A Trio of Fielders

 At the end of each season, I tend to pause before launching into the next.  I need time to take stock of what I have in my wardrobe, what I have in my stash, and believe me, this is the most exhaustive of all, and what I want to make for the coming season.   I also have a large laundry basket of scraps that is overflowing with treasures that are too good to part with but generally no use for any individual project.  This needed to be dealt with ASAP!

One weekend recently, I emptied the entire basket on my sewing room floor and began scheming.  Anything that worked together, I removed and stored separately pending further investigation.  

My first thought was Merchant and Mills Fielder which is my go to for scrap busting at the moment.  I dug out my pattern hacked Fielder pattern that I made for Courteney earlier in the year and after a bit of pattern Tetris, I was able to cut out my first winter version using some leftover wool/cotton shirting from The Fabric Store that I used to make Joel's shirt, and the leftovers of wool suiting that I made my pants with.  Because the shirting was quite heavy and the pants quite light, both fabrics worked really well together and were amazingly of similar weight.  I ran into one problem though!  The grey colour I was working with didn't translate very well into ribbing.  A fruitless visit to Fabric Vision didn't unearth any suitable contenders, so it was back to the drawing board.  I emptied the entire contents of my fabric cupboard and came across a piece of op shop ponti that was the perfect colour.  Perfect, my new top was now coming together nicely!

For my second version, I also used some wool shirting.  This time I had Liberty Lantana left over from my Vogue 1387 blouse.  I paired this with some light weight wool sweatshirting which was left over from this sweatshirt.  Both fabrics were sourced at The Fabric Store, although some years apart.  I had the perfect navy ribbing which was left over from another project and together I managed to make another lovely Merchant and Mills Fielder.  I did have to add one unexpected design feature that I am still kicking myself about.  I accidentally cut the sleeves to the pattern length which is three quarter length.  This is a wool blend top so I wanted full length and even had the correct amount of fabric to do so.  I had to add a seam to my sleeve but fortunately in the busy fabric, you would need to look hard to see it.

This top I have gifted to Courteney who has just started a new job.  I felt I didn't really need two tops in the same print.

My third Fielder top was made from a piece of fabric that was leftover from a shirt Courteney made herself.  Once again, it is Liberty but this time Liberty Tana Lawn.  I found a piece of French Terry in my stash that had been sourced from the op shop when I first started sewing again, so had been around for way too long.  Paired with what was left of the ribbing mentioned earlier, I now have a lovely lighter weight spring top.

I think I might retire this pattern again for a while now.  I feel I may just have enough of these in my wardrobe.  As for the overflowing scrap bin, well, it is still full, although not quite as overflowing as it was!