Girl Charlee Knit t-shirt and Happy 5th of July

The weather gods are smiling down on us this morning and we are spared from another day of triple-digit temperatures. That is 38C and up for my metric friends.  After 4 or 5 days of 101+ degrees F not much gets accomplished other than the bare obligations. Happily we had a holiday yesterday so I was able to indulge in lazing around, drinking beer, eating fresh summer corn and hamburgers someone else grilled, then topping it off with ice cream.  A perfect summer holiday!
This red and white fabric proved irresistible when I saw it on the Girl Charlee website and it made a perfect red white and blue combo with my most favorite skirt (Vogue 1247).

I used the Jalie T-shirt pattern which has the best instructions for getting the v-neckline of the binding to be perfect. This started out being a short sleeve t-shirt but when I tried it on all I could think about was how hot I was.  So I unpicked the sleeves, tossed them aside and made it sleeveless. Soooo much better. 

When I make any binding on knits I cut the length of the binding on the cross-grain of the knit fabric the same length as the opening, sew it with 1/2 inch seam allowances reducing the length by 1 inch and then stretch to fit. So far so good, it seems to work out perfectly. 

I am a bit obsessed with the Girl Charlee fabrics, there are so many I could happily order. Bold, colorful, graphic prints, just my style. I also ordered this one which is a bit wacky but what the heck, another t-shirt will be in the works or maybe a swim cover up.

Up next:  I am making a pair of shorts as a test version of this pattern because I want some slim knee length shorts with slant pockets and also am hoping to have a pants pattern for slim trousers when autumn comes. I have an ulterior motive as well because I bought some nice stretch black denim and want to make this jacket and then the slim shorts, kind of a suit but not really. Probably won't wear them together but we shall see. The plain collar version of the jacket, not the ruffle!

                           

Thanks for all the great comments on my last post, Vogue 1353 dress. I like it, I really do! As I mentioned in the post I figure these patterns deserve a thorough critique so that is what I did. One of my all time most popular posts is this one: Compare and Contrast Vogue 1159 and Vogue 1191. Interestingly that includes a Donna Karan pattern (1159) and I did just finish V1351, soon to be blogged. In a word: Pattern Love!  OK, two words.

Happy hot weather sewing (at least in this hemisphere), Beth

SunnyGal garden photo: My first dahlia of the season. Bi-color like my top.