Easy Breezy

As I said in an earlier post, my nearly self-drafted woven tee pattern has been a wardrobe staple this summer.  Made up in linen, it is cool and comfortable, and I can sweat through it and it will dry quickly.  I drafted it to wear untucked, which gives maximum air movement through the garment and am very happy with it.

I ordered two half meters of linen from Blackbird Fabrics in late June to make these shirts.  One was the everyday linen, and the other a custom pattern exclusive to Blackbird.  Blackbird has nice linen but it is considerably more pricey than my usual, and I knew I could get a top out of a half meter if I skipped the self-bias binding.  (As an aside, I notice a lot of sewists I follow on Instagram make fabric-hungry patterns from their linens and other fabrics, and I wonder how anyone can afford it?!?  The two half meters cost as much as a dress length of decent fabric from my usual places).

While I was waiting for the fabric to arrive, I got an e-mail from Blackbird to say that one of the colorways was having trouble with dye-fastness and included hand-washing instructions.  They offered apologies, but no refund or discount on a future purchase for my trouble.  To say I was not thrilled would be an understatement.  

Nevertheless, when the fabric arrived, I prewashed the green and cream one by hand and the purple one in the washer and dried both in the dryer. That seemed fine, so I made up both shirts in an afternoon. The green and cream one has seen heavy wear, and I dutifully washed it by hand several times, rinsing it immediately. Each time the fabric came out the same as it went in.

 

I should say, in case anyone is interested, the purple one is similar in weight to the IL019 at fabrics-store.com, and the green one is like IL020. It has a really nice hand.

One day in mid-July, however, I was doing five things at once and left it in the little tub I use for hand-washing for about half an hour instead of rinsing immediately.  

Well. The dye ran badly and was mottled on the ivory. It wasn't terrible, but it wasn't great either. I wore it a few times like that, and then just ran it through the washer like my other linen tops, which evened out the color, although the ivory is more seafoamy now.

Not a terrible thing since my wardrobe palette is heavy in that color.  All's well that ends well, I guess, but I'll think twice before ordering from the exclusive Blackbird line again.  The top has gotten a lot of wear this past month, though:

I do like the everyday linen a lot--it is very smooth without the slubs I've gotten accustomed to from fabrics-store.com.  I'd be interested to see how the washed linen compares.  

To be clear, I understand that the lower price point at fabrics-store.com means short-staple linen instead of long staple, hence the slubs, but it doesn't bother me.  It also seems like the dye-fastness on the everyday linen is a bit better than my usual linen too, so here's hoping the purple one will continue to look good!