Poking along

Felt rather uninspired the last week (cyclical chemical side effect, whee), decided I should make SOMETHING, but, when I confronted the fabric stash...there were so many somethings I could make that I didn't know where to start.

I decided, therefore, to try to be...random.  I turned my back on the cloth, stuck my hand in the "cotton of 3 yards or less" section, and started rifling back and forth until Chip meowed at me for attention, which put my hand on this

Oh.  Hmm.

I picked up this bit of cloth--1 1/3 yard, 45"--in Goodwill (is anyone surprised?) sometime last year.  I really like the design, but...not so much the colors.  I know lots of people are fabulous in and with yellows, but it's never been thrilling for me, personally.  I had the brilliant (*snicker*) idea to throw it in a pot of weak black dye for a moment, to see if I could desaturate the colors a bit.

Um...no.

So then I decided that, as long as I was already messin' with this cloth, that there would be no harm in throwing it into a bleach bath.  Since Rit "black" dye is more of a really really really dark brown, I hoped the bleach would make the whole thing look tea stained...ish.

Well...maybe?

Kind of peachy.  The reverse and selvedges, where there was no yellow ground print, are a definite  brownish pink, which would have been very nice for the whole thing, but...no, no, peachy tea-y is fine.

But what to make from it?  I decided to be random with that, too.  I poked, without looking, through the pattern file cabinet drawer with the skirt-jumpers-woven shirts area, again stopping when Chip demanded attention.  (I am not good with 'random,' but I have cats and a child who can help me overcome that.)  This was what I pulled out

Oh.  We meet again.  View 2 calls for 1¼ yard plus 3/8 yard for the contrast collar and sleeve bands--I figured I could squeeze View 2 + View 1's pin tucks out of the 1 1/3 yard of the formerly yellow print, and, yep, I could, with only minimal...ah...necessitated creativity.  I also made the changes I suggested to myself last time, for the next time I made this shirt, which is this time.

Um.

I went ahead and did the band placket again, with lace added on each side of the opening, instead of the band-extension-with-lace-on-both-edges as the pattern directs, and I omitted the back neckline darts and added a corresponding ½" to the center back of the collar.  I eventually ended up with this strangely-satisfying pile'o'pieces

(See the cloth in the seat of the chair?  That's what was left over.)

First, I dealt with the darts and the pin tucks and lace inserts and applied lace and bias tape and oh how I'm not used to decorating the stuff I sew. Still, after longer time than I want to admit (one set of pin tucks had to be picked out and re-sewn...um...several times--but the other side was great from the start, at least), I had this

And then I sewed the shoulders and plackets and collar and got to here

Which is where I stopped for the day, because not only is this project an exercise in randomness, it's also part of my attempt to condition myself to stop thinking I have to GET IT COMPLETELY DONE IN ONE DAY OR WHY EVEN START AT ALL, because I do have a problem with that.  And then I'm posting it now, because I'm not sure if sharing nothin' but finished projects is helpful or not...