Monday, April 15, 2013

Completed Project: Scout Woven Tee


I have nothing but enthusiastic RAVES for the Grainline Scout Woven Tee!  It's a fairly simple to make, super-flattering and an easy-to-wear design.  And well-worth shelling out $6.50 for!  For the front of the tee I used reclaimed fabric from a vintage 1970s floral print scarf.  

Yes - quell horreur! - I plead guilty to cutting up a perfectly fine and wearable vintage scarf, but it was put to good use, right?  And I have a confession - I have tons more of these oversized vintage scarfs in my stash just like this that I've stored up from my various thrifting adventures.  I find that, at $.50 cents to $2.00 each, they are an affordable fabric option for small projects like this and usually offer nice pops of color or unique design that's usually hard to find in modern fabric.             


Since I only had a small amount of scarf fabric for the front I opted for a matching rust-colored rayon challis for the back and the sleeves.  I found this fabric at a thrift store as well.  This tee is extremely comfy to wear I really love the swingy fit!  Although the floral scarf fabric is slightly sheer, I opted not to line it because I have a feeling this summer is going to be a hot one and I plan to wear this often!

Monday, April 8, 2013

Completed Project: Reconstructed Tom Hanks "2x Academy Award Winner" T-Shirt



This reconstructed t-shirt is definitely an in-joke amongst myself and a few of my friends.  I'm notoriously not a fan of the once-ubiquitous Tom Hanks, which my friend Scott insists is positively un-American.  So he made me this t-shirt to wear as a joke to he and his wife Cate's annual Academy Awards party in late February.  I believe the photo of Tom Hanks used here is from an episode of Saturday Night Live that he hosted in the late 1980s.





The original t-shirt was an oversized Hanes men's shirt so I decided to take it apart and reconstruct it into something a little more wearable. This is the pattern I used: Simplicity 9165 from 1989.




I thought the front overlapped detail was really cool and I had *barely* enough fabric to make it happen.




I zig-zag stitched around the the original iron-on printed fabric photo so it would stay in place.




Detail of the unique front-lapped design.




The original design didn't call for a center-back seam, but I had to utilize it due to a major lack of fabric!





I cut a size 10 and I usually wear a size 12.  Although the original design is cropped, the shirt is extremely cropped on me and (as pictured here) will require the use of a camisole of tank top underneath.  Not sure how often I'll wear it as I consider it to be pro-Tom Hanks propaganda and - well - I'm just not cool with that!  ;-)