Friday Pattern Company Cambria Duster

I don’t know about you, but I’m deep into my seasonal sewing.  Between sewing cool weather clothes to wear now, prepping my warm weather sewing plan, and working on crafts to give as holiday gifts, my mind is a bit frazzled.  That’s why I love the Minerva kits so much!  Everything I need comes in one handy little package and it saves me the time and energy from trying to collect everything myself.  This season, I was sent the Minerva kit for the Cambria Duster by Friday Pattern Company.  I’ve had my eye on this pattern for a while and was thisclose to purchasing it during the last pattern sale.  So, of course, I was thrilled to receive not only the printed pattern, but also the needles, thread, interfacing, bias tape, and fabric needed to make the duster.  Speaking of the fabric, I used Boucle Knit Coating Fabric in the color Bottle (as in bottle green) for my Cambria.  It’s a medium to heavyweight knit fabric with 30% stretch width-wise and 10% stretch lengthwise.

Like I said, I’ve had my eye on the Cambria Duster for a while now.  In case you’re not familiar, the Cambria is a long unlined duster with split sides, large pockets, belt, and a dramatic collar.  It was designed for woven fabrics, but because of its sleek design, can work with knit fabrics as well.  The knit coating fabric I used was perfect and made for a snuggly soft, but sturdy Cambria.  Two of the items from the kit – the interfacing and bias tape – are optional, so you can make the Cambria without them if you’d like.  However, I really liked the professional feel of an interfaced belt.  As for the bias tape, that’s a bit of a different story.  Because the fabric is nice and thick, finishing the seams with bias tape took FOREVER.  I probably spent as much time finishing the seams as I did making the rest of the duster.  The end result looks great (and I’ve shown off my seams with pride), but if I were to make another Cambria with thick fabric, I would just use my serger to finish the seams and move along.  I would probably still bind my seams with bias tape if I were working with a thinner fabric.

I love my Cambria and decided to bring it to a beach trip this past Halloween.  The weather turned a bit chilly for a couple days during my trip, so I was happy that I brought my duster with me.  I even took a short break from lounging on the beach to snap a few photos of my Cambria in all its beach-loving glory!  I was a little concerned that I’d have a lot of sand stuck in the fabric, but after a quick shake of my duster, it was sand-free.  I already have plans to make Cambria out of waxprint, so I can have a cute duster for cool and warm weather.  Thanks so much to Minerva for sending me this kit and inspiring me to do more than just look at patterns from afar!