I know I seem to say this a lot, but I genuinely think this may be one of my favourite makes so far. Unsurprisingly, its a Grainline pattern, the Scout Tee. I don’t know why it’s taken me so long to get this pattern, because I love the RTW woven tee shirts I have in my wardrobe!
I just managed to squeeze the pattern pieces onto the left over scraps from my Grainline Archer shirt, but only by cutting the back pieces off the fold. Even then, I didn’t have quite enough fabric if I wanted to march the pattern down the centre back seam, which I really wanted to do! In the end, after a lot of shuffling of pattern pieces and some considerable swearing, I found a way to fit everything on and get the pattern matched at the CB seam, but…I had to add in a cut out to the back neckline. There just wasn’t enough fabric to fit that last little corner on!
I actually really like how it looks! I like interesting details on the back of my tops, especially if the rest of the top is quite plain (if you can call black and white gingham plain!) I elongated the triangle a bit, just to make it look more planned. Because of the cut out, I ironed the neck binding into double fold bias tape (which was such a pain in the arse, it was too small to fit in my bias tape folder so I had to do it all by hand. So many scorched fingertips!), and bound the neckline the same way the Datura blouse uses. I made a narrow facing for the cutout itself, which was under-stitched to the seam allowance (is that the right term? I’m having a mental block).
I think it looks pretty spiffy! Isn’t it nice when accidents turn out well! I’ll be wearing this top a whole lot this summer, I’ve already worn it three times since i finished it on Friday night! Clearly I’ll need to make some more to keep me going. It was so nice to make something straightforward that just came together perfectly, I’m still wrestling with my Malu coat, and I’ve had a few disappointing fitting dilemmas recently too. Fitting is something I need to get better at, I think I should invest in some sewing books to help me with this (Monsieur, if by some chance you’re reading this, the Sewaholic Sewtionary would be an awesome Christmas present. Just saying.)
Hilariously, one of the search terms used to direct someone to my blog last week was ‘blogger with pale white legs’. I don’t know if it was me they were looking for, but if the description fits…
(This is my ‘yay sun!!!’ face, by the way)
Fifty Two Fancies 
I like the back cut a lot! I want to get better at fitting too. Let’s have fitting parties! We can combine resources books-wise (I have Sarah Veblen’s “perfect fitting” book), and we will both be much more adept at pinning clothing than certain other people might be… And there could be cake. (Or gin). (Or both). (Perhaps the gin should come after the pins though?!)
That sounds amazing, though I think the gin should come after the sewing!
I love how you made a feature out of not having enough fabric ;o)
Haha, I went from devastation to elation in about 10 minutes when I figured out how I could make it work!
Pattern matching is such a devil!! But you did it great! And the search term ‘blogger with pale white legs’ made me cry laugh. 😀
Thanks! It made me laugh too 😀
Nice save! Oh some of the searches to my blog make me cringe but white legs definitely live on my blog too!
Thanks! I did apologise for the blinding whiteness of my legs a few posts ago, so it was an accurate key word search…usually wordpress doesn’t show me the search terms, so I thought that one was interesting!
Super adorable top (isn’t it lovely when mistakes/lack of fabric turn into great design features!?) and that’s so funny about the search terms! I’ve gotten some really odd ones over the years and used to write a blog post every couple of months that included the most outrageous ones. 😉
Im so bummed that google has started encrypting its search terms, I find it really interesting to see how people get here!
I love the cut out in the back! The Scout is such a nice pattern. I’ve made two and I love them. I’m still cracking up about the pale white legs. That is so funny!
Thanks! It was a really fun pattern to sew, very satisfying!
You should totally have pretended the cutout was planned — it looks just like a sweet pattern hack. We all would have believed you!
Haha, I kinda like that it was a happy accident! I’ll put it in my pattern hack folder though 🙂
Only just read this, been slow with my blog reader! I think the cutout looks so cool and completely on purpose. I laughed when I read about the search term, people search the weirdest things… If it helps you feel better, the other day I was alerted to high traffic on my blog which turned out to be coming from some random French girls on Twitter who were making fun of me. Huh??! Hope the Stones were great!
The Stones were awesome! They’re in pretty good nick for 70-ish. Auckland has put on some nice weather for us too (except during the show itself, of course) so its been a good weekend :). As for those french girls, how rude!