So I’ve been sitting on this pattern for a couple of months now – Katie sent these to me as a surprise spring gift. An awesome surprise, I might add. Who doesn’t love getting surprise patterns in the mail, amirite!

Anyway, my immediate first thought was to make these up in a light polka dotted denim. Doesn’t that sound like it would be amazingly cute?! Unfortunately, I couldn’t source the right fabric – this pattern calls for fabric with a little bit of stretch, and I couldn’t find any sort of stretch bottomweight that also included polka dots (I know there are lighter-weight fabrics out there, but in my experience, their thinness requires either 1. Commando or 2. Thongs, neither of which I’m comfortable with rocking. TMI? Whatever.). I remembered this polka dot DIY post from Portia and I figured, hey, I’ll just get light denim and make my own polka dots, yeah?

But, you know, I was seduced by all the pretty dark denim at Mood Fabrics. OH WELL. This stuff is from Theory and it is amazeballs. Nice and dark, robust without being super heavy, and just the right amount of stretch.

Btw, you’ve probably figured out that I did eventually end up with polka dot bottoms – in the form of shorts. Hey, it works!

Anyway, let’s talk about these pants!

This is the Peter & the Wolf pants from Papercut Patterns. The way these pants are cut is really unique – in addition to side and inseams, there are seams straight down the middle of the front and back legs, as well as some interesting pocket/yoke action and the cutest little scalloped hems. As you can see here, they definitely do emphasize the hips, but that’s what I like about them!

I cut a size XS, although in retrospect, I really should have gone down another size to the XXS. I had to do a LOT of alterations to get these to fit the way I like, and I made some easily-avoidable mistakes along the way. Pretty much EVERY SINGLE PROBLEM could have been eliminated if I had made a muslin first. Why didn’t I make a muslin first? I dunno, I guess I was feeling ~cocky with how good those Rite of Spring shorts fit me straight out of the package.

So, LESSON 1: Make a muslin. ALWAYS MAKE A MUSLIN.

Here is why this is so important, why I keep knocking this into your heads and why I should listen to my own damn advice:
– I tried these on right before I put in the zipper, and the sizing was MUCH too big through the waist and the legs. Normally, that’s not toooo bad of an issue because one can just take in the side seams (I do this all the time, u guise), but the way the pockets are placed means there isn’t a lot of side seam to take in before you start cutting into pocket territory. I couldn’t pull from the center seams because I’d already done all that topstitching and I’m ssssooooo laaaazzzzyyyy. I sat and thought about it for an evening, and ultimately decided to remove the majority of the excess from the BACK of the pants, rather than equally distributed between the front and the back. It worked, and my pockets are still there – yay! – and you can’t tell too much that the front is bigger than the back (unless you’re really studying where that side seam hits), except one glaring error…
– The front scallops now ride toward the inside of my ankles, instead of being centered in the middle of my leg :( Believe me, I tried really hard to fix this, but ultimately it’s just a matter of physics… the front is twisting, since it’s wider than the back. It’s not too terrible since they both pull about the same amount, so it looks intentional. But you and I, we know the real truth.
– The crotch curve was wrong for my shape and it looked like I was hiding packets of ketchup down the front of my pants at the crotch. WOOF. Please don’t take this to mean the crotch curve was bad across the board – I just mean it didn’t work for my specific shape (obviously it’s good for some people – look at the model on the envelope!). We all have different crotch curve shapes (how many more times can I say the word “crotch” here?) and mine is apparently a pretty pronounced J – something I learned when I was sewing the Colette Clovers. Fortunately, redrawing a curve is super easy – even on mostly-assembled pants, I mean, you’re basically just creating a new seamline – and that eliminated most of my issues in that one area. If this sounds confusing and slightly terrifying, it’s not! There is TONS of information on Google, as well as in various pants-fitting books.
– I also should have slightly shortened the crotch depth. Not even by much – just a little pinch of fabric (you can see where it’s puffing out a little. STOP STARING.). Unfortunately, I can’t fix this now as it’s something that needs to be adjusted to the flat pattern before cutting. #1 reason why you should make a muslin first. Womp womp.

I know this sounds like a lot of issues, but I just want to stress that all of them could have been EASILY solved if I’d just made a damn muslin first! ARGHGHHGHGH.

Well, at least I remembered to shorten the inseam before cutting my fabric; the original inseam is over 29″ and I needed something much shorter, plus I wanted them to be cropped. I love the length!

My yoke seams don’t perfectly match up due to all the side seam that I had to cut off, but at least I preserved the pockets!

I subbed out the invisible zipper for a lapped zipper. I really think an invisible zipper would look best, but I was concerned that I would have trouble with the bulk of the denim+invisible zipper. A lapped zipper doesn’t look terrible, although I wouldn’t necessarily say it looks great, either.

Look how good the butt fits, though! I should also point out here that I widened the waistband so it would cover my navel – this was easy, instead of cutting 1 waistband and folding it in half, I cut two and sewed them together at the top. Next time, I will opt for a curved waistband instead (this one is straight), as I find the straight doesn’t hug my curves as well. Just a personal preference!

Personal fitting woes aside, these are REALLY cute. I love all the topstitching, it really highlights the cool yoke and pocket detailing.

For sitting through this giant long post, here are some pictures of me swatting away the skeeters.

HAHAHAHAHA

In all seriousness, though! I know this post sounded like a big Debbie Downer review, but I do really love these pants! Slim-fit, stretch pants like these can require a bit of tweaking to get the fit right (remember the everyone’s personal saga with the Colette Clovers?), but it’s worth it in the end, as you can crank these out over and over once the fitting adjustments are done. Which is what I plan on doing – wool cigarette pants for winter, please! Hey, maybe I’ll even find some dotty fabric ;)

PS – My top is McCall’s 4488, an old make from last year.

Remember when I was trying to hunt down the perfect polka dot fabric for these Peter & The Wolf pants? And then I couldn’t find it and I was sad but I made them anyway? Well! Look what I found!

My dream stretch polka dots pants fabric – a polyester wool suiting with flocked polka dots (right?! right?!)!

I got a fistful of swatches from Mood about a month ago, this swatch being one of them. I immediately zeroed in on those flocked polka dots and called the store to get a couple yards sent to me. I should also mention this was like day #2 post-surgery, and I was laying on the couch totally hopped up on painkillers and I’m fairly certain that the dude on the other end of the line thought I was a crazypants. Whatever! Joke’s on him, now I HAVE the crazypants!

Then I got my fabric and I rolled around in it for a couple of weeks because that is what you do when you are in love.

Again, I used the Peter & The Wolf pants from Papercut Patterns, with just a couple modifications from the last time I made them. I already had the pattern pieces modified to reflect the changes I made – sizing, crotch length, crotch curve, all that good stuff – but I went ahead and made a quickie muslin just to be SURE before cutting into this precious stuff. I added another 1/2″ of length to the legs and swapped out the waistband for a curved waistband – specifically, I used the waistband from my Clovers. I definitely prefer the way this fits over the straight band – and it’s a good height, too. It just barely covers my bellybutton, which I like.

I lined my pockets with a little scrap of Bemberg rayon lining and it’s kind of amazing. I feel so posh whenever I stick my hands in my pockets now, ha!

Also, I’m very happy to report that the grainlines are totally straight on these pants (since I didn’t have to do emergency pants-weightloss surgery while sewing them), and as a result the hem scallops are straight as well. Yay!

The only part about all this that I was NOT digging was when it came time to actually press my seams. Lord, that polyester refused to do anything that involved heat. I solved most of the issue by doing a lot of top stitching – front and back leg center seams, the yokes, the pockets, the waistband. Basically everything I could get my needle into.

I think it worked out quite well in the end, though! And yay, all my seams match up!

Next time I make these, I will stabilize the zipper opening. It’s just a little too wavy – which, I mean, I could fix, but I also got those seams matched up fucking PERFECT and I’ll be dammed if I’m ripping that shit out again. Nope.

To get the bottom scallops to have a nice sharp edge (remember, the polyester wanted nothing to do with that iron), I had to improvise and figure things out as I went along. I did include the facing, which I under stitched and then top stitched (I find under stitching is VERY helpful when you are sewing something that is difficult to press, as it forces facings to roll to the inside). To press the edges, I used my sleeve board and a silk organza press cloth and steamed the shit out of each section. After it got nice and hot, I used my clapper to hold down the fabric until it was completely cool. This is probably the closest I’ll get to a good press on this fabric, and hey – no shine! Woohoo!

God, I love these pants.

I also really love these labels. They speak the truth, at least as far as these pants are concerned.

Sorry ’bout the creeper hand.

I added arrowhead tacks to the bottom pocket opening, because why not? I used embroidery floss and followed this tutorial on the Coletterie (I also see that I commented about a western shirt I was going to make. Obviously that never happened, but it SHOULD. Ooh!)

Really thinking about making a wool version for the cold weather – maybe lengthen the legs to full-length, omit the pocket detailing and scallops? What do you think?

(psst! If you were wondering – my wrap top is handmade, and my shoes are from Clark’s ;))

I never thought I would actually be saying this – but I made myself a pair of leopard skinnies. Wheee!

Grey leopard is a neutral… right?!

I’m trying to get more into wearing pants that aren’t, well, denim. As much as I love my I+W jeans (so much, in fact, that I went out and bought myself a second pair a couple of weeks ago. I’m bordering on “collector” at this point, eep), sometimes I find myself gazing jealously at the girls in their wacky print leggings and purple skinny jeans. NO FAIR, I WANT TO JOIN THAT PARTY. So when I saw this leopard print stretch twill at the Mood Fabrics site, I knew I’d found the perfect piece for a lil’ toe-dipping.

This twill is pretty awesome, honestly. It’s got a nice stretch, but it’s hefty enough so you don’t see panty lines (a must with pants this tight… and I don’t wear thongs. TMI? Oh well. Maybe you need magical undie-covering fabric too!). The lycra content keeps the seam allowances from shedding too much – which is good, cos this pattern had me going crazy over the fitting, 1″ seam allowances and everything. Not a good time to start unraveling!

Since the twill is a brushed cotton, it’s even a little bit fuzzy. Love it!

For my pattern, I used McCall 6440. This pattern is… ok. The fitting was a pain in the ASS, pardon the pun, mostly because the pattern has way too much ease. I’ve actually made these up one time before (but it’s ~top secret~ so you can’t see those quite yet… oops I’ve said too much already ;)), so I knew kinda sorta what I was getting into. The main issue with sewing something out of stretch fabric is that every fabric has a different stretch factor (well, maybe not *every* fabric, but there are certainly enough differences to keep one guessing!), so you generally end up doing some tweaking to get the pieces to look right, in addition to going down a size or two to make up for the negative ease.

These are a size 6, with some additional tapering taken out at the legs and the waistband. FWIW, the body size for a 6 is supposed to have a 23″ waist. While I can assure you that I do not have a waist that small, I did have to take an extra inch out of the waistband to get it to fit. See what I mean about excessive ease? Measure those pattern pieces, folks! Don’t trust the lies of McCall.

