Megan from meggipeg blog and Katherine from SewBlooms blog and I had a sewing challenge where we were to make the free zero waste t-shirt from MakeUse.nz (free under a Creative Commons license). I decided to make the cropped tee and found this piece of purple cotton knit remnant from Knitwit Fabrics. I have no idea why I bought it, but it was the exact length I needed, so perhaps that why I had bought it!

We had talked about using the faggoting technique exemplified in the tee shirt on the Make Use website. They faggoted all the seams, but I decided to just do the neckline. As the fabric didn’t fray all I did was interface the front neckline and make two cuts, I stitched them after I made the top, but it might have been easier to do the stitching immediately.

I had a side strip of fabric left over so made it into a hem band to give myself extra length. I cut the sleeves and rotated them by 180 degrees to give that funny shape. I love the back seaming on this tee.

You can see my faggoting in the photo below. I used some beautiful variegated silk thread that came from Martien, the convenor of Fibres West. She got a whole bag full from her buy nothing group.

I even managed to add a label. I used an “Eat Sleep Sew” label from Kylie and the Machine in a side seam. I never quite know where to put the labels…

I absolutely love it with my new Zero Waste Clair skirt.

A shown seated photo – the outfit is lovely to sit around in and will be perfect for some train travel I have planned. Those leaves have now been swept up, it’s that time of the year!

I could not be happier with this combination. The purple goes so perfectly with the skirt – although it has no purple in it – and I love the meaning of the colour purple – wisdom, bravery and spirituality; it’s associated with royalty, is calming and stimulating and fosters creativity (according to my very old psych book). I wore purple to my Dad’s funeral and the rector was most impressed as it can also be the colour of mourning, although I wore it because purple also creates a balance of peace and awareness. Mark’s academic hood is lined with purple silk – I should cut it up! So, I do love purple and don’t wear enough of it.

I then made another tee from some scraps of wool crepe leftover from this suit which I created with Sarah from Pattern Union.

I used house paint to seal the raw edges of the neckline. I used masking tape to create the line, painted with acrylic paint, dried it with my hairdryer and then created another line of paint. I used my flexible ruler to help determine the line.

Then I faggoted over the inner cut to draw the two necklines together. I used the same variegated silk as for the purple top.

I added another label from my Advent calendar, thanks Katherine! I have begun to notice that I am colour coordinating my labels. This was subconscious, but now it’s in my head, I can’t stop!

I was about to cut out trousers when I decided I wanted a winter version of this tee. I had a bit of a deep dive and found this wool which Sarah (of Pattern Union fame) had found at a deceased estate and kindly gave to me. It has got quite a lot of moth holes and thin spots, but I thought I could get round this problem. The fabric is pretty special, it’s natural wool, and when I press it, it smells like sheep, which I love.

The piece was a bit of an odd shape and was probably a teeny bit narrow, but I thought I could actually get a long sleeved top out with some careful cutting. You can see where it’s been cut by its previous owner.

I had a tiny bit of the hem hanging off. The shaped piece at the side is where the sleeve fits in and then I have a small amount of fabric left.

I considered my treatment of the moth holes and finished up needle felting some tiny scraps over the holes. You can just make them out in the photos below:

I made the simplest shape, with a deepish hem band and sleeve extensions.

I also added a pocket from a piece of scrap, the size and shape determined by said scrap, and I even managed a label.

I topstitched either side of every seam to add a bit of interest. The hem is the selvedge, which I was pleased with.

I really like it with red trousers and my naturally dyed crochet scarf. We are looking after Heidi for a couple of days, which has been gorgeous.

The sleeves are quite flared, which I thought might annoy me, but I’ve been in this outfit all day and I haven’t caught them on door knobs or caught them in drawers, so I think they will be ok.

The thing about zero waste is that almost anything goes. I mentioned that Megan, Katherine and I were doing a sewing challenge, so here are the three of us – you can see that we got very different results with different techniques and fabrics. Megan used the painting/faggoting technique for all her seams and fabric dyed with onion skins, whereas Katherine used some colour blocking and machine faggoting on lovely loosely woven fabric. We have had a discussion about the spelling of faggoting by the way, we each spell it differently!

Finally a video of Miss G on a wooden rocking horse that I found in an op shop for $5.