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A trio of teeshirts

My final summer sewing this year came in the form of three separate teeshirts, all in the basic colours (pink is a basic, right??). Please forgive me that I’m not modelling these – I’ve had several utterly awful weeks fighting multiple infections on top of the Long Covid I’ve been fighting for the past 11 months, and I didn’t want to hold up posting about these!

None of these teeshirts took more than an hour of sewing time nor cost more than a tenner, but I guarantee you they’ll last years longer than anything bought at those prices!

A bonus white and mustard ringer tee

When I was cutting out my white Issy top, I ended up with a decent amount of fabric leftover due to the single-layer fabric layout. Annoyingly, it wasn’t quite enough to cut out a whole teeshirt. But at the same time, I didn’t want to just put the excess back into my scraps stash as I knew I’d be less likely to do anything with it as time went on. I’m finally learning that I should use the excess at the same time to increase my chances of wearing it!

Luckily, white pairs with just about everything, and I found the last bits of my failed Rauha dress (most of which I turned into a vest top last summer), and the mustard bamboo jersey was a very similar weight to this MeetMILK Tencel jersey from Lamazi Fabrics (the Shell colourway is no longer in stock but other colours are!). I decided it’d be fun to combine the two to create a vintage-style “ringer tee”.

A sunny bamboo top and matching headband

I don’t buy fabric very often, but I recently fell headfirst into a few sales of shops which stock one of my all-time favourite fabrics, bamboo jersey! So my stash has been replenished and you can expect to see quite a few bamboo jersey garments over the next few months. But first to hit my machine was some sunny yellow bamboo jersey from Lamazi Fabrics. The “mustard” colourway appears to be out of stock now but they have some other colours in the Allure bamboo jersey range.

I absolutely love wearing the bamboo teeshirts I’ve made over the years so I only bought 1m, thinking I’d probably just want to sew a standard teeshirt again. But I had been tempted by the unique, pleated sleeves on the Forget Me Not Patterns “Iris Tee” since it came out, and I thought it might be a nice way of adding a bit of flair to an average tee.

My vintage-inspired BIRTHDAY merino cycling jersey

Happy “over a week late but still my” birthday to me!! If you aren’t following me on social media (I mean, why not??) then you may have missed the absolute frenzy of renovation/building work that’s been taking place over the last few months. In November and December, the builders made us a new kitchen, bathroom, and utility room, and then after a short break, have spent all of February and May creating our Saloon (bright living/dining area, where these photos were taken!) and Snug (dark living room) and corridor. Considering these didn’t even have finished walls or subfloors (or lighting!) when they started, the transformation has been incredible.

But it does mean that for infection control reasons, I couldn’t be anywhere near them while they’re here working (we have a very small but self-contained back cabin we stay in). We’re grateful to be in this position, but it severely limits my sewing time before you even consider the sheer amount of dust, lack of cutting table, fact that large sheets of plywood and doors would randomly block access to my sewing room and omg did I mention the dust?!? So my planned birthday make was not finished for my actual birthday this year, which just happens some years! And it doesn’t diminish it in the slightest.

Buy my book – without Amazon

If you or someone you know would like the gift of sewing their own activewear, but you’re not keen on supporting Amazon, there have been a few great options popping up recently that strive to a) pay their taxes (like, shouldn’t this be the bare minimum??) and also b) help struggling independent book shops. If you’re able to get to your local bookshop and they stock my book, that’s fabulous! But if, like me, you’re doing all your holiday shopping online this year and are stuck for places to look, then read on!

Striped wrap shorts and a white Raglan Tee

“More shorts?!” I hear you say! (Especially if you’ve also been experiencing our English summer) As I said in my posts on the mustard wool shorts and the linen denim Pietra shorts, my work at home lifestyle change is demanding more warm weather clothing since the boat is not climate controlled like my office. So I’ve been having fun trying out different shorts patterns that I may have overlooked the first time around!

This time I wanted to try out the Named Patterns Astrid Wrap Shorts (which also comes with an option for wide-legged trousers, which I can guarantee you I will never make!). But shortly after I purchased it, Named announced that they were retiring a bunch of their older patterns, including this one and the Harriet jacket I adore and wear ALL the time every winter. I managed to finish sewing these shorts the day before they removed this pattern from sale (yes, even the pdf, which makes no sense to me whatsoever as it literally costs them nothing to retain it!) and shared it on my socials, but it wasn’t enough time for me to do the photoshoot and get this post together, sorry!

A Lucha Libre kitties teeshirt

Happy Friday everyone! I sewed this a few weeks ago when I was in desperate need of a pick-me-up so I went off-plan for a purely joyful sew! It’s all because of this incredible fabric I found, the Lucha Libre kitties cotton jersey from Like Sew Amazing. I mean, how could I not click buy?!

Sarah had actually had some of this jersey in stock before, but it pretty much sold out immediately – I pounced on this the second I saw she got stock back in, and I’m glad I did, because that round sold out quickly, too. She actually restocked this last weekend, and (yep, you guessed it!) it sold out again. So what I’m saying is, if you want this fabric, definitely follow Like Sew Amazing on Instagram and keep an eye on her IG Stories so you can pounce when she gets another shipment.

A green gratitude teeshirt

These are weird times. Apart from my birthday dress, I’ve really only been sewing face masks for myself, J, family and neighbours and even though I’ve got loads of lovely fabrics paired with specific patterns that are ready to go, I haven’t actually felt like sewing them. For me, most of the joy of sewing is in the making itself, but I’d be lying if I said there wasn’t enjoyment in the wearing it for others to admire, too. Without that component, on top of my usual routine being upended for the past 3.5 weeks, it’s just not been easy to get into the right mindset to create.

By go-to for times when I’m in a funk is to sew a “quick knit top”, which, for the past few years has meant a teeshirt using the “Loose Fitting Top Block” from my Sew Your Own Activewear book (my go-to teeshirt pattern). So I grabbed some cotton-lycra jersey from Ditto Fabrics in the most perfectly “me” shade of olive green from my stash, and did some cathartic sewing early on in March.

Digital cityscape compression leggings

The third pair of compression leggings I wanted to share with you were actually made before the other two pairs, when I was still tweaking the first but felt confident enough to cut into “good fabric” rather than the cheap stuff I keep around for sewing muslins. And what a fabric it is, too!

Red Cold Gear compression leggings

The second pair of compression leggings I made for myself using our new Compression Fitting Bottom Block pattern was one I decided to make after realising that I’m wearing a LOT of leggings made from winter technical fabrics for my daily cycle commutes. Even though my legs are moving and getting warm that way, I find that because I’m moving faster, the wind keeps my legs a lot cooler than when I’m running. And my few pairs of Cold Gear or thermo leggings have been in constant rotation for the past few months.

So I finally cut into some fabric from my deep stash – genuine Under Armour Cold Gear fabric that Cidell gifted to me years ago after coming across a treasure trove of it in a Baltimore fabric shop. I made a baser layer top around the time I was developing the book (which I may have never blogged?), and a bunch of leggings out of the other colourways, but I knew I could always use another pair of warm leggings since the others are worn so much.