Exploring plus size sewing patterns
I tested the sizes 20 – 28 size range of the Merchant & Mills Trapeze Dress in their Woolsey Boston Fall linen/wool double gauze, which Merchant & Mills kindly sent my way along with a digital copy of the pattern for the purpose of the review.
Their extended size range goes up to a 55″ (139.5 cm) bust and 57.5″ (145.5 cm) hip. The largest finished bust measurement is 62.59″ (159 cm), there’s no given measurement for the hip measurement and the finished bicep is 18.79 ” (47.75 cm).
I cut out this Cashmerette Pembroke and sewed it up over the course of a couple of hours last night, after many months of thinking how nice it would be to have a merino turtleneck in exactly this shade (a perfect match for my marsala linen Zadie Jumpsuit)
This Marsala Premium Merino from The Fabric Store has been burning a hole in my stash and was purchased in anticipation of being used on the winning pattern from my ‘perfect merino turtleneck throwdown‘ back in April. I got some great feedback from Jenny from Cashmerette about some changes to the pattern for my next version, but since that required printing out a new version of the pattern (I never trace), I just went ahead and made exactly the same version as when I toiled the pattern.
I sewed a pretty ‘straight-from-the-packet’ Cashmerette Pembroke I sewed a size 20 at the bust, grading out to a size 22 by the hips. Although there was a lot of wrinkling in my previous version, this merino is a lot heftier and I like the end product a lot more than I did my test version.
Sewing knit necklines is my nemisis, so sewing on a turtleneck is the perfect way to skip that headache. I can definitely see myself making at least another couple of these in a few different colours, especially since I think they’ll be perfect for layering under summery linen makes.
These Willandra Pants in deep-stash tencel from Maai Design is my third pair of Willandra Pants.
I actually won this tencel in a giveaway over a year ago, and I was so excited when it arrived and I waited and waited for the perfect pattern came along, and in the end I pushed away my thoughts about ‘pants shouldn’t be light colours’ (after all, my most worn pants are natural coloured linen Glebe Pants)! and cut in to this gorgeous fabric.
Fabric Use:
I think I had won about 2 metres of this fabric, but it was a very generous cut of fabric. I know I can squeeze a pair of these our of 2 metres of 150cm wide fabric (but I might need to piece together the waistband rather than cut it on the fold), so I’ve got enough of this fabric left for a wee scrap-buster project.
I’m using Me Made May to take daily outfit photos and I’ve pledged to wear no repeat outfits for the month. I’m excited to use the challenge to explore pairing my pants with different (and perhaps surprising colour combinations)!
The Willandra Pants are the newest pattern that Leila and I have released as Muna and Broad! These pants are our ‘fancy work pants’ and call for fabric with lots of drape.
Apologies for the over- edited photos, but I tried to lighten the pictures up so you could see my side-seams as the diagonal side seam which wraps around the body is kind of the highlight here (in addition to the extra-fancy look).
I made these pants in Maroon colours MeetMILK sanded wash tencel which I purchased from Studio of Sewing in Auckland, New Zealand. The fabric, as the name suggests, has a lovely sandwashed look and the texture is really dreamy to wear.
The tencel wasn’t slippery to sew with and it didn’t fray or stretch over my hems. That’s great news because the diagonal seam means the edge of the pants is mostly on the bias, and over-handling could lead to a lot of stretching out.
Size details:
I have a 56″ hip and I make a Size 1 in the Muna and Broad pants patterns (conveniently our sample size. These pants are definitely the most fitted of any of our pants, and I also made sure the elastic was super tight back there, as there’s nothing worse than gapey pants.
I love that these pants have the same excellent fit for me, straight out of the packet. I didn’t make any changes to the pattern other than adding bias tape around the edges of my pocket bags for some extra fanciness.
Fabric Usage:
I was able to squeeze my Size 1 pants out of 2 metres of fabric by the pattern pieces out with the fabric on the flat (not folding the fabric over to cut out two mirrored pieces at once. You could potentially achieve the same results by folding the fabric in the opposite direction to usual- one of the leg pieces is much wider than the other, and depending on your size, I think it would be a struggle to fit those across the width of the fabric
There’s a very popular dress and jacket pattern that’s not available for fat-makers and I decided today on a whim that I’d like to make something very similar for myself, but using a pattern that is available in my size. So here’s part 2 of my Torrens Box Dress exploration, using the Muna and Broad Torrens Box Top pattern.
I’ve been saving this lovely Outback Wife Barkcloth fabric from Fibresmith in Australia for a special project, and since Outback Wife fabric isn’t made anymore, it was more important than ever that I made something that I knew would fit well! I make a Size 1 in Muna and Broad sizes for my 47″ bust and 56″ hip.
I had 3 metres of this fabric, which was enough to cut a suitably long dress from, the narrow-sleeve long sleeve and also the facings. I doubt I would have had enough of the fabric to cut the in-seam pockets from, but since I wanted to use something a bit lighter and less structured for the pockets, that was fine.
I added side-seam pockets shortly below the armpit, and lengthened the top pattern in a straight line down after the pattern piece ended using my blue silk noil torrens as a guide for length. I also cut out a self-fabric tie, which I was intending to interface but didn’t need to since the barkcloth was quite firm.
The outcome? I love this dress and can definitely see myself wearing this to work (when we go back to work)! I’m already mentally sifting through my stash to see what other fabrics might make dresses suitable for pairing with tights for winter!