Use Your Linen Closet As A Stash!

I've been wanting to make a basic white blouse for awhile, but as usual I just hadn't gotten around to it. In keeping with my normal proclivity to make summer stuff during winter, and winter stuff during summer, I felt I just had to make a sleeveless white shirt that I could wear during the hottest of days. I've only made one blouse in my sewing career, and that was this one, about two years ago. I really like this one; in cooler weather, I wear it with a red cardigan. I picked the fabric up at a LQS a couple of years ago, and I also made a skirt from the same fabric, so when I wear them together, it's like a two piece dress. Here's the pattern I used, McCalls 2094:

The fact that I have only used this pattern once is pretty unusual since I like to make patterns over and over again (if they work). I made this in a size 12, straight up, and I love the loose way it fits.

The problem with making the white shirt was that I wanted exactly the right fabric. The hand of the fabric is paramount, as the feel of it is as important, if not more so, than the look. I didn't wanted to order any fabric online because you really can't tell what white fabric is like, and of course, you can't feel it. I also couldn't find anything locally. I was starting to regret not buying some of the Italian cottons I saw at the Philadelphia Quilt Expo from the vendor that sold me the cashmere/mink fabric.

The fabric I really wanted to use was pinpoint cotton. It's my favorite and I love it so much that I sleep on it:

I found this sheet in the linen closet and you can see that it is for a double size bed. I haven't had a double size bed in my house since 2004, so I can only imagine that I saved the flat and fitted sheet simply because I loved the fabric. I must have figured I would eventually do something with it.

The fitted sheet wouldn't do; it was so worn out that it was shredded in places. But the flat sheet, which sees less wear, was perfect. It had been washed hundreds of times and was as soft as you could have wished. And it was free!

I'm not as thrilled with the look of the blouse as I am with the feel. It feels great. But the softness makes it look rumpled, and it wrinkles if you so much as look at it. Here's a close up of the side detail:

I have a feeling this will be a Saturday blouse - one of those cool shirts I put on in the summer on a Saturday morning that I will love when it is 90 degrees and 90 percent humidity. I won't care that it isn't crisp looking and wrinkle free. It will be comfortable!

Parting Shot: It snowed in Cotton Creek, AL today! Here is Daddy in all his craziness standing in the beginning of the snowfall about seven in the morning. Without shoes, of course: