I am so pleased

I took off the length of fabric woven with lime green on a sapphire warp.

Here it is fulled, through the washer and dryer,

ready to cut up into shirts.

First, the weave has "crazed." See all the little right to left ridges?

That's called crazing, just like the lines on old china.

It happens most frequently with "unbalanced" thread.

The sapphire warp is a very polished cotton; the lime weft is good old unmercerized.

Great visual interest when that happens, but it's not always predictable.

This fabric has such beautiful hand it's like textured water over my fingers.

It looks like the leaves of tulips in the spring.

Enough.

Here'w what happened next.

 I pulled a thread to get straight of the grain,

and cut the fabric there for the bottom of a shirt.

Don't believe the color; the fluorescent lights must want in on the action.

Ready to cut the front of the shirt. The front neckline is deeper than the back, generally.

The front is cut, per the chunks gone from the end. I pulled another thread for the bottom of the back and am ready to cut.

The sleeve. Keep your eye on that chunk of unused fabric at the right.

I will turn this unassuming little piece into true self bias.

(That's all sewer talk. Janet would be so proud of me.)

Can you see I've turned one straight edge back to meet the selvage side of the fabric, then cut open at the fold.

Thanks to the magic of the cutting pad my sister keeps on the table, the rest is easy peasy.

I laid the cut edge along one of the lines, and put the big straight edge at the two inch mark,

and with the rotary cutter made my two inch bias strip.

You can bet my grandmother didn't have it this easy.

Or mom.

OK, three shirts cut and ready to head over to the sewing machine.

Note the cones of white thread on the serger.

Sigh. Changing over is not sweet.

  

First, must find enough cones of dark green thread.

Yes, down there at floor level, and the little girls are in school.

Oh well.

On the serger and tied to the ends of the old white cones.

Through. 

Only one needle came unthreaded, but it didn't get away with anything.

Ready to rock and roll.

Shoulder seams.

That's enough.

I've made you slog through a "tutorial" before.

Let's go look at the shirt.

 Finally brave enough to use my bias for a tee shirt type edging.

I've been turning it back, like a standard facing, which is OK, but just a tad more formal.

Now my shirt is updated to the 21st century, 

and casual, too.

And I'm off to put the shirts in my Etsy shop.