I’ve made a few new tops…
Top un; a cosy little pom-pommy top, using pattern 111 from Burdastyle magazine 04-2014 in a bobbly stretch fabric the colour of whipped cream from Fabulous Fabrics. The design has quite an interesting and unusual shape already and I further toyed with the proportions, shortening by about 15cm at the lower hem and lengthening the sleeves by 3cm. This was only like, the easiest thing in the world to run up and I think it’s rather cute too! The oversized floppy neckline manages to be all of comfortable and even a little dramatically designer-y too.
The design, while a very easy project, still fits happily into the interesting category for those of us who like that sort of thing… The body is a one piece tube with one piecemeal seam down the right side. The sleeves are have different shaped sleeve caps from each other and their positioning and individual insertion methods creates a slightly skewiff shape to the top when worn. Cool! Completed, it reminds me a little of my Pattern Magic twisted top, which is illogical since this one is both boxy and has the oversized cowl and is cut on-grain, and… well, technically speaking is different in just about every respect, really. OK, forget I ever compared the two.
And to pre-empt an inevitable concern; yes, the sleeves do feel different to each other but it is not uncomfortable.
Tops deux and trois are the Nettie pattern, by Closet Case Files, my now go-to tshirt pattern. I upsized to an 18 from my usual 12, because a slightly more relaxed fit is desirable in a summertime thing. The fabric is a fine, off-white jersey knit from Fabulous Fabrics.
One has short sleeves and a fun little pocket. The pocket looks like a cute design decision but is actually covering a hole that I had accidentally snipped right in the middle of the fabric oooops!! Thoughtless, overconfident me, snipping away wildly and with carefree abandon! It was in a REALLY awkward, unavoidable spot, so I sewed the hole shut and reinforced it underneath with a bit of scrap, but it still looked way too obvious and ugly. Rats. So when cutting out I cunningly managed to finagle it in breast pocket position, plonked the pocket on top, and then had to cut short sleeves for the tee. Hmmf, but well, at least I managed to get the two tees out of my fabric piece, in spite of the snip. No one will ever know!
The other is completely unremarkable, apart from that all the seams and hems sit on the outside and are simply overlocked with navy blue thread. Why did I do this? *shrug* dunno, something different from my gazillion other white tees.
Oh, this old thing, tshirt quatre. I’m taking the opportunity to finally blog this one I made about two years ago. It’s annoying that I never blogged it, because when I’m wearing it in a daily outfit and linking to my blog posts it’s not there. So here ’tis! It’s beige and boring, and therefore incredibly useful. Made using my own custom fit Tshirt pattern, which apparently I seem to have chucked out at some point. Double rats. Yes, I’ve been doing a lot of careless silly things lately.
So, while stuffing the new creations into my Tshirt drawer last weekend I spontaneously embarked, as you do, upon an epic wardrobe spring clean-out. As in, I emptied every single one of my drawers and took everything out of my wardrobe. And went through methodically trying on, sorting, assessing and sifting out only the things I really truly wanted to keep. Discovering forgotten treasures! New, cool, outfit combinations! Tossing hideous things into big rubbish bags! Purging!!! It took a few hours but man, it was great. Felt SO GOOD.
This house, is clean…
OK. My first, same old conclusion; I have a LOT of clothes. And I love most of them too. I have very few unloved things and those have been weeded out now. A few undecided things are going to be worn on a trial basis and assessed over the next few weeks.
Second conclusion, and slightly surprising, to me at least; I do not need to make nor buy basic Tshirts for, like the rest of my life, probably. Why is this surprising? because after my first and second me-made months four years ago, my biggest conclusion was that I severely lacked basic tops and tees. Well, obedient little me has diligently been making basic tees ever since and has rectified that lack very adequately now. Thank you, me! This is good, because while I don’t mind making Tshirts, lets be real, they are bread-and-butter. Without the butter. Not the most inspiring things. Obviously instantly gratifying projects can be fun and fulfilling in their own way. But my last couple of more in-depth projects have been a hugely more satisfying to me, on every level. So I’m pleased that a full complement of basics means that I can relax about Dutiful Wardrobe-Building, and just happily spend my time and energy on the kind of more complex, involved, longer term projects that are truly enjoyable.
So, yay!!
Now on to something more interesting… 🙂
