I do not know quite how summer came and went so fast! Earlier, as summer appeared to stretch out endlessly before me, I had plans to tackle so much work ahead of time. Two brand new courses to teach this year? No problem — they will be done in their entirety by early August! Adding new technologies to existing courses? I’ll learn everything I need to know about all. the. technologies. by end of July! Hiring and training a team of people for a load of brand new positions? All bureaucratic paperwork and hiring will be complete and everyone will know what they’re doing before September! Ha. Do you know what *actually* happened? Me neither, but I suspect it had something to do with the mythical slowing-down-of-time-in-summer-to-allow-for-all-kinds-of-work-to-get-done not actually taking place as expected. And now I’m doing All The Work While Crying. I couldn’t trace this meme back to its original creator so with apologies to him or her, you’ll find me somewhere in the green & black area at the end of the status bar right now.

At least now I’m learning to incorporate the Fuck Off phase into my long-term strategic planning. 🙂

Anyway, I figured it was time to blog about this summer tee before all hope for wearing it is over.

This is Purl Soho’s Boxy Tee pattern. I purchased the fabric, a very lightweight woven rayon border print with flowers and roman coins, at Designer Fabrics on Queen Street West in Toronto. (Lately they’ve had a lot of ancient-Rome-themed fabric that I found hard to resist, as evidenced by this other blouse I made recently with a Roman theme.) For this Boxy Tee, I only used 2/3rds of a yard of the fabric, particularly because I used pre-made bias tape for the neck facing instead of making bias tape out of the fabric itself.

I highly recommend the pattern. It’s simple, quick, uses minimal fabric, and you don’t have to print out and tape together any pattern pieces (just one page that gives you a template for cutting out the neck). If you can measure out a rectangle or two, you’re good to go. There’s also a version that includes directions to add two ties at the waist that you could tie at the back for a bit of shaping. I think I might be regretting not including those on my version.

My modifications:

• I did not add sleeves. I just started by cutting the front and back pieces to have extra ‘flaps’ sticking out at the top sides where the armholes would be…that gives the look of a cap sleeve but built into the body.
• The pattern calls for two pieces sewn together for each of the front and the back, creating a horizontal seam. Instead I cut out one continuous piece for each in order to show off this amazing border-print fabric.

I’m thinking I should pick up this Roman Coins Bracelet I saw recently at the Pompeii exhibit at the Royal Ontario Museum to wear with it. What do you think — too much flashing of cash in one outfit?

I also have a little skirt in progress using the same fabric, but I’m kinda stuck on figuring out how to line it, so it may languish in my Work-In-Progress pile for while. (Never fear, I won’t be wearing them both together if I do ever finish the skirt.)

As summer comes to an end, I want to wish you Happy Real New Year, ’cause no matter how long you’ve been out of school, September always feels like the real deal when it comes to a new year.

Thanks for reading!