I’ve made a new little top…. well, just a summer version of a T-shirt really, from scraps, the leftovers from this shirt. Constructively finishing off another small wad of fabric from my stash. Smug self back-patting ensues.
This stuff is pretty good top/blouse/shirt fabric. It is uncrushable and beautifully light. Sam has been wearing his shirt stacks. And luckily has no neuroses about his mother having a garment in the same fabric, although for both our sakes I have undertaken to only wear it if he’s not wearing his.
We do have some pride. 🙂
I had dreamed that this top would be cut on the bias, with those gridlines laying diagonally across the design, and to have little kimono/cap sleeves, like my preliminary sketch below. I thought it would look pretty cool like that, and had been thinking about it long enough that my heart was virtually set on it. But cutting on the bias is such a fabric hog, demanding way more than I actually had and so my plans were sadly not to be…. Visiting the fabric store to purchase just a leeettle bit more to indulge myself was pretty tempting as the fabric was not price-y, and still plentifully stocked. But I had to admit that doing so would utterly defeat any aspirations to green-dom. sigh
So …
I used the pattern for top “a” from Unique Clothes Any Way You Like, by Natsuno Hiraiwa, a very simple design that really does use a very tiny amount of fabric. In its simplest pared-back form this is a fab basic little top pattern. I grudgingly economically cut the pieces out on the straight…. which might not look as cool as my original idea, but is very effective for stash busting 🙂 And it is a good useful and casz little summer top.
The seams are all French seams. It doesn’t have any closure but can just be pulled on over my head. I left off the stipulated bias finish to the armholes and neckline, and instead made three sort of tubes or funnels to finish the apertures off. The sleeve tubes are just single fabric width, and sewn into the armholes and finished with a little hem, and the neckline tube is doubled over, and slipstitched invisibly down on the inside.
Details:
Top; modified top “a” from Unique Clothes Any Way You Like by Natsuno Hiraiwa, in navy and white check stuff. I have made this pattern up twice before, here and here….
Skirt; Vogue 1248, white cotton voile, details and my review of this pattern here
Thongs; Mountain Design
With impeccable timing I have finished a toasty warm little knitted jacket.  Yeaah, just in time for these really hot hot summer days ahead, hehe…   I’m a bit sad about having to pack it away for a while, but that’s my own silly fault for starting my new winter cardi during winter. 😉 It is the shorter (version 1) Garter Jacket from Jo Sharp Knit 6…  As soon as I laid eyes on this design I loved the boxy shape and interesting stitch arrangement but when I saw an actual made-up example in real life I thought it was a bit bulky and a bit big in the body for my tastes.  So I took a punt that using a finer gauge yarn could work out quite good…. and I think it did!  Basically instead of using the thicker gauge Aran Tweed recommended in the instructions I used the thinner DK Tweed, knitted up to its own recommended tension (not the one in the pattern instructions for the thicker yarn) and I also knitted up the very smallest size.  I still followed all the instructions for number of stitches and rows etc… but the smaller scale gauge of the thinner yarn resulted in a smaller and finer cardi; not too thick and just right in my opinion. Another bonus to this approach was that I needed only 9 balls, as opposed to the 11 balls required in the thicker yarn.
