A Month of Woven Tees/Week 4

What a lovely month it has been, except for the incredibly hot temperatures we have had in Chicago! As a child, I lived without air conditioning. For the past few weeks, every night as I crawl into bed, one of the last things I say is, "thank you Lord for air conditioning!" Complaining aside, I have so enjoyed the push that Becky of Trial Balloons gave me. Had it not been for her, I would not have ended up with all the new pieces in my wardrobe. 

THANK YOU BECKY!!! 

Now, this is just the best!!! You may remember the piece I painted and then had made into fabric. Well, I sent a piece to Becky and look at the AMAZING top she made!

Oh my, I am beyond flattered. The panel that I sent to her was unfinished, which I felt a bit bad about, as I thought she might just turn the edges and use it in a bread basket. What she did with it is a masterpiece. Be sure to pop over to her blog and see the back, as well as all the other lovely pieces that she made...and the poor woman has had pneumonia!  You can see all her work HERE.  

When Becky asked if I would like to participate in a month of woven tees, she said that she would put a Pinterest page together for us. The top below is one that she found and pinned to the page. I thought it was rather nice, so I used it as my inspiration for my tee, which is really a dress. To be honest, I wear more dresses than anything else in the summer, so a new, pop over the head dress is always up my alley. 

Once again, I used the free raglan tee pattern from fabric-store.com You can find the pattern HERE. 

Rather than dividing the sleeve, I decided to just start my design line from the underarm intersection. 

I did do a funnel neckline, which I really like. Super easy to do BTW.

If you look closely, you can see that I tapered the side seams just a bit, but not so much so that I can't get the dress over my head. I also added a pocket.

I think you can see the lines of the pocket better in the picture below. The seam line begins at the style line of the bodice and comes down to the pocket, but not all the way to the hem of the dress.

It makes the pocket area a little trickier to sew, but not that much. The reason that I did not want the seam down to the hemline was because of the shirttail hem that I wanted to do. Having the seam line to the hem wouldn't have made that much of a difference, but I just didn't want the extra bulk in the hem.

To balance the dress, I used the white for the bias binding along the hem. It should give the eye of anyone who bothers to look, something to notice

If by chance you would like a tutorial on how to make the funnel neckline, or how to draft the pocket, just let me know. They are both fun to do, and you can see that they can easily be added to a basic pattern such as this.

I do have a fun tea inspired recipe to share with you, but it is going to have to wait a few days as it has just been much to hot to bake. I hold my head in shame, especially when Becky has had pneumonia, and managed to get sooooo much accomplished :( 

I hope you have enjoyed the month of woven tees, and I hope that it has inspired you to maybe venture out and do something a little different :)

A Month of Woven Tees/Week 3

I'll tell the story in full at another time, but what a couple of days I have had. It even included me having to run and hide between houses at 2:30 in the morning. When we last touched base on Monday, I had said that Mr. Berkley was doing so well, I spoke too soon. He had gotten me up due to a sick stomach, and it was while I was out with him that we encountered a car that was doing some strange things, and which made me feel the need to run and hide between houses. But hey, I'm here to tell the story. A good ending is always a good thing!

For the month of August, Becky of Trial Balloons and I are doing a month of woven tees. I decided to just use the same pattern for each of my tees. Since I have been using the free raglan tee from fabric-store.com, this week's challenge of using a raglan tee pattern was a cinch. Becky did a layered tee that is absolutely smashing. You can find it HERE. 

I had this piece of double faced fabric that I have been wanting to use, black on 1 side, white on the other. 

  

I must say that I really took the easy way out on this challenge, as I basically just made up the pattern as is. But, a raglan tee offers a nice option for color blocking. So I used the black side of the fabric for the sleeves, and the white side for the body. 

Rather than sew the bias binding to the inside of the neckline, I sewed it to the outside to continue the color blocking aspect.

For the sleeve cuff, I rolled the hem to the outside so the opposite side of the fabric would be seen on the cuffs.

And I rolled the hem of the top to the front side as well. What you see below is the serged edge of the side seam. I could have done a flat-felled seam, but I was fine with the small amount of the serged seam showing. 

 Now that the top is done, I need to crank out a pair of pants, and this is 1 fabric that will be out of the stash ;)


My recipe this week is also very easy. It can be a refreshing afternoon drink, or served as a cocktail.

I begin with the Wild Berry Hibiscus tea from Mighty leaf. Any hibiscus or berry tea will be fine.
  

I brew up a pitcher full, and then pour some of the tea into an ice cube tray.   

Place frozen ice cubes in a lovely glass.

Fill the glass about 1/3 full of the brewed tea.

Now, here's where you can take it from an afternoon treat to a cocktail. 

For an afternoon treat, I like La Croix Berry flavored sparkling water.

Fill with the glass with the sparkling water, and you have a delicious drink. If you would like a cocktail version, just substitute the sparkling water with Prosecco, or your favorite sparkling white wine. 

What I love is that when the ice cubes begin to melt, the drink does not get diluted, and the flavor remains delicious from beginning to end!

Be sure to check out Becky's recipe for Earl Grey French Macaroons. My mouth is watering!!!