I know, this pattern is super duper similar to the Clover pants from Colette, which is another pattern I have. I ended up with this one because I’ve never really gotten those Clovers to fit right, despite all my tweaking a couple of years ago. I wanted to try a new pattern, and I liked that this is a Palmer/Pletsch – I love their fitting books Fit for Real People and Pants for Real People, so I was banking that I’d love the pattern, too! And I guess I kind of did, minus that ease thing. For one, the crotch curve is pretty much perfect for me – something of a Holy Grail among pants sewists. That Clover pattern, not so much :) (but maybe it’ll be perfect for you!). I also liked how high the waist is, the seam down the back of the legs (that you can’t see because it’s ~camouflaged~ by the leopard, ooh, see what I did there?), and the leg options included with the pattern. Spoiler alert – I went for the straight leg, but maybe I’ll experiment more in the future! Baby steps for now, starting with this outta control print. Oh yeah, and just an advance warning – these were exactly the right length for me, and I’m 5’2″! Tall ladies, beware!

Speaking of how high the waist is – see what I mean!? I don’t think this is supposed to reach *quite* as high as it does on my petite frame, but the waistband just covers my belly button. Which means, obviously, I’m gonna be Bettie Pagin’ the shit out of these with heels and a crop top come spring, yaaay!

Whenever I post a photo of myself wearing something with a ridiculously high waist, someone always inevitably comes out of the woodwork to tell me that my outfit isn’t flattering. So, here I am, brushing the dirt off my shoulder in advance because la la la I don’t care!

Like I said, I had to adjust the leg seams to get everything as fitted as it is. Not to say the leg width of this pattern is bad – it’s just more straight than what I wanted for these pants. I wanted to be able to tuck them into boots! Since the pattern is drafted with 1″ seam allowances on all side/leg seams, this made things a tiny bit difficult once it came time to start poking myself with pins – those seam allowances get bulky when you’re sewing something like twill!

What I ended up doing was just focusing on one leg – pinning, basting, fitting, and then stitching the final line once I got to the desired tightness. To mirror the second leg, rather than taking measurements or repinning, this is what I did- I learned this trick at my stint with Muna!:

First, I stacked my legs on top of one another and pinned along the seam lines, making sure they matched on the opposite side.

Then, with the adjusted leg on top, I pinned along the new stitching line I had created.

When you flip the fabric over, you can see the pinned original seam line and the new seam line marked by a second row of pins. Make sense?

From there, I just connected the pin lines with a my handy marking tool, which gave me a new stitching line. Super easy, and now both legs exactly mirror each other!

These pants are finished with serged seam allowances and an invisible zipper. Speaking of which – I learned a slightly different way to insert an invisible zip, also courtesy of Muna. Anyone interested in a tutorial? It’s not OMGSODIFFERENT, but there are a couple of tweaks that make insertion practically flawless.

One thing that made me irrationally happy was that the fabric is lightweight enough so I could face my waistband with self-fabric, instead of trying to find a matching cotton. As much as I like contrasty facings, I also like matchy-matchy!

Not sure what I was thinking when this photo snapped, but it looks like a roar so we’ll leave it at that.

Finally, we have a winner Andi Satterlund knitting patterns giveaway! Before I drop that bomb, I just gotta say… that was by far the biggest response I’ve ever had to a giveaway. Who woulda thunk I’d have so many knitters who follow this blog and love Andi as much as I do? :) Thanks y’all – I appreciate every single one of you! Wish I could give you all patterns, too, but unfortunately I’m not that rich… yet :)

Anyway, without further ado – who’s the lucky number today?

Yay, congratulations, Alexandra! Expect an email from me with how to collect your prize – I can’t wait to see how your sweaters turn out :)

Thanks to everyone who participated, and big huge thanks to Andi for providing the big prize :) For everyone who didn’t win – Perhaps I can entice you with one of Andi’s many freebies?

All right, dudes and dudettes – Project Sewn is up and running! This first week, the theme is Style Icon.

I’m just gonna be real with y’all – as soon as I saw that challenge, my personal motto started rolling through my head. The thing is – I don’t have a style icon. I honestly don’t have a person (or designer, or whatever) who I use as inspiration for my outfits. I mean, I like the way lots of celebrities dress and I’m no stranger to the siren song of a good Joan Holloway outfit, but as far as picking a particular person… naw. I don’t even know, y’all. In the end, I decided to go with someone who I admire as a person who just happens to have amazing style….

Dolly Parton!

I mean, who doesn’t love Dolly, amirite? She’s such an incredibly smart, funny, generous – and not to mention talented as HELL – woman… a true icon in my book. Speaking of books, have you ever read her memoir, My Life and Other Unfinished Business? Or heard about her program Imagination Library, which sends free books to kids to get them excited about reading? Or, hell, have you been to Dollywood?? This woman, she is amazing. She’s not just a style icon for me – she’s a real life icon, the kind of person I want to emulate.

Plus, Dolly (specifically circa 60s-70s) was no stranger to an overly decorated/borderline tacky western shirt. And, dammit, I wanted a western shirt! I’ve actually been looking for an excuse to sew one for years.

I made my entire outfit, obviously, but let’s talk about the shirt first. My fabric is a tiny check gingham seersucker from Mood. I used the Archer as my base pattern (lol, poor Jen, probably never thought her pattern would get used to make this sort of monstrosity SORRY JEN I LOVE YOUR PATTERN THO), and made a few modifications, beyond my normal ones of changing the sleeve placket, narrowing the side seams, and a different method for attaching the collar and collar stand. There’s quite a bit of piping, since we all know it’s not a real western shirt without gratuitous amounts of piping.

Adding the piping was really fun, and definitely adds some pizazz to an otherwise plain shirt. The piping at the back yoke and top of the sleeve cuffs was easy – I just sewed it along the seam allowance before attaching the other pieces. For the front yoke, I had to do a little bit of drafting and figuring out – I ended up tracing the front piece and cutting off where I wanted the yoke to hit (right above the pockets) and then drew my scallops with a french curve. To attach the piping, I first sewed it to the bottom of the yoke, clipped and trimmed and pressed and it toward the wrong side, and then laid the yokes on top of the front piece and topstitched along the piping. The raw edges of the piping are enclosed inside the yoke, so the inside of the front of the shirt is perfectly clean except for a line of topstitching. I think it worked out pretty well, if I do say so myself!

Once I had the shirt entirely assembled, less the pearl snaps and hem, I hung it on a hanger and stared at it for over a month. What to do next? I liked the way the effect was going, but it clearly needed some embroidery at the yokes to give it that western flair. I realized at the point that the tiny gingham check was working against me – any embroidery was going to get lost in all that action.

I had my epiphany right before I fell asleep one night – APPLIQUE! That would show up against the check, and it would still allow me to involve some of the embroidery I so desperately wanted. I knew I still had a piece of vintage barkcloth in my stash that would be perfect (I used the majority of it for my birthday dress a few years back, and have been hoarding the remaining yardage ever since!). I painstakingly cut around each rose and leaf, arranging the pieces so they would be mostly mirrored at the front, and attached them with fusible web to the yokes. Then I hand-embroidered around every piece – partially to keep them attached to the start, but mostly because I just loove the texture of hand embroidery!

I am pretty freaking THRILLED with how it turned out, what do you think??

The last thing my shirt needed was a little bit of pearl snap action! I got mine from Cowgirl Snaps on Etsy, and I couldn’t be more pleased with the overall experience. I actually bought both red and black pearl snaps, but once I got the shirt finished, black was the clear winner. Also, I just really love hammering shit in my sewing room, ok.

Ok, now let’s talk about the pants! I used a Theory stretch denim from Mood and my pattern is McCall’s 6440. This is my first version of this pattern (you’ve already seen my leopard pair, ooh la la), and I went through a BIG fitting curve with these. I initially cut the size 8, based on the finished measurements – and they were huuuuge! Pretty much every thing about them sucked except the crotch curve, basically. I spent an entire evening trying on, pinning, basting, trying on, repinning, basting, trying on… ad nauseam. I’m happy that they worked out in the end – they are SO fun to wear, and look super pin-up, yay! – but getting there was a process, plus the insides are full of thread tails from all that basting. Oh well!

Some gratuitous butt shots for ya. You’re welcome.

Oh, yeah, and in case you were wondering – I can also wear this shirt untied with the sleeves rolled down, like a proper Archer, which makes it much more wearable in day-to-day life :)

Now at this point, I’m sure you’re thinking, “Ok, fine, but where the hell are you going to wear that thing, anyway??” Guys. Guys. I live in Nashville. I’m not so stuck up my own butt that I’m not above rolling down to the tourist district and getting my Honky Tonk on. Let’s be real – Honky Tonkin’ is the best part about living in Nashville, as far as I’m concerned. OF COURSE you can go dancin’ in normal people clothes, but why the hell not throw on your best western digs and cowboy boots and dress the part? This being made of seersucker is even better – it’ll be much more comfortable come summer, compared to my RTW black cotton western shirt, especially with the looser style.

I’m also going to wear it just for the heck of it because, well, it’s awesome ;)

Also, in case you were wondering – I DO have cowboy boots! I just thought this outfit needed a little tone down from the ~country~, hence the Keds :)

Ok, hope you’re ready for some detail shots… I took a million :\….

The waistband of the pants is faced with more gingham seersucker. I love when my pants match my top, even if it’s only on the inside!

Don’t look too closely, but the embroidery on the front yokes is actually not a perfect mirror. Since the flowers weren’t printed to mirror, I had to get super creative with my cutting and appliqueing on one side, but I think it worked out quite nicely!

Sleeve placket + pearl snaps + piping = ♥

Yokes

Embroidery – the flowers are outlined in a 4 thread split stitch, and the leaves are outlined in a 2 thread chainstitch. I love the effect and textures with the applique and embroidery – it’s just a little bit Alabama Chanin.

Snaps to anyone who sat through this entire post! I have one gift for you, which I found while I was trolling the nets for Dolly inspiration (click for source):

NOW do you see why I chose her as my inspiration? God, I love that woman.

Now head on over to Project Sewn and see what everyone else has been up to! Don’t forget to vote for your favorite!

Ok, I can’t keep this news a secret any longer- I’m coming to NYC in August!

BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE-

I’m actually going to be teaching a class at Workroom Social while I’m there! Yay!! This is something Jennifer and I have been in cahoots about since I visited in March, and we finally settled on a good date and I bought my plane ticket! To say I’m excited is an understatement (although I reckon my overuse of exclamation points probably hinted at something, haha) – I love NYC, I love sewing, I love teaching, and I love helping people get all excited about sewing! So! Let’s sew together, yeah?

I guess I should give you some class details! I’m running Jennifer’s Weekend Pants-Making Intensive on August 16-17 (Saturday and Sunday). Yep, we are gonna make PANTS (or shorts… you know, whatever floats yer boat) – and they are gonna be awesome! Y’all know how much I love a good trouser pattern, and how geekily excited I get about pants-fitting and pants-making-techniques, so I’m REALLY excited to have an excuse to share this loveee in Brooklyn!

