Woohoo, it’s Thursday, people! Today is technically my Friday (hooray for compressed work schedules!), so BOOYA. There’s nothing better than knowing a three-day weekend is coming up! Unfortunately I don’t think I’ll be getting much sewing done since I have lots to do before yet another work trip next week. BUT the good news is I have a few completed projects lined up to make their appearance on Sew RED-y in the next few weeks. So stay tuned for some awesomeness (and one kind of awesome-flop… womp womp).
On Monday, I showed you my Royal [Purple] Winter Top. So in keeping with the theme of – um – purple, here’s a Deer and Doe Plantain I made one year ago.
This fabric was a steal at my local mill-end store, SAS. I think I paid $2 a yard for it, and this pattern only takes up about 1 1/2 yards or less of fabric, so this shirt costs about $3 in materials? AWESOME. Purple is my favorite color and this shirt does a good job of hiding my cheeseburgers and pizza tummy, so this gets a lot of wear.
Do you want to know what else is AWESOME about this shirt?
ELBOW PATCHES. It’s a cute detail to make an ordinary shirt not quite so ordinary. I had some thin gray knit fabric hanging around and thought it would be a nice contrast. You can really get creative with the patches. Go Google Image search “Plantain patches” and – wow – there’s so much inspiration! I’ve seen patches in the shape of cats (a must-have), a deer and a doe (Rachel from House of Pinheiro), and some cute patterned fabric contrasts.
When I make this top again, I think I’ll move the elbow patches down a smidgen. The sleeves tend to creep up so the elbow patches end up on my triceps most of the time. This may also be a result of the shirt being a little tight in the shoulder/arm area. I need to re-trace my pattern one or two sizes up before I make this again.
I wore this top in Munich last summer where we met my friends from Japan (Sado REPRESENT!). I had not seen them since 2008 when we were on Sado Island together, so it was a happy coincidence we were in Munich at the same time!
Let me point out three things here:
1. Check out that elbow patch sneaking it’s way up my arm. See what I mean? Bad elbow patch!
2. I have a pained look on my face because that liter of beer was HEAVY.
3. We were at Hirschgarten, the largest beer garden in THE WORLD! We went way before the World Cup game started, so that’s why it looks so empty.
Oh, man… now I’m craving German beer and world-traveling. Sigh.
Anyway, there’s one more AWESOME thing about this top… the pattern is absolutely FREE! So if you’re looking for a well-drafted, kind of loose t-shirt, this is for you!
Free pattern, elbow patches, beer garden, friends… this turned into a pretty darn happy post! Now I’m off to daydream about future Plantains and vacations.
Auf wiedersehen!
-RED
Sew RED-y 
LOL an entire liter of beer?!? Good god, nobody tell my husband those exist or he’ll try dragging me to Germany and I will probably starve. =)
Your plantain is so cute, and I love the color combo of the patches. I love that it’s a free pattern and is so versatile! I’m excited to see what you’re sharing next–yay, new stuff! (And ugh, I totally empathize about the fail piece, whatever it is; I’m in the same crappy boat in that regard!)
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Germany is the land of pig, potatoes, beer, and wine. Actually their wine is better than the beer… we just don’t get the good German wine here in the US. It’s tragic. But those liters of beer are magical. 🙂
Thanks! I have another Plantain in the queue in my head. It’ll be a salmon color with tiny yellow polka dots. One day I’ll get to it. One day…
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Potatoes, eh? If they’ll french-fry them for me, I will survive!! =)
And thank goodness I’m not the only one with a brain-queue!
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