Daytripper(ing) at the Gates of Hell

This pattern seriously took over my life for about two weeks. All I could think about was making Daytrippers to wear all the time. I wear jeans all the time, which was why the Just Add Jeans collection really drew me in. I searched for a solid week to no avail to find a tribal-ish aztec-ish print like the pattern model is wearing. I gave in ordered this print from Girl Charlee, only to forget that I was also pre-ordering the triangle arrows fabric and would have to wait OMG TWO WEEKS?!

So I did what I always do and immediately drove to Joann and was underwhelmed by their knit selection. I mean, unless you want their insanely expensive Southwestern collection, you're basically stuck with insanely expensive "designer" knits geared towards preteens or solids.

Ok, I could deal with solids. I need more basic tops to wear to work, and I can't wear obnoxious prints every day. I guess. This is how I rationalize everything.When I see an obnoxious busy print I think "I can wear obnoxious prints to work every day!" and then immediately buy at least 3 yards.

Anyways, I made the first Daytripper out of solid purple cotton knit and white cotton ribbing.

My parents' dog Chevy wanted to be in all the pictures.

That hair!

 I finished this on a Friday and lived in it until Monday. It's like a sweatshirt, but I can totally wear it to work without people thinking I'm wearing a sweatshirt to work. I'm really happy with the length on this one. A lot of hi-lo hems hit me in a really unflattering place in the front aka FUPA, so I prefer my hi-los to be a little bit more lo-lowers. Plus, I need some extra fabric in the back to cover all that junk.

But then the unthinkable happened:

My idiot dog jumped on me and ripped a hole right in my favorite shirt. OH NO BETTER MAKE 5 MORE. You know, to replace that one with the hole in it that I still totally wear all the time, like even as I sit here writing about how it's ruined?

I ended up getting a gift card to Girl Charlee for my birthday, and the fabric I ordered got here before my first order, so I wound up getting to make a tribal-y shirt in a spring-appropriate color. And instead of cotton ribbing I used this delicious rayon/spandex ribbing. It's so soft and wonderful, I bought so much of it! But it's also a lot more drapey than I thought it would be (no shit, Sherlock, it's rayon). It works really well for the coral fabric (I think it's sold out), but I think a plain cotton ribbing would have worked better for the more stable red cotton knit.

These tops are perfect for cardio activities like chasing chickens/ducks out of your photos.

I lengthened the hem on this one by about two inches, but kind of regretted it. This fabric is realllly stretchy so the shirt kind of grows throughout the day. I also was in too much of a hurry to even think of pattern matching which is kind of embarrassing. I needed shirts, dang it!!

I attempted to make 3/4 length sleeves but, being me, just kind of eyeballed it and hacked off a couple inches of the sleeves. It would have worked if the shirt didn't have the kimono style sleeve caps, because the sleeves ended up hitting an inch above my wrists. So it fit like a RTW long-sleeved shirt! Ugh. These sleeves will always be pushed up to my elbows.

 The neckline on this one gapes just slightly, which is just madness since this was number four and none of the others had that issue. I maybe was worried about stretching the ribbing too much and then having unsightly waviness even though I know it would press out? Maybe it's the rayon ribbing fighting with the stable cotton body? I have no idea.

This one (also no pattern matching!) actually ended up staying at my mom's house because she loved it so much. I made her a leopard print one so she can be a cougar, but I never got a good picture of it. This one was the perfect length for her to wear with leggings and the sleeves were long enough to cover any bingo-wing action that may or may not be going on as she ages. Sorry Mom :)

That was a lot of pictures! I hope you all appreciated the scenic background. I went out to my mom's farm so I could use her DSLR, but the battery was dead and we only had about an hour before sunset. Luckily I had brought my point and shoot as a backup, but after only two pictures it died too! Cripes. My mom's iPhone had like 2% battery, so we ended up having to use my cell phone for all these. Hopefully my next pictures are better, but I don't think these are bad at all for my Galaxy S3.

I'm working on a couple more shirts for MMMay, which is coming up fast. Good thing I don't have to work this weekend. Anyone else feeling like it's crunch time?