Day and Night Scouts

I don’t have many gaps in my wardrobe, but one I really noticed during MMM15 was my lack of ‘nice’ tops. Tops that I can fling on with my skinny jeans and some lipstick and look presentable enough for after work drinks or last minute dinner plans. This week I made myself two more Grainline Scout tee shirts (numbers 6 and 7, oh my!) which pretty neatly fill my brief! I’m popping them both in the same post, as I really don’t have much more to say about the construction of the Scout. Both are a straight size 6, with only cosmetic changes.

  
The first version is made up in the best striped cotton I’ve found so far. I love a good breton stripe! I bought 3m of this stuff, so expect to see a dress made out of it sometime soon. It was actually a bit if a pain to sew, much more than I expected. The navy stripes are embroidered onto the cotton in nylon thread, which made ironing tricky. If I had the iron hot enough to get creases out, the nylon stripes would shrink up, making it look like large scale seersucker. As it cooled down it relaxed a bit, but it still looks a bit rumpled. I’ve decided I can live with it!

    
I added a faux button placket up the back (faux in that it has no buttonholes, I just extended the back CB edge, cut it off the fold, turned the edges under an inch and sewed the buttons through both pieces). I love a back button detail! The buttons are gorgeous green vintage ones from the Fabric Warehouse, I really like how they look with the stripes.

  
I’m including this photo so that you can see how cute the buttons are, and to show the rope-like texture of the stripes. Its pretty cool fabric! The seams on this shirt were all finished with my overlocker, and the neck and hem are finished with bias tape. Neat, but too dull for pictures!

My second Scout is much more dressy, and really quite blingy for me!

  
I’ve had these two fabrics in my stash for ages, so I’m glad I’ve finally used them! The body is cream silk crepe, and the sleeves and neck binding are cream and gold silk. I really need a better camisole to wear under this one, the crepe is so light and clingy.

 
Can you tell I love back details? I really do. I’ve had this idea for a triangular yoke (if thats the right word for it) floating around in my head for a while, and I’m glad it tuned out ok. To get the shape of the yoke, I started at the sleeve notches, and drew a line to the CB at an angle which I found pleasing. There wasn’t any maths or anything fancier than that! 

   

 
I used french seams for all of the construction of this one, as the gold fabric frayed like a beast. Also because french seams are pretty. I wanted the neckline to be bound rather than faced with the bias tape, so I machine sewed it onto the right side and then slipstitched it to the inside. 

  

 I used the less gold side of the fabric as the right side (above), just to make it a bit more subtle (haha). Even so, monsieur described it as “a bit Ziggy Stardust”. As far as I’m concerned, that can only be a good thing! I love the texture of the gold and cream, even though it was impossible to photograph…  

  
So there we go! A wardrobe hole plugged. I hope you aren’t bored of Scout tee shirts, because I’ve been collecting silk prints for more all winter…

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