A minty fresh Thorndike Tank

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Sometimes I plan my sewing in advance. Other times, I see a pattern or a fabric and I just instantly want to make it. I can’t even say exactly what it was about the Thorndike Tank (the Cashmerette Club pattern for July) – it’s just a basic woven shell top, really – but when it dropped it just felt right to sew it.

It didn’t hurt that I had the perfect fabric already in my stash – 1.5m of Mind the Maker “Splash” viscose in Mint, bought from the Village Haberdashery (RIP) in June 2020 for £30.

Since I’m measuring myself regularly alongside my weekly weigh-in, I made size 18, with the longer hem length (because even when I was thin I never felt comfortable in cropped tops!) and the C/D cup option as that’s the smallest cup size offered.

This is a very straightforward shell top with neck and hem facings, which are nicely understitched, then topstitched. So in the end, since only the side seams are raw, I just pinked these and didn’t bother with French seams.

The instructions for the neck facing have you sew the interfacing to the fabric along the bottom edge, flip, and fuse. I love this technique when I remember to do it so it was a lovely touch to have it specified here!

However, the method for the finishing the armholes with bias strips is way too fiddly to end up with the same result as a narrow bias edge so I just did it my way instead.

My only other change was to insert a bias tube into the back neck seam for a button loop rather than making a thread chain. The button I found in my stash and looks perfect! Unfortunately I’m finding my hair is getting tangled in the button when it’s not up in a bun, which I would’ve never anticipated. But I also can’t think of a single other top in my wardrobe that has a button on the back neck, so I hope it doesn’t annoy me too much, or I’ll need to remove the button and loop and sew on a hook and eye instead.

This viscose wrinkles just to look at it (and I wore this for hours before taking photos, so forgive the wrinkles from wear), but I really like the finished top! Plus it cleared a little bit more space in my fabric stash…

3 Comments

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  1. 2
    Karey

    Middle of winter here, but I already know I won’t like the button closure, so I plan on lowering the front neckline so it fits over my head without a closure.

  2. 3
    couchcrafts

    Immediate thought when the first photo popped up: SEE THIS IS WHY WE SEW FOR OURSELVES, IT FITS YOU SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO PERFECTLY. Beautiful. Your bias tube loop looks excellent for the button loop too, and maybe easier to manage with the clumsy fingers I have from my longcovid (don’t know about you but my fine motor skills have been on vacation for five years!) I hope the hair-in-button thing doesn’t get too annoying. It’s really such a superpower to be able to make your own clothes that fit you so well, and modify the pattern to suit how you like to make and how you like to wear. <3

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