Two remnant tops - a Nettie and a vintage raglan

For me, no visit to Potter's Textiles, in North Perth, is complete without a good rummage through the remnant bins and the scrap bags. I especially love the $5 scrap bags, which contain a lucky dip of fabrics, from small rectangles, to pieces big enough to cut one side of a t-shirt from. The array of colours, fabric types and patterns is very inspiring for piecing together and creating a unique look. There are some lovely knits in the bags and sometimes even a lucky piece of silk. You might remember the blouse I made with cotton scraps, mostly from Potter's, a while back.

My scrappy blouse (She has a Mannish Style)

Anyway, I had some fabric that needed using so I got cracking and made some winter tops. Side note: I was watching 'The Bletchley Circle' drama recently and they said "Let's get cracking". It made me wonder if that phrase originated with the codebreakers. I must look that up sometime.

The first item is not exactly a top, but a bodysuit. A Nettie bodysuit. I wasn't sure if this would be a useful item, but it turns out that it is. I like to wear it under winter dresses to keep extra cosy. This is made from a Potter's remnant, a very stretchy and slightly transparent wool blend. I went up a size after reading several reviews and made a size 12. I think this would have been wise with a less stretchy fabric, but unnecessary in this case. The crotch is a bit loose. Not my crotch, Nettie's crotch. No, I'm not going to show you. 

I had almost, but not quite, enough fabric for the Nettie. Undeterred, I rummaged in my Potter's scrap shoeboxes (perfectly sorted by fabric type, of course) and emerged with this small, striped bit of knit. I cut the lower ends of the sleeves from the striped piece and sewed them to the main sleeves before constructing them.

I quite like the stripy effect. It goes well with my Vogue 1313 dress. I have tried this Nettie with pants and my close-fitting Jade skirt, but the panty line shows, so I'm keeping it for wearing under dresses.

My second remnant top is this one, a raglan sleeved jumper from a vintage pattern. I was all ready to leap on to the Linden bandwagon when I decided to have a quick look in my pattern drawer. I found Style 3253 that I had bought in an op shop and forgotten about. Perfect!

The sleeves were a bit billowy so I just trimmed them down.

This was super easy to make. I used two matching pieces of stretch velvet from two different scrap bags for the front and back and cut the rest from some black ponte from the stash.

This has been such a useful top since I made it. It's not too heavy, so is comfortable under a jacket, or great on its own on warmer winter days.

I love those $5 scrap bags!