Monday, August 25, 2014

The woven tee for me




I have been keeping an eye out for a woven tee pattern for a while. Finding a good woven tee would be great for plenty of reasons, but my particular reason is that I have a small shelf of very special fabrics. I don't mean my single yards of Liberty lawn, or the kind of offbeat and overly pricy pieces I sometimes end up buying on impulse at B&J Fabrics in New York, though those are certainly special enough and I do hesitate to cut into them. The special fabrics I'm referring to are from when I traveled more in my younger days as a single woman and an English-as-a-second-language teacher, supplemented by the beautiful fabrics my mom continues to send me from her many travels (and she turned eighty this year). Handwoven silks from Thailand, Laos, Bhutan. So special I can hardly cut into them--but what am I going to do? Make something to wear and appreciate, or pass them on to my son who is interested only in coding for robotics? (What would you do? Seriously, I'd like to know.)

Fortunately Sara of Mixed Emotions drew my attention to this pattern with her beautiful versions of it. I have enough other favorite pattern sources that I don't usually look too closely at the Simplicity offerings, and even if I had come across Simplicity 1366, I believe that I would have been too distracted by that crazy skirt to even see the tee.

Now I have made two versions out of ordinary fabric: one out of the scraps (blue with white print; Mood Fabrics said cotton but I don't think so) left after I made a version of Colette's Jasmine, and one out of the scraps (rayon, charcoal with white print) left from an unsuccessful skirt made many years ago. So you see, this pattern doesn't require much fabric at all, especially if you don't worry about sewing the bias binding from several short lengths.






A note on what I'm watching:

Have you seen High Maintenance? It's a low-budget but well-done web series set in Brooklyn whose episodes are tied together only by the presence of a particular marijuana deliveryman. I beg you (that sounds kind of strong, but I think it's worth it) to watch the episode titled Rachel. It can easily be found online and will take only 13 minutes of your time. It features the handsome and talented Dan Stevens, and has an appearance by Rachel Comey. Warning you, though, it just might serve as your gateway episode.

8 comments:

  1. I know what you mean about having a special fabric in your stash and not wanting to cut into it. It can be emotional! I like the pattern you picked because it's simple and it shows off the print.

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    1. Thanks, Julie. The simplicity of this top is what I love about it.

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  2. Lovely blouses :) since making mine I'm also tempted to cut more out of all the pretty fabrics I have lying around.

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    1. Thanks, Sara. I thought I might take a break from this pattern for a little while, but instead I've decided to cut into one of the pieces of handwoven silk today.

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  3. That's a great looking pattern, and both your tops look really nice. The skirt looks like an interesting and lovely design too :)

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    1. Thank you, Carolyn! As for the skirt, having seen many of your gorgeous layered and otherwise unusual skirts, I think you would wear it beautifully, but for some of us (speaking for myself here of course) it might be a bit hard to carry off.

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  4. OK, I'm off to buy this pattern :) I really like the way it looks on you.

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