I’m not really a frilly, floaty sort of person, but this Florence Top from Merchant & Mills grabbed me with it’s pretty hands. The peplum/ frill has just enough flounce to give interest and shape but without feeling too frou-frou. The washed linen was a no brainer… it’s weighty enough for a winter wear and it had to be this sunshine yellow.

I’ve always had a thing about my wearing yellow, and without anything yellow in my wardrobe currently it was time for a fix. I think yellow goes with my colouring quite well, or maybe I think that because I fixated on this snippet of a compliment given to me when I wore a yellow toga at my final year primary school play. I was peasant number three. There was no peasant number four. I have carried this role with pride ever since, and worn nothing more frou-frou than that yellow peasant toga between then and now.

The Florence Top has the hallmark clean lines of all Merchant & Mills patterns with a few sweet details like this curved frill that dips at the front and rises at the rear, and the cute button-up back. The buttons are some old things from my button jar which of course was the most agonising of decisions in this make process.

There is a dress version in this pattern too where the frill is lengthened to become the skirt which I can tell would be super: a linen version for chucking on after jumping in the river in summer; or with thick tights in a winter wool.

This washed linen is dreamy dreamy. Dreamy to wear and dreamy to sew. I love to sew a stable woven fabric as you can get such a smart finish without shouting at your machine. We sell this washed linen in a whole stack of colours.

Now, where’s my kitten and bunch of buttercups?

Pattern: Merchant & Mills Florence Top
Fabric: Washed Linen: Sunshine
Size: I measure Bust 32”, Waist 28”, Hip 36”, Height 5’5”. I made the size 10.
Adjustments: no adjustments
Notes on construction: nothing in particular, came together cleanly.