Ready for summer

It's only taken me three months, give or take, but I finally finished my lil sewing project for white shoe season!

I don't plan to use this as a kerchief for my head, but this pose looks cuter and evokes a carefree 1960s summer don't you think? 

Even taking the project from initial idea to fabric purchase took ages, owing to my not being able to decide (and also, having a lot of work on.) 

But to recap, I was hoping to solve the problem knot of white being SO not my colour, while also being a fun and heat-reflecting choice for summer; not liking to put on a ton of sunscreen all the time; and wanting to do a better job of balancing prints and solids. 

Enter, scarves! Only I couldn't find any in shops that would be lightweight enough, apart from bandanas and other square options, which have to be doubled to make a triangle. Too hot for a hot day, know what I mean? And on cooler but not quite sweater-friendly days, I didn't want a big flopping scarf over my shoulder or in a big lump draping down from my neck. I wanted something tidy, like a turtleneck. 

I settled on Liberty of London's Tana Lawn cotton pretty quickly, because it's the lightest, softest cotton I know. Half a meter was, I felt sure, enough to do the job. Then I stalled a long time because I couldn't find a pattern that matched my vision, and I didn't know how to get there on my own. 

Eventually I cut off 27" of one piece, planning to fold that piece to half height, and, with 3/4" for a side seam, make a funnel to slide over my head. The idea is to fold it up a bit to protect whatever isn't covered by the shade of a big hat in full sun, or fold it down a lot to leave air flow while still having some colour near my face to brighten up a black top or make a white one less jarring.

Then I cut out a triangle that spanned the full half meter on one side, with a view to finishing the edges for a single layer jaunty bandana for hot days. For my NECK, not my hair. I need forehead protection too so it's sunscreen or hats for this girl. 

Et voila! This was my first attempt with the finished edges.

My sewing machine took ages for the fancy stitch, which kind of buckled the fabric, and I still had to do a second run of stitches. After this one, I just pressed in a fold and tucked the raw edge toward it as I ran a bog standard stitch down the length. Definitely preferred. 

The funnel neck is pretty much as I described - a tube I stick my head through. 

Boring, right? Let's look instead at how cute these fabrics are with my blue suede Birkenstocks. 

How cute will these look with an all-white outfit, or all off-white? And check this for white jeans and a navy T:

Somehow I got into a lot of trouble making the funnel work, so in the end I made a long horizontal tube, pressed the raw edges inward on either side, and topstitched them down to each other for a 25" tube (maybe 25.5", don't quote me.)

 

I think that'll also give the tube some stability in the back, where I want it more or less flat, even as the front part flops down a bit into its fold.

Here's how that looks on my faaaaaaave of the three, the print that matches the one I had in brown tones in a miniskirt I wore for years after finding it at a jumble sale in England.

Swoon

I save this one till last as I was sewing, so I would solve all the little execution issues before I got to it, but then I managed to sew its initial seam with bits of raw thread sticking out right where it'll be next to my face, sigh.

Probably you can't see those bits along the top edge. And I've decided to just clip them close and pretend it never happened. 

Meanwhile, while I was noodling around online looking for patterns to spare me figuring this out myself, I started thinking about how fun it would be to sew a Merchant and Mills top in one of these prints. I mean, assuming I could afford it! Tana Lawn is SO pricey. Another reason for a single-layer neck scarf.

Might try to sew this top in some 'lesser' fabrics first, and see how it goes. 

It's a long weekend here and I have made my usual holiday weekend plans: DECLUTTERING THE HOUSE. I hate cleaning, but if I put on a good audiobook and dig in, I can go for hours just making the place tidy. Currently that audiobook is Madeleine L'Engle's A Wrinkle In Time.

fun quote, paraphrased: your gifts don't count, it's how you use them that matters.

I loved that because it means it's okay if you're not the best at something, as long as you find a way to apply that skill that has a positive impact. Or to put it another way, it doesn't matter if you don't get a project done within a week of thinking of it, as long as you finish eventually, ha!

Hope you have a great weekend however you're spending it, and thanks for spending some of it with me. See you next Saturday!