Monday, Wash Day

A few freshly ironed linen shirts.  Love the red one in front, both the colour and the heavy fabric.  It's a choice thrift store find, and the modest price was discounted fifty percent which is even better.  I mean to cut it up and sew something.  Probably a project bag to hold knitting or a spindle and wool.  I could make a pinny, a nicer sort than the crumpled red school pinnies we had to put on in P.E. to tell one sports team from another, but I have no use for one.

I checked the red top against an asymmetrical top in drab worn linen I picked up secondhand a while back on hopes of recreating it someday in a nicer fabric.  I can get enough fabric from the red top for the main body but not enough for bias binding.

At another thrift store, I got a jacket that's the same label and same fabric as the dress I cut up and made into a project bag this Spring.  I want to alter the jacket a little and wear it.  For the few dollars I paid, I can chance ruining the jacket's structure and fabric by cutting out the synthetic fabric lining and unpicking the patch pockets.  The plastic buttons have to go.  I will replace them with shell buttons I salvaged a couple of years ago from a thrift shop dress.  The shell buttons have a glossy good side that looks wrong against the rustic fabric but the dull, mottled reverse goes well and as a bonus will amuse me since the colouring is similar to a tortie cat.

I bought for myself a men's linen camp shirt from J.Crew and I took off the pockets.  The cloth is chequered and the pockets have bellows pleats.  The folds mean that the pattern does not line up and the pockets stand out.  Did I mention the pockets are chest pockets?  Chest pockets that draw attention to themselves, yes.  And now on my shirt they are gone.  A small detail can make all the difference to wearability.  The beautiful linen fabric closed up in the wash leaving no trace of stitch marks.  I will swap out the plastic buttons soon for some thick, white shell buttons from my button box.

When I washed the dishes wearing the camp shirt and the blue linen apron I sewed in June, I looked almost together.