Two Tees for One

I scored this remnant of striped knit at a local garage sale. A sale at my friend Jessica's house, as a matter of fact. There was, maybe, a yard and a half?

I really liked the colors, as did The Man. He would have been happy to have a tee in this fabric for himself but, since he likes his tees enormously long and with large pockets, there wasn't quite enough fabric to kit him out. Especially given the demands of stripe matching.

Kirsten Tee from Maria Denmark 

So instead I made myself two tees! My first go was with an old favorite, the Kirsten Kimono Tee from Maria Denmark. Cut on sleeve means you need just enough fabric to get the length you want. Plus, free pattern! If you haven't given it a try, I recommend it highly.

Side view

And I think I did OK with the stripe matching! My arm is in the way, so you can't really check out the side seams, but you can kind of see I chevron-ed the shoulder seams, right?

Back view. Not too exciting.

I cut the neckband on the lengthwise grain, so the stripes run the opposite direction to the body of the tee. Quick and easy, and the color combo seems to go with most of my pants and skirts.

I was left with a tantalizing remnant. It looked like it should be enough to eek out a sleeveless tee, but I'd be sporting a crop top if I wasn't pretty creative with layout.

That night in bed I had a little "ah-ha" moment and realized that, since this knit has 4-way stretch, I could just flip the fabric to cut the pieces on the cross-grain.

Alabama Chanin tee, sleeveless version

This is the tee from Alabama Studio Sewing + Design. It's another great pattern for using teeny tiny bits of fabric; as the fit is pretty slim. I also appreciate that the neckline is high and the shoulders are pretty covered up for a sleeveless tee. Irish heritage plus California sun can be a bad combination.

I had just enough fabric so that I could give some thought to stripe matching on this axis too.

I didn't get a good shoulder shot to demonstrate, but I even managed to match the stripes going front to back.

And I chevroned the stripes at the side seams. Not identically, if you compare the left side to the right side, but if you only look at me from one side at a time, it's pretty good!

Just in time for summer!