Colour blocked winter Lunch Box Tee

The Lunch Box Tee is the cute little boxy cropped T-shirt that comes with the culottes in the Oliver + S pattern. This is my fourth version and the first I can call a complete success!

Previously I'd made the short sleeve pocket less version, along with the culottes (seen here). That one was way too short for everyday wear. Everyday wear meaning pulling the front waistband of your skirt or trousers down to well below belly level and then having half your belly hanging out the front. It's actually a nice, cropped length t-shirt, but only if you'll wear your pants/skirt pulled up properly. It's now had a band added to the bottom. Salvaged.

 

The other two were the long (?!) sleeved versions with pockets. A's was a straight size 4 and while the body length was reasonable the sleeves were about an inch too short. The pink sweater knit didn't have much stretch and using it for the neckband meant that it's a nightmare to get over her noggin. Worn a few times, but essentially... Fail.

P's was a size 5 with size 7 length but is about 2-3 inches too short in the body and about 5" too short in the arms! Fail. (sadly, cause he loved the fabric.)

this is before hemming!

So, what were the modifications to the successful Lunch Box Tee.....

 I stuck with size 4 as the pink one did have the right body size. I've added a total of 3&1/4 inches to the sleeve length and 3" length at the side seam.

Then I created a high/low hem by raising the centre front hem by 1/2" above the side seam, and lowering the centre back by 1&1/4" I was so happy with how the hem looked I even bothered to change thread colour for the front and back hems!

The colour blocking was both by design and to use up some bits of gorgeous, soft merino fleece that were too small to use on their own. The black is from my Metro T-shirt, the cream from A's Deer jumper and the red from her Issey Miyake Peplum.

This fleece is from The Fabric Store and is truly the loveliest stuff, both to sew and wear. I confess to just throwing it in the wash with everything else, but I understand that felting wool is a bit like playing Russian Roulette. Now that there are a sufficient number of wool fleece clothes in  the household I will endeavour to wash them separately. It will still be in the machine, but on the gentle wool cycle, and that's as big a laundry concession as I'm prepared to make.

The colour that I had the least of was the red and I was nervous that the sleeves wouldn't be long enough. Of the 371/4" length added there is 2&1/2" extra length at the sleeve hem. That was the extent of my red fabric, so I added the extra 3/4" by extending the cut line of the front and back body pieces at the sleeve junction. that means my drop sleeve is dropped by 3/4" more than the pattern design intended. Works well for me and I'm happy the sleeves are long enough for this winter, and possibly the next.

The merino fleece doesn't have a lot of stretch so I used some ribbing for the neckband. For some insane reason I cut that about 1/2" longer than the pattern piece. Maybe I was on a roll adding length to everything, or maybe I was worried about the fit over her head. Whatever it was I shouldn't have done it. The ribbing has heaps of stretch and good recovery but it's just that tiny bit long to make it not sit as flat as it could.

 I 'm happy to say this one has got me very much back in love with the pattern after our rocky start together. I have some great textured cream knit and I want to make one with some gold zippers at the side seams! - I've taken to writing down ideas like that in an art journal as I find I buy fabric and patterns and stash them and then completely forget what I had thought to do with them. Now I just have to find the perfect open ended gold zippers.....

Meanwhile I need to sew more colour blocked use up the leftovers kind of clothes to justify more fabric purchasing!