From the Back of the Closet: The Gardening Shirt

My ‘From the Back of the Closet’ series will cover some of my older pieces that are now well worn and well loved but haven’t yet made it onto my blog.

My gardening shirt is a great addition to my wardrobe and is used regularly in the garden (not my own sadly but a wonderful community garden nearby) to protect my arms from the harsh Australian sun.

The pattern is a New Look pattern for a tunic – I’ll have to get back to you on what exact pattern it is. I wanted a shirt so I cut it off short for a shirt but I think if I made it again I wouldn’t cut it off quite so short :-).

The fabric is a lovely lightweight striped cotton that I got from Lincraft.  It is a perfect summer fabric because it is cool and breezy but still provides some protection from the sun.

The sleeves end in cute little cuffs with a button. I chose a blue and white striped button that went suprisingly well with the fabric.

The back yoke in the pattern is a single piece cut on the cross grain but I made it into two pieces and cut it on opposite bias grains to get the chevron effect.  I quite like how it turned out.

All in all, a great little shirt that travels well, needs no ironing or special treatment and is great for summer days when you don’t want to expose too much skin to the sun. The photos from this post were taken in the beautiful Rosendal, Free State in South Africa.

Do you make ‘work horse’ pieces that are made for their practical purpose rather than beauty?