If you haven’t taken a class at Workroom Social, you are in for a treat. All of Jennifer’s sewing intensives are stocked with pre-made muslins in all the pattern’s sizes. You start by trying on a sample to determine sizing and adjustments needed, then we go into full-on pants-making-mode over the 2 day class. The class includes the pattern (a classic trouser pattern with a front fly), use of the equipment and tools, ME, and plenty of food. Seriously. Coffee in the morning, catered lunch, snacks and oh, did I mention there’s a cocktail hour at the end of both nights? Yeah. There’s a cocktail hour at the end of both nights (just in case you didn’t hear me the first time!). So basically, we are gonna get our sew on, get to hang out, and then you go home with the knowledge and skills to make all the pants and shorts that your heart desires (and probably end up with a completed pair by the end of class!). Arghhh so awesome!

If you are interested in taking the class (which you SHOULD be, because I am so so excited to teach it!!), you can read more about it and sign up here. I think this is a pretty cool opportunity for both locals and out-of-towners, since it’s two days over the weekend. Jennifer has lots of resources if you need help finding a place to stay (assuming you’re coming from out of town), so feel free to holler at her if you have questions! Also, I just booked my plane ticket and it was under $250 round-trip for those dates, so… yeah. Class spots are super limited, so sign up early!

I will actually be in NYC from 8/14-8/18, so if anyone wants to get and/or get our shop on while I’m on town, holler! I’ll mention it again when we get closer to the date :)

Ok, done selling y’all (for now, ha!). Let’s dive into this week’s Me Made May round-up:

5/17, Saturday
Top: Banana Republic
Pants: McCall’s 6440
Brooch: Nashville Flea Market
Shoes: Mix No.6

Another dumb cold day, another excuse to bust out these sweet pants. Ha! I love these so much, but I have a hard time finding a top that I like with them (especially color-wise). This particular top is nothing special – it’s originally from Banana Republic; I thrifted it a couple of years ago with the intention of using it as a pattern (it’s actually very similar to the Moneta sweater hack), because I hated the fabric but loved the shape. Obviously that never happened, but it’s got me inspired!

5/18, Sunday
Top: Megan Nielsen Briar
Skirt: Self-drafted circle skirt
Cardigan: Peacock Eyes
Belt: Thrifted
Necklace: Gift
Shoes: Franco Sarto

As I’ve said a few times, I’m kind of over circle skirts these days. I tried to pull this one out and make it work – I think it turned out pretty cute, but I do wish there was less skirt involved! Ha! I also tried to mix up how I wear this skirt – I usually just pair it with a mint top (the Pavlova I made to go with it is currently residing in the big scrapbag in the sky… bad fabric choice on my part :( ), but I wanted to try a little print-mixing. I do like how the floral looks with stripes, however, I think this Briar may be heading to the same big scrapbag in the sky. You can’t tell in this photo because of my cardigan, but it’s just tooo big all over. Lots of weird wrinkles at the armpit, ugh.

I do love that cardigan, though. So so much ♥

5/19, Monday
Dress: Colette Hawthorn
Belt: Thrifted
Shoes: Fergalicious

It was about this point that I realized I wasn’t even wearing my favorite handmades this month! I’ve been “saving” them for… well, I don’t know what, but it’s dumb and I should wear my favorite clothes! That’s why I made them! So, cherry Hawthorn (I love this pattern, and I have plans for more that should be put into action asap) + favorite Ferg shoes = awesome outfit.

5/20, Tuesday
Dress: Vintage Vogue 1610
Shoes: Jessica Simpson

See what I mean?? How have I not busted out the silk jersey until just now??? Ok, well, I fixed it :P

5/21, Wednesday
Dress: Handmade (will blog soon :))
Shoes: Nine West

And here’s me, on my birthday, in my birthday dress! :D This is a new me-made (I finished it with a couple of days to spare!) and I have no post about it… yet. Soon! What I will tell you is that the bodice pattern is Vogue 8664, and the fabric is stretch cotton sateen. Other than that, you’ll have to wait for the post :)

Also, thanks to everyone who sent me birthday wishes! I was basically bombarded all day with love (including a birthday tweet from Vogue patterns, hah!! YES!!) and it was pretty awesome :) I had a great birthday, too – ate a bunch of amazing food (including a fried green tomato BLT because YES I DID), hung out with my BFF, and oh, wore a pretty awesome dress :) Yay for bithdays!

5/22, Thursday
Shirt: Express
Skirt: Sewaholic Hollyburn
Necklace: Me-Made
Belt: Thrifted
Shoes: Born (yeah, you can’t see them but just so you know… I’m wearing shoes :P)

Finally got to wear this Hollyburn! Yay! I need to make more tops to go with it because it’s kind of difficult to color match (hence why it hasn’t gotten wear yet!), but maybe I can make some of those Moneta tops :) Ha! I wore this all day at work, and then afterwards to celebrate my birthday a second time with Landon (he had to work on my proper birthday, oh well!). And by celebrate I mean we got hot chicken. Yum :)

A few people asked if this was my sewing studio… the answer is I WISH. Haha! It’s definitely not my sewing space (I’m still sewing at home, which I have no intentions of changing anytime soon!); it’s Elizabeth’s sewing studio. It’s just as lovely as it looks in the photo – if not more. Lots of gorgeous natural light and pretty things to look at. Also, that machine I’m standing by is my main man Turbo and it’s fucking amazing. It backtacks and clips the thread and you do it all from the pedal so it’s totally hands-free. Seriously amazing, like to the point where I’m debating with myself whether an industrial machine is a good thing to buy right now hahaha. Because I want one! BTW, Elizabeth is still looking for part-time seamstresses sooo if you wanna experience the love of all that is Turbo, holler at her!

5/23, Friday (today!)
Dress: By Hand London Flora
Belt: Thrifted
Shoes: Sam Edelman

And here we are today! I’m working from home, so naturally I had to dress up like a princess :) I love the Flora – thinking about channeling my inner Heather Lou and making a skirt with the pattern, because it’s SO much fun to wear. Seriously, every time I look at this dress in my closet I think, “naw, too fancy for today,” but then I actually put it on and it’s like, “idgaf I feel like a pretty pretty princess, whee!” haha. Anyone else feel that way with their me-mades? Man, I should dress up more.

That’s it for this week! FYI, the blog will probably be pretty quiet next week – because we’re going on vacation! Yeah!! Bout to take our annual trip to Santa Rosa Beach, FL, where I plan on spending the entire time laying on a towel, drinking beer and wearing my giant straw hat. I’ll still be updating my Twitter and Instagram for Me Made May, so follow along if you’re so inclined! I have a couple makes I’ve been saving specifically for this trip… including two bathing suits. Ooh la la! ;)

As a side note for those of you who are participating in My & Andi’s OAL, I was recently made aware that the sewing pattern we’ll be using is going to be on sale this weekend at Joanns! Definitely check your sales flyer to be sure (as it may differ for your state), but Simplicity patterns here will be 5 for $5 over Memorial Day weekend :) Woohoo! Great time to stock up if you’ve been on the fence :) And speaking of the OAL… I’m so so excited to kick this off. I bought my yarn last week, and while it was a liiiittle more than I planned on spending, it was totally worth it. It’s neon yellow and it swatched up so beautifully.

Ok, have a great weekend, everyone! :)

Hey look, here I am again – with another pair of polka dotted trousers! Are you surprised? Would you be surprised to know that I have another pair of dotty trousers sitting on my sewing table as we type speak? Do you think I have a problem? I’ve never considered myself a polka dot trouser kind of girl, but these sewing numbers don’t lie!

This polka dot cotton sateen is actually an old spoil from the Mood Fabrics flagship store in NYC, which I bought while I was there in March. I knew I wanted to make pants with it – what pattern specifically, I couldn’t tell you, but pants for sure! I love using cotton sateen for pants as it’s usually a good weight with a nice, heavy stretch, and the colors are always so lovely and saturated. Plus – polka dots! Yesss!!

The pattern I eventually ended up using is the Ultimate Trousers from Sew Over it. I actually tested this pattern ‘way back when earlier this year, to help get it ready for it’s print debut. I was on a pretty tight deadline during testing, which meant that I didn’t end up with a finished garment – just a muslin and a loooot of notes. This is actually pretty typical for me as a tester; I don’t always finish the pattern to the effect that it warrants a blog post! Once I got everything back to Lisa, I put the pattern on the backburner since the summer heat was starting to ramp up and I couldn’t handle the thought of wearing pants in this kind of humidity.

Anyway, we’ve got promises of cooler weather lurking on the horizon, which means it’s PANTSSS TIMEEEEE! Yay!

I did make a few changes to the pattern, both for fitting and general style. Let’s go over the fitting stuff first. Every time I make trousers, I end up doing the same adjustments across the board, especially if the pattern doesn’t include a front zip fly. I realize that trousers are kind of a scary subject for a lot of sewers, so I’m going to show y’all what I do in my fitting and hopefully that’ll shed some light on the whole matter (and even more hopefully – prove that they really aren’t so scary to fit!).

I don’t have muslin photos of this particular pattern, but I do have muslin photos from my archives (super unflattering muslin photos, I might add! Ha!) back when I made the Colette Clovers. Different patterns, but the concept is similar.

See all those horizontal wrinkles allll over my damn crotch? This is an indication that the crotch is way too long for me – so it’s wrinkling. The easiest way to fix this is to pinch out the excess into a long horizontal line, and transfer that to your pattern piece with slashing and taping. I’m petite, and while my torso is a pretty standard length, my crotch length is on the short side. So this is an adjustment that I have to make with *most* trouser/pant patterns. The amount can vary depending on the pattern – obviously the Clovers needed a lot taken out, and the Ultimate Trousers didn’t take much (and I just made a pattern the other day that I had to remove 2″ from!) But it’s a common adjustment for me, and this is what it looks like.

Same muslin, back view – see how tight the ass is? Like, not even flattering tight, just imma-bust-outta-here-like-a-jailbreak tight. This is fixed by adding a wedge to the back crotch depth pattern piece. How much you add will depend on how much room you need (the Ultimate Trousers didn’t need any, but the Clovers clearly needed a lot), but you can easily hack this alteration by just cutting a bigger size right there at the back crotch (this picture from Sunni’s Trouser Sewalong shows where to add length – right in that blue circle).

Here’s a pair of Clovers where I fixed the length issue, but now there’s some weird puffiness around, well, my crotch. Isn’t that flattering! You guys, this particular fit issue took me a LONG time to figure out because it seemed so weird – but it’s really not. Basically, my crotch requires a different shaped crotch curve than what is drafted for most patterns. I’m a J shape, and the majority of patterns I sew are an L shape. This is a stupid easy adjustment – you literally just redraw the curve, and once you’ve done it on one pattern, you can trace that curve to every pattern thereafter. For the first pattern, you’ll have to eyeball it (or find a pair of pants that fits and copy that crotch curve) and adjust until you get it right, which might take a couple tries. Once I figured that out – what it looked like, how to fix it – that really opened the floodgates of trouser making for me. Also, you should read this post on the Fashion Incubator.

Here is my front pattern piece with the adjusted crotch shape – I’ve already redrawn and cut my piece out, but I put it back on the table so you could see the difference in the curves. For whatever reason, I don’t need quite as aggressive a crotch curve when I’m making pants that have a front fly – it’s just trousers with a smooth front (especially if it’s sewn in a stretch woven).

