Not the Cardi...

 So,   I bought some merino wool jersey right at the end of the year, because I wanted to see if the whole 'wool jersey t shirt' thing that I've seen promoted on social media is worth the hype...only I didn't want to spend 90 bucks on a shirt.  A T SHIRT.  

So I got a yard and seven - eigths of some nice merlot jersey from one of my favorite dealers, er, online fabric stores, because I wanted a long sleeved T and knew I'd need at least two body lengths worth of fabric, but it was pricey and I shaved a few pennies off the expense by keeping it under two yards.

Pulled out my Jalie 2566 pattern with the long sleeve I'd cobbled up between the cardigan sleeve and the short t shirt sleeve and laid it out to cut it out today, and, yes, I needed two body lengths (the long sleeve is pretty much the same length as the body pieces).  Just can't get a front, a back and a pair of sleeves out of the width of the fabric.

But I had a whole lotta fabric leftover.  I had, oh, maybe a quarter yard extra in length but with only the sleeves cut out of the second 'body length' there was a BUNCH of fabric there that probably couldn't be used for anything.

Or could it?

I finagled around and discovered that, while I couldn't get a front, back, and two sleeves off of the first body length, I COULD get a front, back and ONE sleeve, by folding in the lengthwise edges each just wide enough to cut a body front on one fold and a body back on the other, with enough single layer in the middle for one sleeve.

So, I did that twice (being careful to flip the sleeve the second time), and I could get both short sleeves and two neckbands off the bit leftover.

And this was all the fabric I had left:

So...getting two t shirts out of my pricey fabric...which was still a little less than one T shirt at retail...makes me very happy.   Having mere scraps leftover makes me exceedingly happy. Planning to sew them tomorrow so I can wear at least one of them during our cold spell next week.

I had hoped that this would work for the SWAP wardrobe but it's got just a little too much brown in it to work with the deep pinky-red in the Hydrangea Scarf.  Rats.  But...it should be quick sewing.

I think I've made up my mind on the cardi pattern.  No buttonholes or facings.... more news on that next week.