I began my Fall sewing in August.  I love Fall, and the colors that go with it because they are MY colors.  I reorganized my closet (yet again) and found I was woefully short of clothing in olive green.  And I always need tops.  I chose to sew a variety of knits in a variety of styles.  As long as i have been sewing, I still run into things that can cause frustration.  These fabrics did just that – caused some frustration.  I used patterns I have used before, so that helped a lot and the fit of everything makes me happy.  This is probably the first time I have been happy with everything I have made.  I am trying to get over being so critical too.  First up – a couple of “tissue knits”.  These are thin, sheer, burn-out type knits.  I used the Fit for Art Patterns Tabula Rasa T-Shirt pattern here.

The contrast is a brown cotton burnout knit from Mood Fabrics.  I don’t recall where I picked up the green and brown knit – even though I have a ‘card system’ where I keep track of key information for a fabric, I am not always diligent about writing down every piece of information.  I am thinking I may have picked it up on a NY Fabric trip – I usually try to look for unusual fabrics.  I had to underline the print and the brown at the side seams.  I used a tricot lining fabric from the stash.  I did not underline the sleeves.  Seams were sewn with a slight zigzag, then serged.  Hems were done with the zigzag.  I haven’t worn this yet (still too warm), but I think I will like it.  Due to the step of underlining, it was a little time consuming for a ‘t-shirt’.

Item #2:  I used the Judy Kessinger Fit Nice/Sew Slim T-shirt pattern, with her Therese Tops variation. For this variation, you add a wedge to the side seam before you cut the pattern.  You end up with a slight flare at the sides.   I like the look – there is not too much volume/flare.  The photo looks like there is flare in the front, but there is not when it is worn.  But again,  have not yet worn it as it is still in the 90’s here.

Fabric used is a fairly substantial knit; a ponte-like fabric.  I think it is a poly spandex but beefier than usual.  Again I used the same brown cotton burnout for the sleeves and the neckband.  I made a V-neck for this, and followed Lynda Maynard’s directions in one of the Craftsy classes – Essential Techniques for Sewing Knits with Craftsy Sewing Instructors.  (This is a class made up from excerpts of other classes).

The last ‘project’ is a twinset.  This fabric was a nightmare!  It is a slippery poly/spandex, 4-way stretch, with tone on tone texture.  The pattern in the texture was horizontal, but I turned it so it was vertical.  With the 4-way stretch, I felt that would work.  The t-shirt took  much longer than it should have.  The pattern used was the Pamela’s Patterns Perfect T-Shirt #104 here.  I have made this several times; however this time I narrowed the area above the bust and it fits much better.  I made it sleeveless, and used binding as a finish for the armholes.  I also lowered the neckline a bit.

I used the same fabric to make a cardigan, using Pamela’s Patterns #111 Cool Cardigans Banded front.  I have used that pattern before, but this time I made two changes.  I narrowed the area above the bust and cut the sleeve smaller.  These changes were made based on the sloper I have developed for wovens, and the sleeve drafted for that sloper.  The cardigan progressed quickly since I had all the kinks of using this fabric worked out from the t-shirt.

And both of them together…

I am quite happy with all of these pieces and feel they will serve me well during the fall.  I have brown, olive and khaki bottoms to go with these.