You can also see where I tucked out the length horizontally. I didn’t take a photo of the back piece, but I sliced that length to hinge, and the side front has the same removal of length with it tapering to nothing at the center back/crotch, if that makes sense.

So yep, those are my pants adjustments! I know they might seem confusing, and to be honest – I learned all this when I was going through my Clover saga a few years ago (never got those pants to fit right, but I sure learned a lot in the process!). It was a LOT of trial and error, but hopefully my notes will help a least a few people go through less trial and error :) As you can see, there aren’t a whole lot of adjustments needed to get a good fit on pants – but they all work together, and each one affects the other (and they are all adjustments that need to be made BEFORE cutting your fabric, which is why a muslin is SO essential when making pants!). For more fitting help, I strongly recommend investing in a copy of Pants for Real People, which is basically a pants-fitting Bible. So much good information in there, I use that book often!

Ok, now that THAT’S out of the way – let’s go back to talking about this pattern, and the style adjustments I made!

This pattern is designed to be worn cropped (or as shorts), with a faced waistline. I have learned that I really don’t care for faced waistlines, so I decided to add a waistband to my pants. I didn’t draft a waistband – I just used the facing pieces and flipped them to the top as waistband pieces (and cut two, so I could face the waistband, as you do). I think, for me, these are a little more wearable with a proper waistband. For interfacing, I used tricot fusible, which I looove because it stabilizes the fabric but doesn’t compromise the stretch of the fabric (which is what makes the darn pants so comfy to begin with!).

I also kept the length on the longer side, which means I can wear them full-length in the winter (with cool socks!) or fold them up to make them cropped. This length is straight out of the pattern, by the way – I didn’t shorten anything, and I’m 5’2″. Just fyi!

The one major design change I made to this pattern was to sew it in a stretch woven, as opposed to the firm woven (non-stretch) that the pattern calls for. For one, my muslin was a firm woven and I plain just didn’t like the way they felt! They were too restrictive! I like wearing stretch woven pants, ok. Also, it’s hard to find a good pants-weight print that isn’t a stretch woven, so there’s that. I think these are fine in the stretch fabric, although I should probably go back and size them down a little because I think the legs look kind of loose. I was trying to avoid the stovepipe legs look, just to try something different, but I think these do need a little less ease. These are a size 8, by the way!

So that’s it! Thanks Lisa (and the Sew Over It team!) for letting me test this pattern, and being so patient with me taking months to make a finished wearable garment :) Londoners, if you’re still afraid to tackle the trousers, there is a whole class for making these (with tea and cakes, omg I wish I was in London) if you still wanna try them!

Those of y’all scared to try trousers – what are your thoughts? Do you think the process looks any easier? Are you going to throw caution to the wind and try anyway? Y’all – pants are fun!

* Oh yeah, and I cut my hair! I hope you like it! Well, I guess it doesn’t matter if you don’t like it – it’s not like I can stick it back on my head lololol

Told y’all I had another pair of polka dot pants just waiting to be photographed :P

These bad boys are McCall’s 6901, a Palmer/Pletsch fitting pattern. If you’re thinking that these look exactly like most other pairs of trousers I’ve made, you would be right. Honestly, this pattern would have remained completely off my radar had I not needed to make a sample for the ants class that I taught at Workroom Social last month. Ya can’t really teach a class if you haven’t made the pattern up – I mean, I guess you can, but I’d personally want to make sure I understood any fitting kinks and weird pattern directions before unleashing it on my students! – so I made myself a sample to see what I was getting myself into.

For a first-time trouser pattern, these aren’t too bad. They have front and back darts, front slash pockets, and a straight waistband. They also have a mock fly, which I absolutely don’t understand – basically just some weird flap extensions on the front of the trouser that get folded back for the zipper. I did it, it looks like a fly from the outside, and that’s that – but I don’t really understand why you’d sew a mock fly instead of a real fly? Whatever. (Our class pattern was modified by Jennifer to include a real fly, with a shield and facing, just in case you were wondering!).

The fitting was a little… I don’t want to say tricky, but let’s just say that the muslin of these pants looks NOTHING like the envelope art. Obviously those models were fitted specifically for those photos, and they look fabulous. The actual pattern itself involved quite a bit of work to get a similar look – and you’ll see that mine are still pretty different, because I ended up fitting the pants to suit MY liking and not the pattern cover (such as lowering the rise, and keeping the legs relatively straight and relaxed). I don’t know what it is about Palmer/Pletsch patterns, but they tend to be drafted to fit very loose, despite the cover art being quite the opposite. They also include 1″ seam allowances at most of the side seams, which I kind of hate (maybe I’m just butthurt because I always end up cutting out sooo much of the side seams, thanks to the ease situation)

I cut a size 8 to start. I lowered the front crotch rise by 2″ – which is a LOT, even for me. Actually, most everyone in class ended up taking out quite a bit of crotch rise as well, which leads me to believe that this pattern must just have an excess up there. I never actually figured out where the waistband was supposed to end up sitting – the cover art looks like she’s got it at her natural waist, but most trousers tend to look better on me when they’re about belly button. In the end, I figured – I was gonna be the one wearing the pants, so they might as well fit the way I like – and I made the rise hit at belly button and called it a day. I also added about 1/2″ of extra length to the back crotch, as the butt was a little tight. I could probably stand to add a little more, because it still looks a little tight, but whatever. I also narrowed out the legs quite a bit, and changed them so they were more straight and less tapered. I don’t have a specific measurement for that; I just tried them on inside and pinned and based until I got a good width.

Here’s my shirt pulled up so you can see where the waistband actually hits. It’s still a little high, but not as bad as it was before – the pattern is supposed to sewn with a 9″ zipper! Woof!

For a first stab at a new pattern, I think these turned out quite wearable. They’re obviously not perfect – for me, I’ve found I need at least a couple tries before I start making good progress – but, like I said, they’re wearable, and that’s all that really matters. Next time round, I may scoop out the front crotch to more of a J shape, because they are a little poochy. I also evidently need to shorten the crotch length a little more, because I’m still getting those wrinkles that indicate it’s too long.

Landon also informed me this morning that the legs were too wide and would be much more flattering if I tapered them. Argh! I actually like the wider look, but now he has me second-guessing myself. What do you think? Unpick the hem and fit the legs more? Leave as is?

(Note to self: Don’t wear black socks with these pants again. Eep!)

So how ’bout this fabric, amirite? This is a Marc Jacobs cotton blend from Mood Fabrics, that I bought while I was in NY in March. If it looks familiar, it’s because I used the navy colorway to make my Miette wrap skirt and also my Rite of Spring shorts. I love this fabric – I love the texture and I love the way it feels, and it just gets softer with wear. I was so excited to see the brown colorway, so I snapped it up with no real use in mind. Pants will work!

There’s that mock fly that I don’t understand. Whyyy.

But hey, look – fun pocket lining! :D

The construction (and fitting, to some extent) on these trousers was very straight forward, and I think they are quite suitable for first-time attempts. Just be careful to watch that crotch length and don’t be afraid to pin out a giant wedge if necessary. Like I said, I took 2″ out of the front and I STILL have a little excess that could stand to be removed. But all in all, I think they turned out pretty cute – or is that because polka dots make everything cuter? :)

Three more things!
1. Planning for my London trip is now in full swing! I’m trying to work out a meet-up (if anyone wants to help me plan this shit, holler! I have not been in London since the late 90s and I have NO idea what I’m doing hahaha), but it’ll likely be Saturday 22 Nov. If you’d like to join in on the fun, shoot me an email and I’ll keep you in the loop as things progress.
2. Speaking of Europe – Clare and I decided to take advantage of the fact that Paris is a cheap train ride away, so obviously we are going! We’ll be arriving the morning of the 27th (funny, that’s Thanksgiving Day in the US. Sorry, mom! I bet you’d rather I go to Paris anyway :P), stay overnight, and I’ll be back the evening of the 28th. We will be have a meet-up – Paris Edition – on Thursday 27 Nov, so again – email me if you want to join :)!
3. For the rest of y’all who are not in London or Paris – how bout some patterns, yeah? Indie Stitches is currently running a sale on all digital PDF patterns, woohoo! Use the code DIGITALLOVE to get 10% off all PDF patterns. Code is good through 9/14/14 at midnight! I don’t know about you, but I’m eyeballing that Darling Ranges Dress and those Virginia Leggins extra hard right now…

Final NYC post! I’m so sorry to have spread these out so much – and sorry to keep y’all waiting for the final round-up (I know, you were just hanging off the edge of your seat in PURE ANTICIPATION amirite). I was waiting on some photos from Jennifer (the resident memory maker, sewing expert, and brains behind WORKROOM SOCIAL)- which, trust me, these are way better than anything my pathetic Instagram account could have coughed up ;)

Anyway – Pants-making at WORKROOM SOCIAL! Wheeee!!

An intensive at WORKROOM SOCIAL means that you’re there for the full weekend – two 8 hour days, with a break for lunch (catered by local Brooklyn eateries!) and a low-key cocktail hour at the end of each day. It might sound intense to spend that long in a sewing class, but really – that sounds like a normal weekend for me ;) The main difference being that, instead of a solo-sewing binge, this one involved some pretty fabulous company and about 16 hours straight of giggling.

Classes start with fitting – all the sizes for the pattern are pre-made into muslins, so students can go straight into fitting without having to sew up a muslin first. This is one of the most brilliant things about WORKROOM SOCIAL, I think – it cuts down on a lot of prep time, so you can get straight into the good stuff! Of course, sewing pants means that there is a lot of crotch-grabbing going on. I’m so glad that we were all comfortable with one another from the get-go, bc I totally had my hands up in everyone’s business within the first hour of class.

See? We giggled about crotches a lot. Crotches are funny!

Another big benefit to sewing classes at WORKROOM SOCIAL is that the use of all tools and machines is included in the class fee, so you don’t have to lug your machine into class if you don’t want to. The machines on site are the snazzy SINGER Quantum Stylist Touch 9985 (I never thought I’d say that, but forreal, SINGER is seriously stepping up their game these days) that even clip threads for you. A couple of the students did opt to bring in their machines – which is also fine, since it’s nice to work on something that you are comfortable using! – one of which was this sexy, sexy model. Jenny perfectly captured my sultry feelings toward Kim’s machine (Photo by Jenny).

Once we got past the fitting and initial pattern adjustments, it was time to start making pants! We skipped the second muslin, and had students make changes directly to their pattern pieces and then cut their fashion fabric. While I would normally urge y’all to continue making muslins until the fit has been tweaked to perfection (since one fitting change can completely affect the way the garment looks, which may result in needing additional fitting), the WORKROOM SOCIAL Pants-making Intensive focuses on the sewing and construction techniques that a student needs to know to feel confident to tackle that second pair at home and have them turn out extra awesome.

We used McCall 6901 as the base pattern, with a few additional modifications (namely, adding pocket facings and a proper front-fly zipper – as the original pattern is only for a mock-fly). This pattern is designed for both straight and plus sizes (ranging from 8 to 24W), so it was perfect for the group of students in class, as we had a great variety of sizes and shapes. Almost everyone ended up shortening the crotch length (for whatever reason, it’s super long in this pattern!), as well as modified the legs to be less tapered. Jennifer showed us all a really cool way to sew the waistband – something I’d never seen before and am now DYING to try!

