Happy last day of Fail February! We are lucky that this year is a leap year, so we have one more day to share our sewing “fails” with the world. Woo-hoo!
Today I’m sharing a Deer and Doe Plantain Tee that is pretty much a fabric de-stash project. I had a big piece of some Girl Charlee fair-isle scrap fabric leftover from some fail-worthy leggings (mentioned in my donation post here). I admit, the T-shirt came out better than the leggings, but there were a few speed bumps along the way while making it.
I know, I know. It doesn’t look bad at all. But I’m categorizing it as a minor fail since that neckline is bordering on indecent. Or maybe I’m getting more conservative as I get older…
The print is super-cute and a T-shirt works well for pre-Christmas weather here in Tucson. I imagine I would wear this in November since temperatures are still pretty warm then.
I fit every last bit of my scrap fabric into this pattern, so I’m at least happy I was able to make something out of it instead of tossing the fabric in the trash or donating it. The problem with not having a lot of fabric to work with, though, was I couldn’t do my normal 1 to 2 inch torso lengthening I need with this pattern. The length un-hemmed is OK as is, but I don’t like raw edges on my me-made items. Plus, this fabric rolls a bit and I don’t like roll-y hems!
So I decided to get some stretch lace and use it as a hem band to lengthen the tee.
I did a similar fix on my Salmon Plantain Tee if you remember. I like how this lace is longer but I’m not sure if lace and fair-isle fabric go together. It seems a little awkward to me.
Speaking of awkward, I had a mishap sewing the neck band. This fabric doesn’t have good stretch, so the neckband didn’t mesh well with the shirt and left a lot of extra fabric when I was near the end of the seam. Silly me didn’t baste the darn thing first and used a lightning stitch, so it was impossible to unpick.
My quick fix was to serge the neckline, cutting the whole neckband off, and roll and stitch for the finish.
There’s definitely some cleavage happening that wasn’t intended. It doesn’t look too bad here, but I don’t really want to share pictures of what it looks like when I bend over!
I don’t think this will be a shirt that is in heavy rotation once the season is appropriate, but I can’t tell until this fall/winter. I certainly won’t be wearing this winter-themed fabric during the summer.
So yeah, I’m not really feeling this top too much but I am happy that I was able to do something useful with the scraps. I also somehow managed to match the pattern on the side seams (somewhat intentional) and have the lace be almost perfectly centered (unintentional… I wasn’t even paying attention when I was sewing it on). So there are some good things that came out of this shirt… I just still feel awkward about it…
…or maybe it’s because I am awkward… 😛
-RED
Sew RED-y 
I always feel like playing with scraps is a grand free for all. If it works out, it’s a bonus project, and if you try something that’s not 100% your favorite, oh well. Failure/frustration is part of the creative process at times. I think it’s kind of fun to have a Christmasy top that’s short sleeved, and I think the lace works because it’s in the same colorway even if the pattern is different. In getting caught up watching Doctor Who, I noticed Clara wearing a similar lace on the bottom sweater/shirt and I really like the look of it.
LikeLiked by 1 person
That’s a good way of looking at it… it was just scraps anyway, so no big loss there! The lace is growing on me the more I look at it. Maybe I’ll do a recap next year to see which “failures” I end up actually wearing!
LikeLike
You look super cute in it regardless, but maybe this is one to pay forward? One gal’s fail is another gal’s fav and all that…
LikeLiked by 1 person
Aw, thanks so much! I can see someone else liking this, so I think it will do well at the Goodwill store if I decide to part ways with it. 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
I think it’s adorable but the winter pattern in a summery style still doesn’t connect right in my brain. I totally now get it’s hot in the AZ but it still isn’t computing. It’s February and its sandals weather? Whaaa!?! You could always use the shirt for totally cute “winter” pajamas.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Haha yeah it’s a weird shirt. But you’ll see come November that we’ll still be in short sleeves! And this whole warm in February thing is worrying me… it’s not usually this warm, so I’m guessing this year will be a long, long, long summer. Wah!
PJs are a good idea! They would go with my super summery snowman PJ pants. Maybe I should start making winter-y winter clothing….
LikeLiked by 1 person