Hacking the pattern or using what I've got

Sewing face masks is not fun. I'd much rather sew a lace-trimmed top for my daughter than sew face masks for her. (Though I did do both.) I finished this after 2 AM, put it in her bathroom, and then she put it on right after breakfast. I think she likes it. But not enough to take out her headphones and pose where the light is better. ;-)

I searched through my pattern collection for my tried and true (TNT) woven t-shirt pattern, but couldn't find it.  I think I may have paired some of my TNT patterns with fabric, and then packed them all away for the move back to LA.  I'm missing several of my favorite patterns and hope to be reunited with them as I slowly unpack and sew through my fabric collection.

I like the way Calvin Klein patterns fit my slightly squared shoulders.  I started with this Vogue 1873 blouse pattern, and traced it onto medical exam table paper.  I just cut it on the fold at the center front, rather than copy all the placket stuff.  I also traced a simple neckline, knowing that I would trim it down further to fit the lace trim. I hoped to make short sleeves, but the fabric was tight.

This worked out much better than I had expected.

I stitched the lace trim to the front piece along the perimeter, trimmed the neckline to 1/4" beyond the edge and bound the neckline with bias binding made from some washed rayon from my scrap bin.

I marked the rough area where I stitched down the lace trim.

Another picture of the top and daughter in their natural habitat.

I worked with a remnant ($3) and some lace ($1) from the baskets at the front of Fabrix, a San Francisco odd jobber selling pre-consumer waste sewing supplies.  They both washed and cleaned up well, but I was alarmed at how much this oxford cloth shrank.  It's a beefy 100% cotton oxford that shrank ~10% in length to 32-34" long by 44" wide.  I barely got the two body pieces to fit.  I then seamed the scraps to make pieces large enough to cut out the sleeves.

Nice flat felled seams on the inside.  If the seam was more off-center and were black, I might have put the selvage fringe on the outside as a design feature.  Ultimately, I decided to put it on the inside.

This is all I had left of the fabric after cutting and sewing.  100% cotton can be put in the compost bin, so this was truly a zero-waste sewing project.