Pattern/Technique: Torrens box top by Muna and Broad in size C. Modified bottom hem length (see lessons below).
Materials:
New skills: Sewing a facing, understitching
Lessons: Muna and Broad (the company that publishes this pattern) generously offers assistance with choosing a size, so I used their contact form to reach out with my measurements and the sizes I'd tentatively selected. Jess responded lightning-fast and recommended that the size I chose (C) would be correct based on my bust measurement (44") and would have enough ease to accommodate my hip; the finished garment measures 56.75" at the hem, and my hip is 48" measured at the true hip (see leila_sews@ primer) and 49.5" at the widest point. What's notable is that if I only used the size chart, I would have sized up to a D (or graded from a C in the bust to a D in the hip, which Jess advised against for this style of top) based on my hip measurement. Because I haven't developed an intuition (read: experience) for how much ease a garment should have, Jess's fitting advice was crucial and from now on when I pick a size I'll do 2 things:
See if there's any sizing guidance on the website indicating whether to pick a size based on bust / waist / hip measurements
Use the finished garment size chart to check whether the ease seems reasonable, and begin building an intuition about this
I may start using Airtable (which I already use to track my fabric & pattern library) to track how much ease to target in different styles of garments. I know this is probably something I'll develop with experience, but intentionally tracking the relationship between how much ease a garment has vs. how it looks when worn will be educational.
I found sewing the facing really tricky. The fusible webbing didn't stick well to the linen (and the subtle metallic coating on the linen started to burn, despite using a damp pressing cloth). The steam from the press cloth also really made the linen expand to be bigger than the interfacing, so I used a dry iron to get it back to its pre-ironed size. After sewing the front/back together and pinning it to the shirt I noticed the circumference was too small, so I picked out the seams, pinned it to the shirt collar and sewed the collar seam, then re-sewed the side seams. While I managed to hack this to work, I'll definitely consult resources on facings & watch the Torrens sew along video before reattempting.
I started attaching the facing to the shirt body by stitching in the ditch at the shoulder seams, but decided to stitch around the collar when the facing flipped up while I was trying the top on. I used the straight stitch on the serged edge of the facing as a guide to attach the facing to the body.
I was initially confused about understitching and found this video to be helpful. I didn't clip the curve as suggested because the linen was a fairly loose weave, and I'm still scarred from the Fremantle pants I made where my clips migrated into the seam and caused an unsightly set of holes (affectionately referred to as "the buttholes"). I did grade the seam as recommended before understitching, and trimmed the interfaced seam to about 1/4" since it was the bulkiest.
The metallic coating on the Nevada linen doesn't play well with irons. After the facing issue, I used a roller to pressure-press all of my subsequent seams, which worked just fine. I would not use this fabric on any project that includes a fusible interfacing step, requires lots of ironing.
Selecting a hem length required a lot of trial and error. I started by standing in front of a mirror and pinning to a length that felt sort-of right. I then compared it to the length of the Paper Theory Box Sleeve top (slightly longer) so I pinned it to match. It looked good while tucked (my friend E. recommended trying a French tuck--you can see my attempts below, I'm clearly a beginner but the structure of linen seems to do the right thing more than cotton seersucker), but untucked it felt really long and boxy (I don't believe in "flattering" but I had a rectangular prism thing going on that I wasn't loving) so I went to a quasi-cropped length (18.5" from the collar at center-front). Since I tend to wear high-waisted pants it will be a good length both tucked/untucked (though it does lift if I raise my arms up, you can only see about an inch of skin) and if I'm wearing low-waisted pants I'll throw on a cami.
On the bottom hem the pattern instructions say to press a 1/4" fold and then a 1 3/4" fold. Since I burned the tip of my thumb earlier in the day while working on hems on my Sculthorpe pants, I opted to instead use a wooden roller to press the 1/4" fold. Worked really well, would definitely do again.
I made a few mistakes where I didn't interpret the pattern instructions correctly, which I'll note for Future Lauren's reference:
When sewing the short sleeve version of the top, make sure to add the top notch from the pattern (it isn't just for the long sleeve version)
After attaching the sleeves, the pattern instructions say to finish the seam edge. I incorrectly thought this meant just the sleeve seam. What I actually should have done was start at the bottom hem of the shirt, gone up the seam and sleeve on one side of the V, around the top of the sleeve, and down the other side back to the bottom hem.
What I'd do differently: After sewing the side seams, I learned that I have about ~1/2 in of extra length on the back panel of the top. I double checked the pattern pieces to see if I cut something wrong, and they seem to match up correctly; I have no idea what might have gone wrong. It's not a huge deal because I'll pin and shorten the hem, but it's weird.
Care: Machine wash cold, tumble dry low. To make linen wrinkle less, follow these instructions from Sandra Betzina: Before washing, iron the fabric with the hottest, driest iron possible. Machine wash in hot water and tumble dry on high heat. Remove only when completely dry. This method will result in shrinkage, but small, soft folds will replace the hard creases usually associated with linen.
