Hello! This is the latest thing in my little “use 12” challenge… a little top using this very small remnant given to me by my friend N when she cleaned out her stash. I really loved the colour of this scrap and was determined to save it… the colour reminds me of Sherbies which was one of my favourite lollies when I was growing up.
Sherbies are more pink and not quite as orange as their wrapping… I couldn’t find any pictures of an unwrapped Sherbie to show it so I’ll go out and buy some, take a pic and replace this picture when I do! this is my own picture… check out that gorgeous coral pink colour… mmmm
But the piece was tiny; quite narrow and only about 70cm long…. Honestly, this seems to be the story of my life lately; squeezing things out of the tiniest pieces of fabric… there’s a challenge going on at the moment where you’re supposed to use up 30m of your stash. I think I could do this because it sounds like fun! however if I’m only going to be using up 70cm of fabric with each thing that I make it’s going to take me forever!!
cat for scale
So, as usual I really didn’t have enough fabric to cut out even a small top… because the pokey out bits on the sides of all the pieces that enable your armpits to be covered actually use up such a lot of the width of your fabric, and if you cut out the pieces as is you end up with a lot of long skinny pieces of wastage. Eventually however, I discovered that you could fold back the said pokey out bits of your pattern pieces, and cut a gusset out of that bit at the top between the armscyes on each piece. Here’s a very rough drawing to illustrate:
You put the gusset in the underarm area to make up the shortfall from where you folded back the pokey-out bits, like so:
Yes.. it’s not very elegant and looks bit funny maybe, but it works and I’m happy. It’s pretty close to a zero waste design, which is such a buzz-word at the moment but is one I’ve always aspired to really, so that’s a good thing!
Not enough fabric for bindings… I finished all the edges using bias binding cut from leftover poplin from masks/mask lining I made for the family…
Seven down, five to go! I’m so please with my little capsule wardrobe and how it’s coming along… I can’t wait to see all the pieces together in one lovely collection once I’ve finished them all!
I’ve made lots of Closet Core patterns’ Ebony tees and dresses for others and this is the first one for me! I finally used this absolutely beautiful, delicate grey/green wool knit that I bought in Tokyo, one of of our trips over there. It’s beautiful stuff, with an almost lace-like texture to it, but unfortunately it had developed a few little moth holes over the years since I bought it.
I stitched the outer and lining together around the neckline, and under stitched using a wide, shallow zigzag stitch. I also handstitched them together at the underarm points, just to anchor the lining inside secretly.
These are made using the piece from Butterick 5583, and the fabrics are all scraps and leftovers from other projects. One of them is from one of Cassie’s old skirts, another two are from Craig’s old shirts, and one of the boys’. The other cute prints are all from the leftovers from Craig’s surgical caps, fabric originally from Spotlight. The backing is thin cotton towelling, that I already had in my stash too.
.
I can finally reveal the main thing I’ve been working on for the past few months… our new pattern!
The 
It’s funny because I personally love testing patterns and I’ve been doing it for many years for other pattern companies, happily, and with no expectation or even thought of getting paid. Nowadays a lot of sewing peeps feel like they should be paid. This is not necessarily a criticism by the way, just an observation into how attitudes are a-changing.
I used a beautiful silk/linen mix that I bought from Fabulous Fabrics ages ago… btw, I’m on a use-my-stash-only kick, since out move when I realised just how much fabric I have. Spoiler alert; it’s a LOT and I seriously want to get my supplies down to a much more manageable level. Like, to about a quarter of what I have now! Yes, very embarrassing, I know! but there it is and I’m making good headway, believe it or not! Yes, I know I haven’t posted much here lately, but I’m making a lot of toiles for Cassie’s and my new pattern and I’ve managed to harvest/cull quite a bit in the process. But, I’m getting sidetracked here… back to my top!
Seems like a bit of a non-sequitur, but kinda sums up the whole process actually. Let me explain…
I’ve had this post sitting just as a draft for weeks now and just keep adding new tees to it but I’m rapidly coming annoyed with myself that when I wear one of them I have to write “not blogged yet” in my ootd blog. So I’m hitting “post on this thing right now. I know I know, so ridiculous!
Thirdly, another heavily modified Nettie using this stunning burnt orange merino, actually 
This top is another Ebony, naturally, in the tunic length and with the raglan sleeves. This spotty cotton jersey is absolutely lovely! such a pretty print. Oh, both of these fabrics, the spots, and the green, plus the previous blue/pink floral, were all from Spotlight.
Exhibit F: this Megan Nielsen patterns Sudley dress that I made for her in 2017, in a gorgeous spotty rayon from Spotlight, 
and also Exhibit G: this Burda dress also from a few years ago, made using a really beautiful, Amalfi coast printed crepe from Fabulous Fabrics, and Burda 02/2015/107, 
