Summer basics: Linden and Scout(s)

Wellington is absolutely scorching hot at the moment, and I am feeling very grateful for the summer sewing I did over the Christmas break! I’ve stuck with the Grainline theme and whipped myself up another couple of Scout tees to go with my Maritime shorts, and also made up a Linden sweatshirt. I’m chucking them all in one post, because I really don’t have much more to say about the Scout, aside from how much I adore it!

I’ll start with the Linden Sweatshirt, since its one I haven’t made before. Its a really nice raglan sleeved sweatshirt, it was really quick and easy to sew up. I did have a couple of hurdles with making it though! I found this white cotton sweatshirting (is sweatshirting the same as french terry? This is smooth on one side, and loopy on the other) from the Fabric Store, but I had trouble finding ribbing to match. In the end I got some cream/off white ribbing from The Fabric Warehouse, and was quite pleased with the colour combination. Unfortunately, I chucked the ribbing in the wash with some pink silk satin I have for lining my upcoming Victoria Blazer, and dyed it a delicate pink!

Of course, when I went to buy more cream ribbing, they’d sold out, so I decided I could just deal with the pink. I do quite like the colour combo, its just a bit girlier than I would usually go for! The construction was very straightforward, until I went to attach the neckband. The double layer of ribbing plus the sweatshirting gave the overlocker some serious issues, resulting in repeatedly broken threads and eventually a broken needle. I think maybe the needles were too blunt to deal with three thick layers of fabric, but it managed to sew the neckband and cuffs on the next day, once I had installed some new needles. It was a frustrating half hour before the needle broke though! I’ve never come across issues like that with the overlocker before…

There aren’t many photos of me wearing it, because its just too hot!

I decided against adding the bottom hem band, I just folded the hem up by an inch and sewed it with my twin needle. I have some lovely black merino in my stash, just waiting for winter to arrive before it gets made into another Linden!

The first of my latest two Scout tees (I’m on a bit of a Scout bender) is the same as the previous one I made. The fabric is an embroidered cotton from The Fabric Store, of course. Its really nice and light, a loose weave almost like muslin. I’m a sucker for gingham, and I really liked the embroidered border, but I didn’t want to make it into a dress or anything which could end up looking a bit Wizard of Oz or rodeo-ish. So a nice simple Scout it became!

Its a straight size 6, with the seams overlocked rather than french seamed because I was feeling lazy. It was a lazy project really, the embroidery meant there was no hemming required! Not much else to say about this one, so straight onto the next one…

A knit Scout! I am totally in love with this one, its the tee shirt of my dreams! The fabric is a luscious bamboo cotton knit from Blackbird Fabrics, and it is just the softest, drapiest, most delicious stuff to wear! I bought it as soon as Blackbird Fabrics opened their online store, as I haven’t been able to find a good breton striped knit anywhere. In fact, I was so eager to buy it that I followed the link out of the Sewaholic blog post talking about it to the shop and bought it before I finished reading the post, only to see that there was a discount code at the end! I felt like such an idiot, but when I left a comment exclaiming about my stupidity, Caroline kindly took the discount off anyway. Blackbird fabrics were great to deal with all round, actually. Caroline emailed me regarding a change in shipping procedures to NZ and offered to refund me if I wasn’t happy with the new arrangements, and was just generally lovely and helpful!

I cut this version out in the smallest size, and then sewed it up with a standard overlocker 3/8″ seam allowance, and it fits just how I wanted it to. Isn’t it nice when things turn out just right? I cut the neckband quite narrow, as I wanted it to be plain navy, so I topstitched it down with my twin needle to stop it flipping over. This is a step I never usually bother with, I just steam the crap out of it and hope it stays in place!

Have I mentioned that I love it? I really really do!

Anyway, this has been quite a long, picture heavy post, so good job if you’ve made it this far! Tomorrow morning I’m heading up to Auckland to go to the Laneway Festival, where I get to see my favourite ever band, Belle and Sebastian! I’m beside myself with excitement about getting to see them play, I never in a million years thought they’d come down to NZ! I’ll leave you with my favourite song off their latest album…