Mariner T-shirt

Yep, I think I may have almost (but not quite) scraped the barrel for nautical-inspired names for my creations!!!! However, if you think it's therefore time for me to make a departure from this genre of style, I think you'd better get those thoughts in check because that isn't going to happen in the foreseeable!

So, here we have my very latest completed creation. I'm more than a little in love with it. With all the planning and prepping for Christmas present sewing that I've been obsessing over, it was a relief to make an off-the-cuff unplanned creation that resulted from the day's events. At work on Friday we had our usual bi-monthly delivery of old garments and unwanted fabric for us to create clothing from. Except this particular delivery was unusual in that it contained a wealth of lovely stretch jersey sample fabric from a fabric producing company. Lots of it came in the form of stripes, and in the kind of quantities that could easily sustain me making something for myself without making the slightest dent in it all.

I had already booked the afternoon off but planned to stay in the studio and work on my own projects. Pat is currently eye-ball deep in a copy writing deadline and I thought it best to keep away from the flat until the evening! So after I spent some time altering a pattern and cutting out a garment destined to be another Christmas present, with over an hour left before it was time to head home, I felt justified in turning my attentions to making something for myself.

Although it pains me to admit it, my stripey T-shirt is really starting to show some negative signs of repeated wear, so I decided that it made sense to make a replacement/addition. I chose a lovely medium weight red and white striped sample piece, but try as I might, I couldn't get those original stripey T-shirt pattern pieces to fit. That's when necessity became the mother of invention (as she so often does!). I realised the only way these pattern pieces were going to fit was by making it shorter in sleeve and body length OR but adding contrast yokes to squeeze the rest of the front and back pattern pieces out of the stripey fabric that by now I was determined I wanted to use.

So Mama Necessity gave birth to the idea that I could include this anchor jersey! My boss gave me an old and misshapen vintage 1970s top covered in anchors not long after I started my job and divulged to her my fixation with all things nautical. Since that time, so for about a year now, I've been hoarding that anchor-coated top with the obsessive mania of a particularly aggressive squirrel. But when I saw those stripes I just knew now was the moment to crack it out.

As I say, I used the same pattern that I developed for my original stripey top, save for making the neckline a tiny bit wider. The whole thing was constructed using an overlocker (serger), then I overlocked round the hem and sleeve hems and turned them back and stitched them down using a three-step zigzag stitch on my normal sewing machine.

The sleeves are a little long, but I'll wait until it's been laundered until I alter those to the correct length. I'm super-vibed it looks good with my red cardi because who needs a wardrobe-orphan that is only wearable for the limited number of warm days the UK weather feels it shall bestow on us?!

See the pic below? I have the lovely Santie to thank for photographing me after a sighting of one of our Brighton Craftaganza Christmas craft market posters in a pub. Shameless plug: it's next Saturday (December 10th) if you happen to find yourself in South East England with nowt to do!!!!

At ease, shipmates!!!!