A surprise in the post

I got a lovely, unexpected piece of mail last week. A familiar large white envelope came through the door with the words Ottobre printed along it. I was very excited, thinking it was the autumn/winter women's magazine though it did seem a little early for that. When I opened it, this is what I found.



Ottobre had sent me the Women's Best Tops pattern collection as a thank you gift for recommending their magazine to a friend of mine :) Of course I had to try it out! A short sleeve, U-neck tshirt for me was the result. It's a smidge too small, I made a 42cm with bust gathers from the 44cm, I should really have made the 44cm instead but as I'm slowly losing weight I went for the smaller one instead. Odd how I make things bigger for the kids to grow into and smaller for me to shrink into! The pattern is great, the length was perfect for me and as a basic T it is very quick to sew up. I will be making a lot more, both long and short sleeves.



The fabric is a gorgeously cool, soft bamboo lycra from The Fabric Fairy in a really nice grey lavender shade. I bought four yards of this fabric in various colours and have been stashing it for a while, waiting on a pattern I could use it with. It was great to sew and is just fabulous to wear. Really soft and cool while at the same time warm - makes no sense I know but that's the best way to describe it. I *love* it and I will be buying more yardage to make myself some cooler weather tops.

So, thank you Ottobre! And thank you GB for giving my name to them :)