quick quick top

I went to see a friend for lunch on tuesday and she gave me a length of fabric she didn't want. It was in a carrier bag so I chucked it in the car boot and went to school to collect T, go to parents' evening and then go to collect Little I. Then home to make a quick supper for two tired children. So it was not until wednesday afternoon that I got the bag out of my car boot and had a look. I was surprised by how much nicer the fabric was than I had initially thought. My friend just said it was some not very nice fabric that maybe I could use for small scraps. When I looked at it I decided it would make a good loose fitting top. It is slightly tablecloth-like fabric so I am not sure if will look like I am wearing a table cloth.

There was not a huge amount of fabric but I have managed to squeeze this top out of it using Simplicity 3835 (again). The good thing about this pattern is that I now know I can get a top with short sleeves out of a relatively small piece of fabric. The stripey bit at the bottom of the shirt was in the middle of the long narrow piece of fabric so I cut the fabric in half along the mid section of the stripey bit. Then I cut out the back and front pieces and had just enough left to do the sleeves. I managed to match the back pieces but didn't have enough fabric to match the sleeves.

Another thing I like about the 3835 pattern (I have used view C here) is that it is super quick to make, comfortable to wear and happily has no fiddly facings to make. I washed the fabric yesterday afternoon, cut it out last night and sewed it up this afternoon while Little I was at nursery. I hemmed it while in my car waiting outside T's school for him. I just have about 4 inches of hem left to sew but I photographed it quickly before the light got too bad.

I have been working slowly for the last few weeks on a slower sewing project and I am still committed to the idea of sewing slowly, taking care, but it is refreshing for me to intersperse slow sewing with some quick quick projects.