Oh, and everyone’s pants turned out great!

Jen & I at the end of day 2 – Jen is modeling her finished pants, which looked AMAZING on her! Seriously felt like a creeper because I couldn’t stop staring at how good they looked, haha! (Photo by Jen).

Jenny & I – we are not modeling pants, but we are modeling how much we love each other (Photo by Jenny).

One really interesting thing about Jenny’s fitting process – turns out her and I have the same crotch shape, the J-Cro (which is why we are now Crotch Buddies, and everyone should be ok with that). You’d never guess by just looking at us, because our bodies are otherwise completely different – but it just goes to show that a pattern not working for one person does not mean that it won’t work for you. Even if the person in question wears the same size as you – you might have different crotch shapes!

Also, it delights me that we are both J crotches because helloooooo my first name is Jennifer (and just in case you were keeping track – yes, we had 4 Jennifers in that class. Haha!)

Anyway, I had a blast teaching the WORKROOM SOCIAL Pants-making Intensive – Jennifer has managed to create a gorgeous, welcoming (and inspiring!) environment, down to the coffee bar and Parisian music. I loved that the class included the pre-made muslins, the use of tools and machines, the pattern itself, and even little goody bags for each student to take home :) Speaking of which – my students were obviously the best part! I’m so excited about the new friendships I made, and it was so much fun getting to know everyone (as well as their crotches :P) throughout the course of the weekend. Meeting other awesome sewing-obsessed ladies is the best part of teaching!

Jennifer and I worked so well together, and the class was such a hit – we are thinking about having another go in 2015! What do you think? Would you take a 2-day sewing intensive – pants-making or not? (Ooh, apparently there’s one seat left in WORKROOM SOCIAL’s October Dressmaking Intensive omg someone take that spot asap) Have you ever taken something like this before? I’ve never taken a sewing class (and only taught a couple before this experience!), so I had NO idea what to expect! Let’s just say it was even better than I had been anticipating :)

(All photos taken by Jennifer, except where otherwise noted!)

Ok, I’ll admit – when I first started working on this outfit, the air was a LOT more fall-like than it currently is at the moment. Stupid fickle season, ha!

Anyway, I’m totally a trooper so I’m modeling this outfit for y’all nonetheless (photos taken early morning before the temperatures got too high, because, woof.). My first real cold-weather makes – like I said, it’s a little early in the season here, but I like to get a head start so I can actually start wearing this stuff when the weather cools down :) This outfit – or at least the skinnies – is also part of my London wardrobe. I’m officially less than 2 months out, EEEEEP! – so it’s time to really start cranking down and getting my wardrobe act together. Since I’m very limited in suitcase space, I’m trying to capsulate everything to mix and match. So I can bring less clothes, so I can bring home more fabric :) You know – priorities!

ANYWAY, I have a lot of ground to cover with these two pieces, so let’s get started! Sorry in advance for the big photo overload!

Let’s start with the sweater. I bought this fabric last month while I was in NYC. This was my first non-spring trip to the city, which meant my fabric shopping was focused on woolens and winter weights (instead of summer fabrics, which I am usually bee-lining for in March). I immediately found this star printed WOOL sweater knit, and promptly flipped my shit over it. It’s SO fabulous – and soft! Even softer than you can imagine, forreal. At $25 a yard, it wasn’t the cheapest sweater knit – but stars and wool? Totally worth it. Plus, it’s not like a sweater takes a lot of yardage – at least not for me. I bought a yard and a half (and I have some leftover.. hmm, what to make with?).

The pattern I used to make this bad boy was actually suggested by Devra (who also bought some of the prized star wool knit, after I peer pressured her into it ;) ) – the SJ Tee from Papercut Patterns. I made a wearable mock-up before the real deal – which I will show y’all later this week – so I was able to figure my fitting before cutting into my precious wool knit. I cut a size XXS and took 1″ out of the center back. The length is the long version (aka, not cropped) and the sleeves are long as well.

I used rib knit to finish the neckline and cuffs – it was in my stash, I have no idea where it came from. This knit was way stretchier than the sweater knit, so I had to keep retrying the neckline to get it to lie flat. I ended up cutting the rib to half the length of the neckline and stretched the everloving shit out of it – it could still stand to be a little tighter, but this will do. The neckline also can’t stand to be a little lower, it’s already a little risque (which I LIKE!). The cuffs are a bit looser than I’d prefer, but I wanted to be able to push the sleeves up, like so.

I sewed the entire sweater on my serger – you could use a sewing machine (this particular knit does not unravel or shed), but serger is faster :) I did use a twin needle to topstitch the raglan lines, as well as the neckline & hem. Really loved topstitching this sweater; the stitches just sink right in and look soooo good!

For the black skinnies, I used a really great stretch twill. I’ve had some hits and misses when it comes to stretch bottom weights – they tend to be a weird weight (either too heavy, or not heavy enough), and the stretch can bag out over time. One thing I’ve learned is that you need a pretty high spandex/poly content to get them to snap back into shape – 5-10% – and you need to make sure they are bottom weight. I actually made Heather Lou source this fabric for me, also in the Mood store. We were initially looking for black denim, couldn’t find a good one (I still don’t really know what constitutes as a good one- you’ll have to ask her! I just blindly followed, ha), and decided on the twill. We did end up finding a black denim, fyi, but not at Mood. Once I sew that one up, I’ll share more about it :)

Anyway, this twill is great! It’s pretty similar to what you get with stretch RTW pants – thick enough for a bottom weight, but not tooooo thick (I still only used an 80/12 needle, so no heavy denim shit or whatev). The stretch is crazy good, and it actually snaps back into shape. I can’t give y’all a true verdict on a full day’s worth of wear – the weather jumped back up to hot, so I haven’t had a chance to wear these yet. However, I tried the jeans on a LOT during construction, and they haven’t bagged out yet. So that’s a good sign!

The only drawback to this stuff is that it attracts cat hair like a magnet. It’s not as bad in real life as it is in photos (else I would have lint-rolled that shit, I mean, come on), but it also doesn’t bother me that much. When you have a cat and you wear black pants, cat hair is sorta just a way of life, you know?

The pattern I used to make the skinnies is the Jamie Jeans, from Named. I’ve actually had this pattern in my stash for a few months – my friend Carla bought me these (plus a few other Named patterns) as an early birthday gift earlier this year. Then I was a total ass and didn’t do anything with them until just now :P Hey, it’s been too hot! Anyway, I’m glad I put these off because there is no way I would have had such stretch twill success if it hadn’t been for Heather doing that side of the shopping for me. So there’s that.

Anyway, this was my first experience with Named. My understanding is that a few things have changed since they initially released this pattern – for one, the instructions include some diagrams now (they used to be text-only), and the prices are a little more competitive. The pieces also aren’t quite as overlapped as they were the first go-round – because, ugh, tracing patterns, ugh. I only had to trace the waistband for these. Everything else was, thankfully, not super overlapped.

I started with the size 2, and made these initial modifications, based on my muslin:
– Added 1″ to the back crotch, for butt room
– Removed 2″ of length at the legs
– Removed 5/8″ at the center back yoke, blending to 1/4″ at the bottom (where the pants meet the yoke)
– Removed 1/4″ from the center back, blending to nothing

Once I started sewing, I ended up doing a few more fit adjustments. I don’t know why these weren’t prevalent in my muslin – perhaps my fabric wasn’t quite stretchy enough? At any rate, these are my additional modifications (and now you know why I pulled them on and off so many times!):
– Sewed the side seams at 1/2″
– Took a 1″ wedge out of the center back of the waistband, tapering to nothing at the bottom
– Removed an additional 3/4″ from the length
– Did some crazy witchcraft to reshape the crotch to be a J (again, NO IDEA why this wasn’t an issue with the muslin, but argh – at least I fixed it? Mostly.).

Things I will change for my next rendition:
– Need to remove some length from the front crotch – you can see that it’s slightly too long (it’s not toooo bad – I doubt anyone will point and be all “HA HA YOUR CROTCH IS TOO LONG HA HA!” But I know it’s there and hey, it bothers me, ok?). Maybe 3/8″ish.
– Rescoop that J a little more out of the crotch. It’s still not perfect, but it’s damn good considering that I did this while the pants were already mostly assembled (for those of you who are all, “Wtf is this J crotch you keep talking about?” Here’s the post where I talk about my pants adjustments, including J crotches. Also, in case you were wondering- those crotch rulers *do* work. I found one in Elizabeth’s studio last week, immediately stuck it on my crotch – and hey, there’s a J! Cool!)
– Need to take a little pinch of fabric out of the inner leg seam – maybe 1/2″

Despite my nitpicky fit adjustments, these aren’t so bad! I’ll still totally wear the shit out of them, at any rate.

Constructing these was REALLY fun! The instructions – honestly, they’re kind of useless about 70% of the time, but I’ve made enough pants to where I don’t really need them. The seams are all finished with my serger – except the crotch seam, which is flat-felled – and I made use of my edgestitching foot to get all that beautiful topstitching. For the waistband, I used fusible tricot knit interfacing – I fused both the outside and the facing, to give it some stability but retain that lovely stretch. The button & jean zip are both from Pacific Trimming in NYC.

I really love the back pockets! And hey, that double line of stitching at the yoke? That was done with a single needle, twice. No twin needle!

For the hem, I used the lightning bolt stitch, so it would retain some stretchiness. It looks pretty similar to a straight stitch, but it, you know, stretches.

What else? Here are some sweater close-ups:

YUM!

One last thing – here’s the little watercolor fashion illustration I made for this outfit. GOD, I love painting watercolors! So much fun!

Ok, I guess that’s it! Now if the cooler weather could please come back – I hate working up a sweat while I drink my morning coffee :) Oh, and in case you were wondering – that’s a fresh dye job you’re looking at, in regards to my hair! I love how neon electric is is :) Yay for fun-colored hair!

PS: Ralph Rucci V1419 Sewalongers – in case you missed it, there’s a new post up on the McCall blog regarding the sewalong. Just some general housekeeping, including blog buttons (yes!) and social media chat. The burning question this week – for general sewalong chat outside of our blogs, do y’all prefer to use a Facebook page or a Flickr Group? Trying to decide which platform to us. Let us know which side you swing!

Hey everyone! Today I’m joining the US masses to help promote Love at First Stitch: Demystifying Dressmaking by Tilly Walnes, my friend and fellow blogger.

Most of y’all probably alreaddddyyyy know all about this, but in case you haven’t – Tilly is a fabulous blogger whose clear instructions and gorgeous patterns are perfect for beginner sewers who feel overwhelmed by mysterious sewing jargon and confusing instructions. She’s done so well, in fact, that now she’s got a whole book deal out of it! Which is pretty awesome! I was contacted by Roost Books to see if I’d like to help promote the US launch of the book – it’s been out for a few months now, but we’re just now getting it here! As I’ve mentioned before, I’m kind of over book reviews – but I want to support my friends in their business endeavors, so today you get a non-review-review ;)

For my non-review-review, I decided to try out one of the patterns in the book – the Margot Pajamas! For someone who loves pajamas as much as I do, it’s kind of surprising to know that I’ve never actually sewn a pair of pj pants (those Lakeside Pajamas don’t count :P). I think pajamas are kind of a rite of passage for most first-time sewers, but not me, I guess! So it’s a first for me as well :)

Anyway, before we go too much into the pattern, I did want to talk a little bit about the book.

