I can resist most of the fabrics that show up in the mill-end pre-cut bins at Walmart, but not all of the fabrics that show up in the mill-end pre-cut bins at Walmart. The main saving factor is my dislike of wearing synthetics, but that...can be overridden by the cloth being really really cool...
So I bought a 2 yard for $4 roll of very probably synthetic knit in an interesting stripe (and texture, although that texture is on the purl side and I can never think of that as the face of a knit, so...just stripe) in shades of dark blue and burgundy and cream and black.
And when I took off the label and unrolled it, I discovered that there was only one yard. Even at 60" wide, that still severely limited my project options. I decided, yesterday afternoon, to figure out what to do with it, and turned to a pattern I've had for a long time--so long that it's been partly cut in a very small size: New Look 6068 (and...I had honestly forgotten that I'd used it for projects a few years ago). But! Not all of the views use the same basic bodice pieces, and the mixn'n'matchin' was obvious
View C, with the little sleeves, in my current size, plus the neckline and collar from View A (adapted from being cut in a smaller size.)
Well, y'know...more or less...
I made the collar half the height called for, turning it into a mock turtleneck, both to save fabric and also as a callback to the excessive amount of mock turtlenecks I wore as a teen. So many mock turtlenecks as a teen.
The ease on this pattern is only a half inch/12mm at the bust, so I decided to cut it in my "proper" size 14, instead of my usual "I know it's technically too small but do you know how much ease is in these things???" size 12. In retrospect, knits are often expected to have negative ease, so I probably should do a size 12 in any equally stretchy knits in the future.
I wanted this project to be fast so I cut everything on the fold, but I also wanted to pay some attention to the stripe placement. Results were as expected, and my first try at the collar was unacceptable...which I didn't notice until after top stitching around it
I tried to be OK with that, but...nope. Picking out the top stitching and the construction stitching wasn't as horrible--or hole-making--process as I expected. I left the serging in place and wiggled things around a bit before re-sewing. It's honestly not a lot different, but it's still more acceptable.
I'm counting on it being less obvious when I'm not, y'know, specifically drawing attention to how lopsided it is
(green tint from the green LED lamp in here to balance the light from the LED grow light. Color theory means the resulting light is more or less white, and some more teenage nostalgia means it's kinda like that time when I had a half dozen sets of holiday lights--with the fancy plastic covers--hung in my room all year.)
I also made some effort to get sleeve stripes in the right places
The pattern calls for finishing the sleeves with elastic in a casing. And I was prepared to do that! I didn't want to, but, if the pattern said so...then: Oh, right. I have enough cloth left to make ribbing-style cuffs.
I did not have enough fabric width left to do a ribbing-style waist finish. so I serged the lower edge and folded it inside before zigzag stitching in two rows.
Far from perfect, but not obvious from a reasonable viewing distance.
I did serge the seams inside to prevent fabric shedding, and maybe for extra stability, since this is a fairly loose knit, but all construction was done on the lockstitch machine. I know a lot of people would have constructed this entire thing on the serger, but, again--such a loose knit, I wouldn't trust seam allowances as small as serging.
And here's the back, where I didn't pay nearly as much attention to matching stripes.
But wait, there's more!
While there wasn't enough fabric to make long sleeves, there was still a decent chunk of it left, and I decided to make...a beret?
I used one of my "real" berets as a pattern, adding a freehand seam allowance as I cut through the two layers of knit and two layers of very random lining, then a round lid stashed in the "maybe I can use this for something?" box was used to cut the center out of one layer of knit and one layer of lining. Another strip of the stripe knit was called in as a band
I knew I wanted o use a lining to give the stripe knit, which I may have mentioned is very loose and soft some extra body. I left a bit of the outer diameter seam of the lining unsewn to create the area to turn everything right-side-out through, so I could sew that closed with some machine stitching along the edge that would be concealed inside the hat.
I probably could have made the center opening a bit larger--I'll try to remember next time!
And there probably will be a next time, because assembling this beret was almost as fast as assembling a scrunchie (and would've been faster if I hadn't again concerned myself with matching stripes.)
And now I've pulled out the 5½ yards of dark blue pinwale corduroy, acquired in a thrift store fabric grab bag a few years ago, and want to make a coordinating something to wear to create a complete outfit.
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