It’s been hot here lately. Much hotter than I am comfortable with, though I know it is still cooler than many other parts of the country. I’ve seen many comments on sewing rated blogs I’ve been reading about how when the heat arrives the drive to sew evaporates. For me it is the complete opposite. While I may not want to move around any more than absolutely necessary as it heats up, my desire to sew new, cool, floaty garments only increases. I had an important meeting at work last Monday and decided on Saturday morning the weekend before that I really should have a new top. Something that would be both comfortable and good looking in the heat. I remembered about this lovely prism voile I’d bought way back in February (I’d been admiring it for a while and finally decided I could get just a metre and a half for a treat) and realized that Rae’s Ruby top would be a perfect match for it.

The voile is rather on the sheer side and I originally thought I would need to line the whole top - which would at least somewhat delete the purpose of a floaty light top - but in a loose, gathered style like this, and with the right bra underneath, it wasn’t issue. I did line the yoke, for opacity as well as stability. Rae has a really nice video series showing how to add the lining. I added the additional step of understitching the lining to keep it firmly in place. It was fiddly but worth the result. All the visible finishing was done by hand and all raw edges are neatly contained, either in the yoke, bias tape or in french seams. I really enjoy hand finishing a garment. It takes the quality up a notch for me and given a slightly softer look.

I’ve already worn my top a second time and I’m looking forward to making a dress or tunic length version. I took these pictures after my work day and it was too hot to have anything over my top but earlier I’d been wearing it with a cardigan. I think it will be a great top for layering when the weather cools off again.

p.s. Ever wondered what an okra flower looks like? Here you go.

I always have so much trouble summing up things like major holidays. I think it is because they are so full of wonderful little stories. It’s hard to decide which to tell and it’s sometimes hard to fit them all together into a single post. The other option would be a whole series of little posts which would be pretty fun. I don’t know that they would get done any more speedily though. Here are some of the stories of our weekend.

We went to the Long John Jamboree and the Snow Castle. We decided to go early to avoid a possible nap time conflict and then discovered nothing opened for half an hour. We got a little cold. We ran into friends and neighbours. We had fun. We watched a play. We went down a big slide. We stood on the ice. (I need to remember to change the aperture setting on my camera to reflect current conditions.)

Maisie wore her new mittens, under protest, for exactly as long as it took us to go down the big slide, solely because they were a condition of getting to go down the big slide. She cried a bit because I picked the slower of the two slides.

Maisie did an egg hunt in our living room. She found six sparkly eggs full of fun things. Some of those fun things were play strawberries and a teeny bottle of blue nail polish.

I made Maisie’s fourth Easter bonnet. She was very excited about it. Then she hated it and wouldn’t let it touch her head. Then she was really excited about it again and asked to wear it outside. But she wouldn’t wear a coat.

Maisie did a second egg hunt with her cousins. She got a butterfly painted on her forehead by her aunt.

Maisie and I did some colouring.

We had friends over for shovelling and tea on the Monday. Grown-ups chatted. Kiddos moved snow around, stuck butterfly stickers to their tea cups, hid in the tent, and sold food from the "delivery window". It was so warm out jackets were optional. After they left we went for a walk with Abby. I carried a hat and sweater for Maisie but she never asked for them. I carried a hat for me too but never wanted it.

Here’s my Linden. It’s been a favourite in my wardrobe ever since I finished it a couple of weeks ago. I’m really glad I decided to go with the size 8. My shirt is super comfortable but also looks tidy enough that I can wear it to work or out for lunch without feeling all “Saturday morning”. The main fabric is a brown organic cotton fleece. It’s the same fabric I’ve used for lots of pants for Maisie so I knew it would wear well and feel nice. Aside: For some reason sweatshirt fleece, with very few exceptions, comes in either organic cotton or polyester. It makes for limited colour choices, if you don’t care to wear synthetics, and Maisie and I can put together some rather matchy-matchy outfits. I recently discovered Simplifi Fabrics and was really excited to find somewhere in Canada to buy fleece in a bunch of fancy new-to-me colours (still organic cotton). Back to my linden: Since my fabric was about as plain as it could get I decided to dress it up a bit. I love a bit of lace so I rummaged through my lace bin. I was hoping to find something really wide but no luck. These pieces matched reasonably well, colour-wise, and I pulled them together into a panel with a scrap of liberty lawn leftover from a sundress of a few years back. I love the way it came out. I sewed through all three layers (lace, print, shirt front) with a narrow zigzag in thread to match the lace. The lawn is so lightweight that it doesn’t add any stiffness to the front of my shirt.

Like all knit shirts this one came together really quickly. The raglan makes it even faster than a set in sleeve. I think I could have cut my neckband a little longer. I had to pull it almost as tight as it would go to get it to match up with the neck edge. I might add a half inch or so next time if I’m using a similarly stable fabric. It still looks pretty nice though. The cuffs and hip band went on really easily. I decided to topstitch around all my bands to keep the seam allowances in place. I didn’t want top stitching over my lace panel so I pushed back the scallops a little bit at the beginning and end of both the neckline and hemline topstitching to make it look like the stitching went right underneath. I added a few hand stitches on the inside to hold the seam allowance down behind the panel.

I’m looking forward to making up this pattern again. Maybe in a jersey for a lightweight, comfy top or maybe lengthened into a cozy tunic or dress. A good basic is so inspiring.