MOSTLY THAT IT’S FREAKING ADORABLE!

Everything is laid out with bright and clear photos (LOTS of photos, I might add – it’s like reading a really good blog tutorial, except in book form), and the book progresses to build the skills you need to get into dressmaking. Starting with threading the machine, to understanding how to cut fabric, to choosing a size – it’s very well thought out, very beginner friendly, and shit, I wish this existed when I was learning how to sew. Probably would have ruined about half as much fabric if that had been the case :)

Each included pattern comes with sections to “Make It Your Own,” for customizing and, well, making it your own.

There are also blurbs for making sewing a lifestyle, including this one that is my favorite – How to Behave In A Fabric Store. Haha!

Anyway, the short: it’s adorable, it’s well-written, and it’s great for a beginner. For those of us who are not beginners, the patterns are still pretty cute (you can see all the patterns in the book here). The only drawback is that the patterns are printed double-sided, which means you have to trace them. Boo! I imagine this was done to save $ on printing costs. Also, I just hate tracing. That’s a fact of life.

That being said, I did muster up the tracing stamina to at least make some damn pajama pants. Wanna see?

SUP, MARGOT. How YOU doin’?!

I hope you enjoy this new background that is my living room! To answer your questions: Yes, we love America here. And, yes, that’s a creepy-ass painting behind me, and no, I have no idea who painted it. I found it at Goodwill for $7 and it had to come home with me because reasons. It’s painted on plywood and literally drilled into the wall. My mom hates it.

I cannot believe how long it took me to finally make PJ pants! They are SO easy and satisfying to make – even with my construction modifications (more on that in a sec). I am between sizes in the book’s size chart, so I spliced between the 1 & the 2, and removed about 1/2″ of length from the crotch (just folded it out horizontally across the middle), as well as 1″ from the length. I also narrowed the legs a little – mostly because I was short on fabric (oops).

I admit I didn’t much follow the instructions – mostly because they were way too hand-holdy for my needs. However, pj pants are pretty easy to throw together. To match the plaid, I cut everything on the single layer and used my walking foot to feed things evenly through the machine. All seams are serged to prevent unraveling.

I made a couple modifications to increase the comfort level of these pants. For one, I’m not a fan of drawstring-only pj pants. I prefer a little elastic! To do this, I cut a length of elastic (1.5″ wide, because that’s what I had on hand – and it also is the same width as my ribbon) about 8″ smaller than my waist measurement (enough that it almost came around my hip bones) and sewed ribbon to either end. I threaded it through the drawstring opening as instructed, being careful not to twist the elastic.

Once the elastic was in place – centered and flat – I sewed down the center back seam with a straight stitch. This keeps the elastic in place so it doesn’t shift (and I don’t accidentally pull the elastic/ribbon out!). Since the ribbon I used is polyester, I burned the edges to prevent them from fraying.

The finished waistband is much more comfortable, and – bonus! I can actually pull these off without untying the ribbon. Haha!

Also, ribbon bonus: Pretty sure that stuff came from the bouquet I took home from my BFF’s sister’s wedding last year. How’s THAT for recycling? ;) Even better – now every time I’m lounging on the couch in my comfy pjs, Landon will be reminded that I CAUGHT THE BOUQUET, HELLOOO??

I ~made these my own~ by adding a pocket to the back – using my phone as a guide for the size (the pockets on most of my pj pants are too shallow, which I hate!). I cut the pocket on the bias for a little interest, and used my existing pj pants to determine the placement.

The legs have a nice deep hem – partially because I love the way it looks, and also in case these shrink up more when they’re washed. The extra hem means I can let the length down if need be.

Speaking of which, isn’t that fabric glorious? It’s from Pink Chalk Fabrics, a lovely cotton flannel from Robert Kaufman (which appears to now be sold out – here are their other available flannels). When I say this stuff is lovely, I mean it’s AMAZING. It is SO SOFT AND SNUGGLY. I was seriously bummed when I finished these, because I wanted to put them on immediately but I knew I needed to wait to take photos (and have since not taken them off. They are the best!). Between this fabric & the polka dot chambray I used, Robert Kaufman is about to be my favorite fabric source, possibly. I kind of wish I’d bought more, especially now that I see they are sold out :(

Anyway, I wanted to do something fun with these photos, but unlike Tilly – I don’t have a cool ~retro~ phone to pose with.

WHAT I DO HAVE, THOUGH, IS A COMMODORE 64.

“Aw hell yeah, mom, this is the best Christmas present ever!”

Don’t mind us, we are just having a moment here.

GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED

Anyway, if you read this far- congratulations! Let’s have a giveaway! Roost Books sent me two copies, which means I have one to mail to someone! If you’d like to enter the giveaway to win your very own copy of Love At First Stitch, leave a comment on this post and tell me which pattern you’re dying to make (again, you can see all the patterns here). That’s it! Because we are celebrating the US release of this book, this giveaway is open to US READERS ONLY (sorry, my international friends! I still love you! I’ll see some of y’all in London next month!). The entries will close one week from today, Friday, November 7, 2014 at 7:00 AM CST.

GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED
If you’d like to go ahead and get a copy of the book anyway, you can either buy it on Amazon or directly from Miss Tilly herself (and unlike Amazon, she will even sign it for you!). Good luck, y’all!
GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED

Disclaimer: I was given Love At First Stitch for free from Roost Books, in exchange for a review. All opinions in this post are my own.
From Love at First Stitch by Tilly Walnes, © 2014 by Tilly Walnes. Reprinted by arrangement with Roost Books, an imprint of Shambhala Publications Inc., Boston, MA.

SUP Y’ALL. I’m back from my awesome trip to London and Paris, and just trying to settle in/catch up on everything I missed while I was gone (spoiler: most of it is shitty non-blog things, like renewing my car tags and shopping for new health insurance. BORING! Why did I let this all happen in December. Why.). I will have a round-up post covering my trip at, well, some point, but for now the blog will probably continue to be a little quiet while I spend the rest of my week trying to be an adult. I’m hoping I’ll be back to posting next week – so thanks for hanging in there while I sort things out. In the meantime, I wanted to talk about some cool shit that’s happening in the sewing world – in the IN-PERSON sewing world, that is! – in 2015! Some of which involves meeee :)

First up – Bramaking!
Y’all know, Madalynne, right? The cool sewing and bra making blog. Maddie and I have been online friends for a few years now – we met through our blogs, and we keep up through our blogs (ok, well, and through emails too. Love ya, Maddie!) – and it’s been so neat to watch her sewing, blogging, and lingerie really flourish into the beautiful thing that it is now. Big emphasis on the bras – homegirl makes some of the prettiest bras I ever did see. And now she’s decided to finally take the leap into teaching and passing on those skills to those of us who are dying to learn them too.

Bramaking with Madalynne is a full day intensive class that will teach you how to make a full band, underwired bra. The price includes the pattern and all supplies, as well as lunches and snacks. You can read all the juicy details in Madalynne’s post here, as well as sign up through the New Old Fashioned (better hurry, tho, bc there’s only space for 8 people!). After hearing all you Canadians brag about the bra making classes you take (yes, I’m onto you. And I’m jealous of you.), finally us Americans get a piece of that action! And we don’t even have to eat Maddie’s brains to steal her knowledge – she’s going to give it to us! Notice I said “us” – because I’m going to the class as well! Yesss!! An excuse to visit Philly (which I’ve never been before! Pittsburgh, however… no. Let’s not talk about my short stint in Pittsburgh, woof.), some hang time with Madalynne, and making fancy underwear? Fuck yes, count me in. So yeah – let’s make bras together, y’all!

Next up – Pants Making!
Ok, I already talked about about this before, so sorry to sit here and repeat myself. But I do think it bears repeating :) This March 21-22, I’m returning to Brooklyn, NY, to teach another round of the Weekend Pants-Making Intensive at WORKROOM SOCIAL. I am really really excited about this one; I love teaching, I love making pants, and I love teaching people how to make pants! We are going to have an amazing time, I can already feel it!

WORKROOM SOCIAL classes are fabulous because they include 2 days of intense pants-making (for us, that means basic pants-fitting, learning how to sew the front fly, pockets, and waistband, as well as little sewing tips and tricks for increasing your speed and accuracy), catered lunch and snacks, use of all machines and tools in the studio, aaaand you’ll probably get a really good ab workout because we will be laughing at LOT! This shit is gonna be so much fun! Check out the details of the class on their website, and you can also read about the class I taught while I was there in August. The space will fill up fast, so get your registration in before the class sells out!

Next on the agenda – Sewing Retreat! (aka make whatever the hell you want!)
Ughhh, you guys, this one is REALLY exciting to me. I hope you can feel the excitement radiating from my computer screen to yours, because I’ve been bouncing all over the walls while planning this. On September 24-27, I will be flying up to Portland, ME, to host a 4 day weekend sewing retreat at A Gathering of Stitches. One thing that’s always been a bit of a gamble with project-specific classes is that some people just plain aren’t interested in the project that the class is centered around. It’s hard to satisfy everyone with those – there’s always someone who doesn’t like the pattern, or maybe their skill level doesn’t quite jive with what the class requires (or it’s beyond the class!), or maybe they want to learn something else entirely. I’ve always loved the idea of doing a sewing retreat where people pick their own projects – bonus if it’s located in a gorgeous area that can double as a mini-vacation (or continue into a vacation after the retreat ends) – but I’m also kinda the worst planner ever (this should not be a secret at this point, ha!). Samantha contacted me a few months ago and asked if I’d like to teach at A Gathering of Stitches, and an open-project retreat was the first thing that came out of my mouth. She was immediately on board with the idea, and we’ve been in cahoots about it ever since. And now I finally get to announce it! Yay!

This retreat will take place up in gorgeous (so I’m told ;) ) Portland, Maine. We chose the September date because it’s supposed to be very beautiful during that time of year. For 4 days, I will work with a small group of people on WHATEVER projects they so desire (kind of like Susan Khalje’s Couture Sewing School, except, you know, NOT couture ;) ). Want to work on fine tuning your fit so you can really nail that TNT pattern? Want to make a coat? What about pants? Do you just want to hang out and sew with other awesome people who are also sewing and know that you have a teacher on hand for any last-minute oh-shit-I’ve-made-a-huge-mistake situations? I GOT YOU. This is *your* retreat, and you can spend it however you like! We’ll also be doing catered lunches every day, a big awesome meal at a local farm on the last night, and evenings are always free for you to go out and explore the area and maybe even whoop it up :) Alsoooo, just FYI, but NYC is only a 50 minute plane ride away… if that sways ya ;) (it swayed me!) (we could always hit up the Garment District after the retreat… you know, because reasons.)

