Laura's Loop: Striped Summer Shirt

There was a great big, old, white clapboard house near where I spent my summers as a kid. The shutters were white. The doors were white. The fence that wrapped around the vast corner lot was even white. And under each and every window was a white flowerbox overflowing with brilliant red geraniums. A house that nearly disappeared during the snowy winters was enlivened every summer by those rows of exuberant red.

While a lot of red is pretty powerful stuff, a well-balanced dash of it adds vibrancy and spice, elegance and timelessness.

To design a shirt evocative of that beautiful home from my memories I turned to Habu Textiles. The white “clapboard” backdrop is a narrow ribbon-like yarn called Silk Gima. The silk stitches create a subtle texture perfect for planting my “flowers”: garter ridges of red and salmon in Habu’s Linen Wrapped Silk. This multi-fibered yarn creates depth within the stripes and a glow, not unlike those sun-lit geraniums, where the colors transition from one to the next.

This Striped Summer Shirt is my flowerboxes. Summer is nearing, and I am ready and raring to sport these charming stripes! –Laura

PS: In a sailor boy mood? Click below to see an alternate blue color palette!