This weekend I was lucky enough to be at Glastonbury and it was brilliant.

As ever, the ginormous site was a buzzing wonderland of art and performance with music of every flavour. I was particularly aware this year of how many fantastic female musicians there were, rocking their stuff, which was awesome.

     

     

Wonderwomen- St Vincent, (Rodrigo &) Gabriela, Haim, Dolly Parton (photos – BBC)

The incredible thought, effort and creativity that goes in to transforming every inch of the farm is breathtaking. It is this beautiful, magical land that appears once a year for no time at all and then disappears, leaving just the happy memories behind.

 

Now, dressing for a music festival in the UK is tricky stuff, due to the highly unpredictable weather. It can be baking hot, freezing cold, soaking wet, and is usually a mixture of all three. Festivals also bring out the sartorially creative/crazy spark in everyone. Fancy dress, customised clothing, ballgowns, bikinis, it’s all there and I love it.

This year I decided to sew up a new t-shirt to add to my festival wardrobe. I used a cheery rose-print cotton from my stash and the Scout Tee pattern from Grainline studios. It’s a simple pattern – front, back, 2 sleeves and a neck binding – but I took my time to make it as perfect as possible. I finished all the seams with French seams (yup even the sleeves, see this awesome tutorial) so the inside is as pretty as the outside. I also adjusted the hem slightly to exaggerate the high-low effect (just by eyeballing/pinning it when it was on).

Sadly I only managed to get a couple of selfies of my Scout in action:

So once I got back I took a couple more of the same outfit (well-washed and without wellies) on our tiny balcony:

Am I happy with it? Yes… ish. The shoulders need raising about 1-2cm, but this comes as no surprise really as it’s an adjustment my Granny has been doing on me for years, I should have factored it in.

I have a bigger issue however, which is the baggy factor, and that’s not just about this particular tee. Slouchy, breezy, easy-fitting – call it what you will, there’s a lot of it around, both on the highstreet and in sewingpatternland. I’m trying hard to be open-minded and embrace these less fitted styles but I’m yet to be won over. There’s no denying the comfy factor, but my issue is this: whilst on my athletic-figured sewist sisters a Scout-type make looks effortlessly stylish, the perfect day-to-night staple, on me I feel it hangs in a slightly unflattering tent-like manner and adds volume where it’s not wanted. Does anyone else feel that way? Or do I just need to get used to how these shapes look on my, er, shape?

     It did occur to me (after considerable time spent stalking other Scouts on other blogs) that perhaps the solution is to pair this type of baggy tophalf with a less-baggy bottom – skinny jeans or the like. But then I’ve never been thoroughly sold on those either. Hrmph. Perhaps comfy-fit and I just need some apart time. For my next make I’ll pick something with princess seams/multiple darts, so we can each have a think about our future together.

A last word on Glastonbury (to end on a cheerful note) – I spent a very happy rainy morning learning how to needlefelt in the craft field and this is what I made:

I’m not entirely sure what it is. It was supposed to be a brooch but is far too big so I might just find a frame for it and stick it on the wall.

Siobhan xx