You can find out more information about the retreat here. It does cover tuition, studio space + equipment (and of course, you are welcome to bring your own if that’s your thing!), plus a few meals, but lodging is not included (I’m told that prices are pretty reasonable in that area tho, and Samantha has a nice list of accommodations should you need help finding one!). I will be in touch with everyone prior to the retreat so we can discuss your project and goals, to ensure that you get the BEST experience during the retreat. There are limited spots for this retreat and we expect it to fill up fast, so register early! We are gonna have an AMAZING time, y’all!

Finally – Camping!
Have y’all heard about Camp WORKROOM SOCIAL? This is a 4 day camp with 2 days of intense sewing – at an actual summer camp in upstate NY! Jennifer has really killed it with this one – there are 5 classes to choose from (Bra making, pattern drafting, jeans making, fitting, and dressmaking), lodging, meals and shuttle service are provided. Oh, and pretty much all the instructors and camp counselors (YES THERE ARE COUNSELORS!) are some of my favoritest people ever! Camp WORKROOM SOCIAL is going to be amazing! Unfortunately, I won’t be making this one – I already committed to an epic vacation with my BFF over the summer (we’re going to Peru! For two weeks! Ahhh!), so my travel money is already spoken for :) However, I think camp sounds amaaaazing and y’all should definitely get on it. Yes.

So those are some of my (and hopefully your!) upcoming plans for 2015! Really excited for all these classes and retreats – not to mention a few more excuses to travel :) Anyone else going to these workshops and retreats? What are you most excited about?

Ok, now for the forreal first finished project of 2015 – jeans!!

Damn straight I made jeans! And pretty good-looking jeans, if I do say so myself :)

These are the Ginger Jeans, by Closet Case Files. Full disclosure right here – Heather sent me this pattern, gratis, as a friend-gift with no strings/review requests attached. While I did not pattern test for this particular pattern, I was involved with fitting tweak email chains waaay back before this shit went into testing (because you know me, and I love talking about crotches).

Anyway, I was excited to try this pattern because – one, JEANS!; and two, JEANSSSS!!!

Y’all, this is a really really good pattern. I know I sound biased – and maybe I am, because I lurve me some Heather, and ESPECIALLY because I had a really good almost-out-of-the-envelope experience with making these. It can be hard – if not impossible – to design a pants pattern that is going to fit and flatter every single body it comes in contact with, considering how wildly different everyone’s bodies are. I think the fit of these seems pretty good across the board – I’ve been watching everyone’s finished Gingers popping up all over the place, and most are great right out of the envelope (or with very minor changes). Personally, I had to make a few small tweaks, but they’re not any different than what I do to *all* the pants I make.

I started with the size 2, which corresponds closely with my measurements, and made view B with the high waist. Having participated in this rodeo before, I went ahead and adding my personal ~Lauren~ fitting changes directly to the pattern pieces – which means, I scooped out some of the crotch to give it more of a J shape (more info on that in this post) and added a 1/2″ wedge to the back crotch for some extra bum room. I compared the pattern pieces to some well-fitting patterns and RTW jeans to make sure the crotch lengths and depths were good, then I cut straight into my denim. No muslin this time – which was risky, but I feel pretty confident in my fitting at this point, so I was willing to take one for the team if necessary.

SPOILER: It worked out just fine! Yeehaw!

There are a couple more things I’d like to improve on for my next pair – all up in dat crotch (sorry that you have to look at it). I think this photo illustrates that pretty well – see how the front is just a little too long when I stand a certain way? You can also see it in the photo below – what looks like a really really poorly photoshopped thigh gap is actually just excess fabric bending all weird. I need to pull some excess out of the inseam, maybe about 1/2″ (like, maybe what I added to the back crotch haha!). Honestly, that’s something I could do to this existing pair of jeans as it is – but I also flat-felled that damn inseam, and realistically, I know I probably won’t unpick and fix unless it starts annoying me way more than it does right now. I also need to take a small wedge out of the center back of the waistband – it’s a one-piece curved waistband, but I’m starting to notice that two-piece darted waistbands fit my backside much better. This one isn’t bad, it’s just a little loose. Something to fix for the next pair! The calves are also prettttttyyyy tight – like, these are not the pants that I will be wearing knee socks underneath! I guess I have big calves, though, because that’s an issue I have with all pants (sewing patterns and RTW). Overall, though, I’m really happy with the fit of these. I didn’t have to do ANY changes to the legs, and I think they look pretty good!

Construction on these was pretty straightforward and not at all difficult, although it was time-consuming to do all that topstitching. I followed the instructions on the pattern, as well as the sewalong for places where I needed a little extra clarification. I decided to go balls to the wall with this make and treat them like a real pair of jeans – contrast gold topstitching, flat-felled seams (everywhere except the side seams), proper rivets, the works. Doing all these extras definitely added time to how long it look to make them, but I still finished over the weekend :P Go me!

For fabric, I used a denim/lycra blend that was purchased a Paron’s Fabrics in NYC last year. Heather actually helped me pick this one out, and I am surprised at how much I like it. The recovery is okkkk – it’s not the very best, like my RTW jeans (which are from Imogene + Willie, and WHEW that denim is – as my dad would say – THE BOMB DOT COM) – but it’s better than some stuff I’ve used in the past! The photos you see here were taken before I’d worn them for a day, so they’re at their tightest. As of this posting, I’ve worn the jeans twice and they haven’t bagged out much at all, which is a pleasant surprise. That being said, I really really really want to get my hands on one of Heather’s denim kits, because the Cone Mill denim included in those is basically the same shit as my $200+ I+W jeans. I missed the last sale due to financial restraints, but I’m saving my dollars and waited with bated breath for the next shipment, because you best believe imma be all over that shit like white on rice. NEEDS MORE JEANS.

At Heather’s advice, I did not interface the waistband of my pants. I think I might actually be a convert to this method – the waistband is still stretchy (so it’s super comfy), but the denim is thick enough to give it some structure. I did interface my button and button hole area, as well as the parts noted in the instructions (the fly, the tops of the pockets… I think that’s it?).

For the topstitching, I used Gutterman jeans thread (the gold color, obviously) in my needle and regular ol’ navy polyester thread in the bobbin. At the suggestion of my sewing machine mechanic, I revved up the needle tension to a 7 and lengthened the stitch length to a little over a 3 to get a nice stitch. I used my #10 edgestitching foot (favorite foot ever, holla) to create even lines, and a 90/14 denim needle to pierce through all the layers. Since the guts of the jeans are assembled with the standard navy thread, this meant that I did a LOT of thread-changing to make this pair of pants. For future pants, I’ve lugged out my old Pfaff so I can keep both machines threaded and just switch back and forth, but the changing was ok for this first go-round.

Also, speaking of topstitching – I loved all the bartacks involved with making jeans. So much fun and SO satisfying! My machine actually doesn’t have a setting for bartacks, but I just reduced the zigzag stitch length and width until it looked good.

If you have super eagle eyes, you may notice that the double topstitching is slightly different at the pockets vs the yoke/crotch seam. I had to widen the lines to properly catch where I folded the pockets under, but I really don’t think the wide-set stitching looks as good as the narrower set on the back. Oh well, just something to change for the next pair :)

I looove the star rivets, though! And check out my cool jeans button! All the hardware (including the zipper) was purchased at Pacific Trimming in NYC, same time as when I got my denim. All that stuff was sooo cheap (I want to say the rivets were, like, $0.10 a piece of something crazy like that. I bought a whole bagful HAHAHA), wish I had better access to it on the regular! To set my rivets and my button, I used the good ol’ hammer-and-cast-iron-skillet combination. Worked like a charm!

Fun pocket lining! Also, I think I cut the fly interfacing too wide – bummer that it peeks out. Oh well, again – something to change for the next pair :P

Proof of flat-felled seams, and also machine thread snarls. Whoops.

I’m pretty happy to have officially made LEGIT jeans (I have made “denim trousers” in the past, but nothing with topstitching and rivets and all that fun stuff!), and even more happy that they are super wearable! Now I just need to bang them out in all the colors my wardrobe requires and I’ll be set for life, at least as far as my denim is concerned :) I really want to try some different topstitching colors and details – looking at my I+W jeans, I really love the multiple colors of thread they used, and the little plus shaped bartacks. I also want some wacky insides – printed pocket fabric and colorful serger thread, anyone?

Would you ever make jeans for yourself, or does this fall in the camp of things you’d rather buy? Have you made this pattern before (if so, lemme see dem jeans, ladies)? As someone who’s literally worn the same pair of jeans for a solid year, how many pairs is too many?

In case you couldn’t tell, I spent the first weekend of 2015 making pants. You already saw my Ginger Jeans – now let’s revisit an old favorite! My beloved Jamie Jeans, I knew we’d meet again! ♥

Ever since I made my first pair of Jamies in black stretch twill, I knew I wanted to make this pattern up again. I had a couple fitting changes that needed to be addressed – mostly reshaping the crotch (which I did on my original pair after they were sewn up, so it wasn’t reflected on the flat pattern) and pinching out some excess from the inseam. Knowing that the fabric I was using had considerably less stretch than the twill I used for the first pair, I decided not to remove any additional sizing/width, as that can be fairly easy to tweak during final fitting.

I love this dotty fabric! You can’t see it too well (wait for the close-ups), but it’s a dark navy denim with tiny white pindots all over. LOVE IT. Been looking for something similar to this for yeeears. I actually found this magical piece of beauty all the way in Paris – it’s one of the fabrics from my coupon haul. I can’t remember exactly how much I paid for it, but I think it was around 10€ for 3 meters, give or take. A few other fellow meet-up-ers were also lurking on this shit, but thankfully there were quite a few pieces to go around, so everyone who wanted some went home with one :) Yay!

It’s kind of a peculiar fabric – a medium weight denim twill, and the dots are painted on (not printed). I can’t be 100% certain, but this may be the piece of fabric I accidentally dyed all of Landon’s undershirts with (sorry, Landon!). The back side does look like it bled a lot, but I also threw some black silk into that load – so who knows? Anyway. The fabric does have stretch, but not nearly as much as the twill – so I’m really glad I left off my additional sizing changes from the original pair (I believe I took out 1/2″ at the side seams, and even more at the center back and down the legs), because these are pretty snug as is! The denim is very stiff, but I’m hoping it relaxes a little more as I wear them. As of this posting, the only time I’ve worn them was during a really cold day, and I had on tights underneath to stay warm. Tights don’t make these pants super comfortable, but, then again – no pants are comfortable with tights underneath. So there’s that.

(Don’t look too closely, but I accidentally gave myself a weenie in one of those pictures lololol. Y’all are just lucky that I have no idea how to photoshpo that shit out haha)

I think they fit quite a bit better than the black pair I made, but there’s still definitely room for some improvement. Need to shorten the crotch length just a little more, and also remove some more width from the upper inseam. I also need to add some width to the calves – they are REALLY tight, like painted-on tight. It’s not uncomfortable, and I don’t think it looks bad – but I also can’t wear tall socks with these pants haha. Which I guess doesn’t matter for this particular pair, bc I think they look best with ballet flats, but, you know. Future Jamies. Fuck. I’ll get it eventually!

