Christine Purse, Victoria Handweavers’ and Spinners’ Guild, Victoria, BC
Name/Description: Striped Winter Shirt
Made For?: Woman
Size: L
Fabric Construction: Woven
Fabric Construction – Other:
Woven Structure: There are two fabrics in this shirt. The striped cloth is woven in a straight twill on 8 shafts. The accent cloth is a 16 harness pattern called Tumbling Squares that I reworked to weave on 12 shafts. Both fabrics were woven on my 12 harness AVL mechanical dobby.
Yarn Details and SETT: The warp and weft yarns are 10/2 cotton from Lunatic Fringe in a natural and natural coloured cotton. There is also a narrow repeating stripe of unidentified red/ purple mercerized cotton in about the same size from my stash. The sett was 24 epi.
Handspun Details:
Stitches:
Special Treatments:
Textile Finishing: The fabric was machine washed with baking soda to darken the naturally occurring colours, hung to dry, and pressed.
Textile Challenges:
Garment Construction: The shirt is my own design made from a pattern I drafted to fit my body. I have a small curvature to my spine so the centre back seam is necessary to make the garment fit properly. The fabric is fairly heavy and warm so I chose 3/4 length sleeves and I also chose not to line it. It would make the shirt too warm for a woman still experiencing hot flashes! All seams were finished with serging.
Lining: The fabric is firm enough that I self-faced the front openings and did not add interfacing to the collar or cuffs. The collar is faced with a soft white cotton from my scrap box.
Special Features: I saw another shirt with the inverted V insert in the back and liked the effect. I also added the Tumbling Blocks pattern to the collar and cuffs to tie the overall pattern together.The buttons were a gift and their colouring suited the fabric.”
Pattern:
Garment Challenges:
