing techniques.  Here you'll find articles on sewing neckbands, how to sew in sleeves, hemming, buttons and buttonholes and so much more.  There's also pattern-specific help such as sewing the Trendy Tunic and Whistler pockets and how to do the burrito roll in the Cadence pattern.

And if you don't find the help you need through the website, ask in the Facebook group.  Tami Meyer has a whole team of people standing by to help you solve your problem so that you can wear your lovely new make!