Hello! For this months Minerva make, I wanted to go a little bit out of my comfort zone and try something new. So, I had a crack at one of By Hand London's patterns, the Holly jumpsuit, using variation 3 for some wide legged trousers.

To complete the outfit, I made a little crop top to go with the trousers, using my bodice block and a gorgeous floral printed stretch cotton. To make it a tad more interesting I changed the neckline to a square in the front and back. The great thing is that for a crop top, you only need 1/2 a meter of fabric.

As it's a summer top I didn't want to add another layer for a lining, so I made some bias binding out of the scraps to finish the armholes and the neckline. That was handstitched into place to give a clean finish on the outside. I gave it a fairly deep hem so it would sit nicely.

And guys, these trousers are seriously awesome. I thought a linen and cotton blend would be a good choice for summer trousers, because it's really very light and airy. We learnt in textiles class that linen is thermo-regulating, meaning that it's good in hot environments. It is more expensive than cotton, but it's more environmentally friendly with little irrigation and energy to process the fibre. Linen is also the strongest of all the vegetable fibres, which in theory increases its lifespan so it doesn't need to be replaced as quickly, This linen is a fantastic shade of loganberry purple and drapes beautifully. I could see light through it when it was on the drying rack, but it seems to be fine when on my body!