Amongst Lovebirds

I bought this fabric on a whim in June last year. In my inexperience I didn’t exactly know how it was going to be like. It’s 95% viscose 5% elastane. And by the way, I also ordered two meters of batic with a similar composition and I have no idea what to use it for since it’s a little bit see-through. Oh, well, I guess inexperience is like this.

One I saw this lovebirds fabric (called Parrots Jersey at the store) I new I had to get it. But you know when you know that your sewing skills are still limited and you purchase that wonderful fabric you’ve always dreamed about? That’s right, you don’t use it, you keep it in the drawer of beautiful but untouchable fabrics and you take it out from time to time to look at it and pet it while you make plans that never become real.

I didn’t have any plans when I purchased this fabric, but once I’ve received it, it was clear that I needed to chose a pattern with few lines to showcase this fabric. I initially was going to make The Tee from Cake Patterns, but after I have made my muslin, a definitive and improved version was released. The muslin was not great great, and this change threw me of balance, so I left the fabric alone again for some time. Then I started to get more ill, lost weight, lost interest in anything except for my illness, and then winter came.

But this year my condition has improved, I feel rather confident about my sewing skills and Koen gave me a serger for my birthday in November. So I am rocking my knits! I decided then to make the Maria Denmark’s Kirsten Kimono Tee. As I’ve made Maria Denmark’s Edith blouse and the fit is quite okay, I decided to jump directly to this fabric and forget about muslins. Sometimes you just need to stop overthinking and start doing.

There’s not a lot to say about this. I made the smallest size with no mods. I used my serger for everything except for hemming bottom and armholes, where I used a twin needle finish. I was going to use white thread but decided that yellow went much better with the fabric. I also used yellow to topstich the neckline. One thing that surprised me is that, after pinning the neckband, it felt quite loose, so I shortened it by 2 cm. It could be because the pattern instructs you to cut the same length of fabric no matter what size you’re sewing, and probably it shouldn’t be like that, should it? At least in other patterns, these bands are not the same length for all the sizes. In hindsight I should have shortened this one a little bit more since the front doesn’t lay completely flat, but it’s not too bad anyway.

Gerry likes all the colors of this top. I think the lovebird in the middle looks a little bit like my Gerry, but Gerry is much more handsome.

Something that helped me set the wheels in motion was seeing that the Monthly Stitch has dedicated the month of April to the theme Put a Bird on It! Well, I always have a bird with me, but now that also applies to one of my garments.

This top is going to be a wonderful addition for warm weather, and I’m sure you’ll see it during Me Made May. Separates are so versatile!