Linden Tee, or Color-Blocking for the Cautious

One of my activities as I shelter in place is poking through my fabric remnants to see if there's anything I can wrangle into a garment. I always save the left overs when I cut out a sewing project. What I learned by pawing through my knit remnants is that, honestly, I'm way too optimistic about what I think I can squeeze a tee shirt out of. If I was going to eke a tee out of my pile of scraps, I'd need to try some color blocking.

I am someone who is pretty intimidated by color. I mean, I love it but I prefer to let the yarn dyers and fabric designers do the color mixing for me. They know what goes together much better than I do. But sometimes a gal has to do what a gal has to do.

Two of my bigger chunks were left over from a couple of tee shirts I made for The Man. With some finicky cutting I found I could just get a Linden Tee out of the mix.

Both the fabrics are essentially gray (The Man has a conservative bent in tee shirts) which meant playing with color blocking wasn't too intimidating. Plus, having no options makes it pretty easy to be decisive.

The fit of the Linden is right up my current alley; loose rather than body-con and with a crew neck that's modest but wide enough not to strangle me. It's a super quick and easy sew as well.

I'm thinking I'll get lots of wear out of this tee. I may even try a little more color blocking, now that I've got my feet wet.

My pattern review is on PatternReview.com here.

"Back to the 80s" Top

How is everyone keeping? Well, I hope. We are in one of the California counties that is "sheltering in place," meaning that we are to stay at home as much as possible. Since The Man and I are both seniors we've already been trying to do that for the last couple of weeks. I feel very grateful that I have enough of everything I need, including indoor hobbies that I enjoy and a stash sufficient to keep me busy for quite some time. Now to flex my creative muscles and figure out how to make the best use of both.

This top was made from a Stretch & Sew pattern copyrighted in 1988. My friend Jessica found it at a FabMo event and scooped it up for me. I was initially intimidated at the idea of 175 pieces, even if they are easy. On second reading I realized they meant wardrobe pieces, not pattern pieces - whew!

I've been wanting to migrate my wardrobe to styles with a looser fit and higher necklines, as behooves a woman of my years. This pattern fits the plan very nicely. This is an 80s pattern so I did some flat pattern measuring before picking my size. I ended up tracing the pieces for a 30 inch bust. I measure more like 35 inches (if I take a deep breath and stand tall) but the smallest size is plenty loose enough for my taste.

The fabric is an ITY knit that is probably polyester. It almost looks like it could be swimsuit fabric, but it's not quite that shiny. I bought it years and years ago at a great little shop called Backstitch in Nevada City. They've been closed for years now; I gaze wistfully at the building every time I pass through town.

Not sure why my posture is so horrible in these photos. I guess I was trying to correct for the dowager's hump and over did the arch in the lower back.

I've tried a few of these OOP Stretch & Sew patterns and I like them quite a lot. The others have all been for The Man (Oregon Rain Pullover and Raglan Tee). This is the first one I've tried for myself and I'm very happy with it. I think I'll try one or two of the other 174 easy pieces sometime soon!

My pattern review is on PatternReview.com here.