Buying fabric in New York kind of scares me. It’s the time when it’s clearest to me that I’m not a real New Yorker. The fabric stores here are crammed to the ceiling with rolls of fabric, beautiful mixed in with really quite ugly, and populated by serious designers on a mission to find a particular fabric. I wish I were one of them, but I’m not. I’m a lost hobbyist, missing the stripes of beautiful fabrics all lined up along the organized shelves of Stone Mountain and Daughter. I love just being around all the pretty fabric, wandering around until the right fabric suggests an unexpected project. There’s no good reason one couldn’t browse until inspired in a New York fabric store, but as soon as someone comes up and asks me when I’m looking for, I panic and pretend I have a plan.
But yesterday I braved the garment district and found this lovely stripy knit, which clearly wanted to be the same shirt I always make. I did make one small change – since this fabric doesn’t curl in on itself, I cut an extra flap of about three inches along the neckline (both front and back) which folds in and forms a facing. I didn’t tack it down or anything, I just shake it into place when I put the shirt on and the fabric clings to itself a bit so it stays put.
This rendition of the only shirt worth sewing is wider than it is long – about 24″ long and almost the full width of the 60″ fabric. There’s a 6″ difference between the front and back to form the cowl, but the fairly wide neck opening means it pulls down lower than 6″ otherwise might.
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