#ESMadeByMe Harper Tunic in home dyed silk noil

A wee while ago Elizabeth Suzann, the independent clothes company, sadly had to close down on the back of covid, but the owners made some of the sewing patterns available for a temporary period as a gift to the sewing community. They're not now, but the plan is that they will again in the future.

In exchange for the patterns, it was requested that people donated to a charity. I chose Choose Love/Help Refugees. I've always cared about refugee causes (I strongly identify as a migrant, and I'm very aware of being one of the privileged ones for whom moving countries was easy), and am horrified by all the stuff coming from the Home Office in the news at the moment. 

Anyway, sewing details. I made the size OS (one size). My measurements from the ES chart actually put me slightly in the OSP (one size plus) category but I'm glad I just went with the OS. 

Fabric was some silk noil I bought a while ago with the intention of making another pair of arenites. It was cream originally (coloured silk noil is difficult to find in the UK, I've found), I dyed it with dylon. The colour was called rosewood red and I expected it to be a warmer and browner. I thought the pinker colour it ended up as wasn't very trousers, which is why I switched to the harper. I really love silk noil as a fabric it feels so nice!

There's no instructions for this, just the pattern, but it's all pretty straightforward and some instgrammers have done instructions in stories. After my Ashton top not reading the instructions incident, I wanted a bit of handholding, so I followed the @ladywholunches tutorial for the pocket.

I took this one very slowly, all seams are french seamed and I also drafted a fancying for the collar, as I prefer that to the bias binding the pattern uses. I tried really hard to make it neat, I finished the edge of the facing with bias binding and everything. It doesn't look quite as tidy from the inside as I imagined, I must have not made the facing an even width throughout, but it does look good on the outside.

Overall I love this top. I'm thinking it might work well with a slightly more dramatic high low hem as I've seen some people do, or as a dress!