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Torrens Box Top is Rust Silk Noil

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The lovely Trin from A+R Fabrics sent me this gorgeous brick coloured silk noil which recently arrived in her store. The colour is even more gorgeous in real life- part rust, part rich pumpkin colour and, just like my recent forays in to silk noil, this was a delight to sew.

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I chose to whip up a Torrens Box Top with Leila and I released under the auspice of Muna and Broad (the box top and the website were released last week)! The silk noil is part drapey but still keeps a great structure, which helps the top to maintain its great architectural sleeve shape even when my arms are down (see below)!

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I also used the opportunity to couple one of my new stitch-collective labels with the new tidy-facing technique I learnt from the Love To Sew podcast!

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The ingenious instructions for this super-tidy facing is clockwise from top left:

1. With non-sticky and right side of your fashion fabric facing, sew a small edge along the bottom hem of facing/interfacing
2. Clip into the curve, being careful not to stitch into your line of stitching. I also trimmed down a lot of the interfacing to reduce bulk
3. Flip your interfacing over so that the sticky-side is now touching the wrong-side of your fashion fabric (I pushed the hem with my fingers to ensure it had turned out

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4. Check that none of your interfacing is visible from the right-side of your fashion fabric, adjust as necessary.
5. With interfacing side down, use your iron to adhere interfacing to fashion fabric
6. You can attach the label at this stage or simply sew your facings at the shoulder seams and continue on

Once you’ve used this method a few times it becomes quite fast, and I find it to be immensely preferable to zig-zag finshing the bottom hem!

If you’re interested in my top, the Torrens Box Top is available from a 50″ bust (I’m a 47″ bust but I love the extra ease) and is 15% off for 2 more days! The Torrens was drafted specifically with larger bodies in mind, and Leila’s drafting was really thoughtful- the top doesn’t slip back and pull at my neck, I don’t have to ‘re-adjust’ where the shoulder sits all day, and once I wrapped my head around the sleeve insertion, this is a super-quick sew!

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Summer Peppermint Wrap Skirt

Peppermint Wrap Skirt Cotton

I’d been thinking about buying some of this Australian floral printed fabric of Ellie Whittaker‘s from Spotlight’s upholstery fabric section to make this free wrap skirt from Peppermint Magazine for ages! When Spotlight had a sale, I didn’t hesitate to snap it up. But then it sat in my stash for a while and then I cut it out but didn’t sew it up, and then when I eventually sewed it up I realised that it didn’t really work with a single top that I own, so it languished in my wardrobe until today (a couple of days after this cropped white t-shirt arrived in the post)!

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Size details: I’m a bit larger than the 54″ hip size for this pattern, but I cut the pasdttern as-is and used a slightly smaller seam allowance. The sizing difference means that the side-seams aren’t ‘true’ down the sides, but the generous overlap on the skirt means that it’s still difficult for me to flash the public (though not as difficult as it is in my wool version, which was utterly unaffected by breeze)! The only change I made to the pattern was lengthening the ties slightly.

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Fabric estimate: I ordered 2.5 metres of this 150cm wide fabric and have a very decent amount leftover, but I did cut the pieces out paying absolutely no attention to pattern placement.

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Gingernut Grainline Hemlock

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Grainline Studios has recently released their free Hemlock Tee pattern in their new extended size range! I’ve loved the style of the top, and now it’s available in my size! You can get the pattern for free by subscribing to the Grainline email newsletter (which you can do here).

Based on Grainline’s new size chart (below) I made a size 24 (I’m 47″bust and around 54″ hip), and I was pleasantly surprised to find that the size on the arms was quite generous, and meant that I could skip doing a full bicep adjustment!

I cut out the 3/4 sleeve length and the length of the body is halfway between the cropped & mid-length body in this gingernut viscose spandex from Fabric Drop, which is based out of Dunedin in New Zealand. With some pattern tetris, I was able to cut this out from about 1.5 metres (and I’ve got a decent piece leftover too). I usually cut all my patterns on the open (flipping the pattern piece over and tracing a mirror image), and then cut sleeves (and other things I need to cut 2 of) one at a time. Doing that here certainly made it a pretty economical pattern!

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The 3/4 length sleeves ended up being almost bracelet length for me, because I have quite narrow shoulders and my measurements put me in between size 20 and 22 but I made a straight size 24. I’m happy with the length, but would do some measuring of the full length arm piece before sewing that as I suspect it would be quite long.

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I realised after the fact that I had inadvertently sewed up something almost identical to the Grainline sample on the right!

If you’re in the size range for Tessuti’s Mandy Boat Tee pattern, Meg from Cookin’ and Craftin’ has done a great blog post comparing it with the Grainline Hemlock!

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Torrens Box Top from Muna & Broad

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Torrens Box top from Muna & Broad with the free Glebe Pants pattern from Muna & Broad

I’ve been saving this gorgeous rayon from Drapers Fabric for the perfect project. I’m happy to say that I’m really pleased with the usage here, and I think I’ll have enough leftover for a summer shell top (maybe an Ashton from Helen’s Closet?)

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Torrens Box top from Muna & Broad with the free Glebe Pants pattern from Muna & Broad

We’re currently testing the Torrens Box Top for Muna & Broad. The pattern is out with our lovely testers and will be released in November! As always, sign up to the email list if you’d like to be kept up to date on the latest.

Torrens Box Top
Torrens Box top from Muna & Broad with the free Glebe Pants pattern from Muna & Broad

Size Details: I made the smallest size in this pattern. The neckline is drafted so that it doesn’t show bra-straps (even on my very narrow shoulders). Leila drafted the shoulder seams with some wizard tricks- this shirt doesn’t constantly shift back at the neckline so that it chokes you at numerous points during the day! The only change I made was to crop the shirt by turning the bottom up with two generous folds. I love a thick bottom hem, so that was perfect!

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Glebe Pants in deadstock rayon

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I wanted to try @Leila_Sews‘ Glebe Pants pattern in a lightweight, rayon fabric to see how the pattern fared.

I found 5 metres of this fabric for $15 at a fabric remnant sale of a Christchurch local clothes shop, and it’s quite creasy, quite light but very comfortable.

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I made a size 1 in the Glebe Pants (which is a nice change from relying on positive ease to sneak in to a size chart), even though my ‘seated hip size’ would put me up a size. I didn’t need to add any height at the front or at the back of the rise and find these very comfortable and think they sit perfectly.

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