Singing The Praises

I am converted.  I officially love silk!  I make no secret of the fact I love natural fibres.  I have been wearing wool since, forever and cotton blends are also a fabric of choice.  Natural fibres, I find, retain their good looks long after their man made contemporaries have bit the dust. 

There are two reasons it has taken me so long to discover silk.  The first is price and the second is, I mistakenly thought it would be hard to work with.  I think I had visions of filmy scarves.  You can imagine my delight to find that silk can be blended with cotton!  I had to try this fabric nirvana and stat! 

Enter a weekend in Dunedin and a visit to The Fabric Store.   While my husband circled the block looking for a carpark and then parked himself on a strategically placed bench in the store (thanks Fabric Store Dunedin), I proceeded to inspect every roll of fabric in the store, and some of them twice.  I came away with three pieces of quality fabric with price tags not for the faint hearted bargain sewer, me that is!

I already had a vague plan for what I was going to make in said fabric and was determined not to let it drown in the depths of my fabric stash.  So I give you fabric no.1, a lovely pinky red silk cotton with stars and spots woven into it.  I must admit it was a little nerve racking cutting into this so my project had to be just right.  

I initially thought of a summer version of Sewaholic Belcarra but with just over a metre and a half, I didn't want any to go to waste.  My second plan was for a top version New Look 6145 but when a muslined version proved too tight across the shoulder blades, his was abandoned too.  It was about this time the Blogless Anna's 3.4 sleeved Grainline Scout popped up in my blog feed.  Perfect!  

Using the sleeve from the Scout and the lower sleeve from my failed top, I started work.  I did find that my TNT Scout was a little big across the shoulders so needed to alter the arm opening by 1cm. For my next version I may need to cut out a size 4.  I also found the sleeves on my failed dress pattern way to voluminous so ran them in to the armpit an extra 1.5cm.

Overall, I am thrilled with the result.  While not the most technically challenging project, I know this top will be on regular rotation in both my work and weekend wardrobe.  In fact, today it was worn to work with my black Colette Clovers and ankle boots.  Oh, and did I mention it is lovely to wear!