Having made these before and writing such a long post about the construction and fitting process, I don’t think there’s much else to add. I guess it bears noting that I didn’t bother with flat-felling the seams like I did on my jeans – I just serged and topstitched and called it a day.

Oh! I can talk a little about the waistband. Since the denim wasn’t as beefy as the denim for my Ginger Jeans, I did interface the waistband. I used lightweight knit fusible for the facing side. I love this interfacing because it gives a minor amount of support (enough to keep the waistband from collapsing on itself), but it doesn’t affect the stretch factor. Which means they’re still comfy, woohoo! Also, one fitting change I made for this pant – and possibly future pants, maybe – was to cut the one piece waistband into two pieces, so they can angle right at the center of my lower back (pretty much the same waistband as is on the Thurlows). This produces a much better fit than the single piece waistband does for me. There is a seam there now, but it’s covered by the back belt loop.

NOW you can see the dots! And isn’t the topstitching pretty? I used light blue denim topstitching thread (it ain’t anything fancy – just a spool of Gutterman that I picked up from Joann’s), which gives an interesting contrast to the dark blue fabric. The silver jeans button is also from some class of big box fabric/craft store (either Joann’s or Hobby Lobby, I don’t recall) – I bought a pack after the button on Landon’s Gap jeans wore a hole through the waistband and fell out. You know what, after typing that, I don’t feel bad about dyeing his tshirts now. Who do you think sewed a patch on those jeans and hammered in a new button? ME, that’s who. Just don’t tell him how much I secretly enjoyed it hahahahaha

More gut pictures for your perusal~

This is me trying to show you the cool pocket fabric haha. Leftover from one of these dress, by the way!

I think I’m about pants’d-out for the next couple of weeks (until I get my hands on some red twill, anyway, heh heh heh), but I feel pretty good about the two I’ve accomplished! Big ol’ snaps for ringing in 2015 with two successful projects! Hopefully that’ll be a recurring theme for the rest of this year :)

As a side note – WOOF, my hair color is faded. Can you believe the photos were taken maybe 2 days after I shot the Ginger photos? I didn’t do anything to my hair during that time (I only wash it once a week), other than style it – the only thing different is the lighting. Kind of crazy how much of a difference it makes!

Ok, so, the title of this post is a tiny bit misleading – these aren’t leather leggings so much as they just have a panel of faux stretch pleather. BUT, it sounded catchy (as long as I ignore all the weird Google search terms that will likely lead people straight to this post, aiee), so it stays.

Anyway, like, ~Ooh La La Leather~ or some shit, amirite?

In all seriousness, I’ve mentioned before that this is my favorite leggings pattern. I have a couple more patterns in my stash that I haven’t even bothered to try because I JUST CANNOT QUIT me some Ooh La Leggings. I love the way they fit and I love the seaming detail. Made up in a thicker ponte, they almost pass for actual pants. Made up in a thinner material, they are great for lounging and sleepwear. Made up in some crazy lycra, they make amazing workout/yoga pants. Basically, they are my dream leggings and you will have to pry this pattern out of my cold, dead hands.

Because I love this pattern so so much, it goes without saying that I’ve made a metric Shit Ton of these leggings over the past two years. Obviously most of them haven’t made it to the blog – after sharing a couple pairs, they kind of get redundant. And y’all know how much I hate redundancy, at least when it comes to my own blog. So while you might occasionally see a pair pop up in a post (without needing to be the center of attention), they spend much more time in the real world than they do the blog world. And I do wear the shit out of all my pairs, so there’s that.

With that being said, I think it’s ok/non-redundant to post about this pattern if I’ve done something ~unique with it. Which is exactly what I did. Check out my (faux)(p)leather (paneled) leggings, y’all!

I found this stretch pleather on Goldhawk Rd while fabric shopping in London. It was one of the very few things I had on my list to buy, as I knew I’d need to be able to actually touch the fabric to make sure it stretched enough and wasn’t toooo shiny. Not that I’m against shiny pleather pants – I had a pair when I was in high school, back when I worked at Hot Topic and thought I was sOoOoOo punk rock (and no, I have no idea why my mom didn’t veto those things! HAHA! I must have looked like such a little baby hooker!) – but, being nearly 30 now, I’m an adult and I have to tone things down just the tiniest bit, at least when it comes to my pants. ANYWAY, this pleather is pretty good, I think – as far as pleather goes. It’s very stretchy, it’s not too shiny, and the wrong side has a nice fabric backing so it’s actually quite comfortable against the skin. Or, rather, as comfortable as pleather leggings can get.

Since my pattern was nice enough to already have all the piecing done for me, I just cut the side panels in the stretch pleather, and the remaining pieces (front and back legs, as well as the yokes) in this black polyester Ponte de Roma. The Ponte de Roma was pretty shiny on one side – like, way more shiny than I was expecting – so I sewed it with the wrong side facing out, which looks a bit more polished. I sewed everything on my serger, as I do, and omitted the topstitching as I was afraid that piercing the pleather would cause it to wear holes that would eventually tear.

As far as actually sewing the pleather, that part was surprisingly easy! Keep in mind that stretch pleather (as well as non-stretch, as well as leather, etc) does show pin holes, so you need to be reeeeeally mindful of your pin usage (aka, don’t use ‘em if you can’t pin inside the seam allowance!). I traced my side panel piece with a Chaco liner before cutting on a single layer. I did not pin my pieces together, except for one part at the hem just to hold it in place while I topstitched (I usually don’t pin my hems for knits, just press them – but you can’t press pleather! One little pin hole at the hem is ok with me, anyway). The sewing part did not require any special forethought or tools – due to the fabric backing of this material, it went through my machine just fine without the need for a Teflon foot. I used a regular stretch needle. Et voila!

While I’ve got your attention, I guess I’ll also talk about my shirt – because y’all know I made that shit too!

The pattern is the Ensis Tee, also from Papercut Patterns (ooh, I just heart me some Papercut!). I’ve made this before, albeit in a thicker/less drapey knit, so I think this version deserves a little bit of spotlight :) It’s amazing how different it looks with a drapier fabric, yeah? Honestly, I like this version a lot better – I think it’s a lot more flattering (plus, it’s wool, so it’s pretty snuggly!). The top yoke is a piece of wool knit I bought in Paris, and the bottom is this cool steel grey sweater knit. I bought that knit on a whim, and it’s pretty cool – it has a lot of dimension to the color, and you can really see the knit stitches due to the somewhat loose gauge. It’s also wide and VERY stretchy in both directions – I might use the rest to make a pair of tights. Also, I need some kind of grey knit intervention. I keep buying pieces and this shit is getting out of handddd. Like, I really want that pewter grey but I’m gonna resist. I must resist.

This is basically the same picture as above, just without my head.

This tee whipped up fast! I had it cut and sewn within a couple of hours – and honestly, it took that long because of all the topstitching I added. I topstitched the colorblocking at the yokes and sleeves, as well as the neckline, using my stretch twin need and wooly nylon in the bobbin. I think it adds a little extra to an otherwise plain tshirt. Oh, and that yellow tab at the neckline is my laundry reminder not to wash this in the machine – because it’s wool :)

I kept the curved hem, left off the hem band, but added cuffs to the sleeves. Happy sweater-hybrid-tshirt-thing!

And here are my leggings again, because I know you’re just dying to see them one more time. As a side note – I used a different method to attach the elastic waistband (rather than feed it through a hole like the pattern instructs). I took some pictures while I was doing this, which I’m hoping to make into a tutorial at some point later this week.

Anyway, that’s mah new threads! Basics with a lil’ twist! What do you think? Am I going to burn someone’s eyes out with my leather leggings? Should my mom have not let me leave the house in those pleather pants? Man, I wish I had pictures of that ensemble. Sooo glad the only social media platform we had back then was makeoutclub.com HAHAHA.

As a side note – if you think my hair looks green, it’s because it is! It was due for a redye, and I decided to go green :) I’m using a new dye that I bought in London, at the suggestion of Nicole – we’ll see how it holds up! I gotta say, I’m not looking forward to the fading… green always fades so ugly. Also, these pictures are REALLY deceiving. It’s much brighter and more emerald in real life. I took these pictures on a grey and overcast day, so the color is kind of sludgy here. I don’t know how to color correct my photos, so this is what you get. Sorry, not sorry :)

I know I say this every year, but I am really really over winter. I mean it! I am so glad that I don’t live in a northern climate because I would not be able to handle that kind of weather ass-kicking. It’s been – what, maybe 2 months of actual cold here? Already over it. I just keep telling myself that if I can make it through March, then I’m golden. The weather will be warm after March. You know it’s gotten bad if I can’t even stand outside to take my photos. Enjoy this lovely view of my sewing room!

In the meantime, I’m introducing some springy colors to my wardrobe (and hair, hur hur hur), because sometimes I like to pretend that I can change things with my mind. Even if I can’t, the colors make me happy – and that’s a start, anyway.

So – behold! My new spring outfit of red and seafoam green. Some of y’all might find this suspiciously familiar, as I made a similarly-colored outfit 2 years ago for MSN (also: wtf? It’s been 2 years?? SHIT.). I really loved that outfit – no, I REALLY loved those pants. Sadly, they’ve gone the way of the Goodwill pile as they no longer fit (expect this mantra to be more frequent in future postings; I had a much-needed closet purge recently and there was a lot of stuff that fell in the category of ‘doesn’t fit anymore but I still want another one’), and I’ve been wanting to make a new pair for months now. The seafoam top also left in an earlier purge, so I knew I’d be making another top in the same color family. No shame.

Let’s see, where to start? Let’s start with the pants. These are my beloved Ginger Jeans, made in the high rise version out of fiesta red stretch cotton twill. Note to self: Mood was NOT KIDDING about this being a bright red. It’s practically neon. I didn’t like it at first, but it’s definitely grown on me. I do like this twill for trousers – it’s got a nice stretch, so they fit very tight without being uncomfortable. It was also really easy to work with – like denim, except not as thick.

One thing I didn’t consider when buying the fabric was what color to use for topstitching. Even though these aren’t actually jeans made of proper denim, I still wanted them to have the look of jeans (with the topstitching and such). I tried a few different red threads, and ultimately settled on a color that was about 2 shades darker red than the fabric. To make the thread thick enough to show the topstitching (since it’s not proper topstitching thread, just regular ol’ polyester that you use for whatever), I doubled it in the needle. I didn’t have two spools of this color, so I just wound a second bobbin with some of it. I know some people use a special triple stitch for this kind of topstitching, but my Bernina is pretty bare-bones and doesn’t have anything fancy like that, so I just used my regular straight stitch. Worked out just fine.

The pockets are lined with some Italian cotton from my stash; zipper is vintage, and the jeans button is from Pacific Trimming (I love those buttons, need to remember to buy more when I’m there next month!). I flat-felled every seam I could get my machine under, except the leg seams.

After making my first pair of Gingers (and wearing them to piecesss, argh, I love those pants!), I knew I’d need to make some minor fitting changes on the next pair. The crotch was shortened about 1/2″, and I also removed the extra wedge I’d added to the back crotch for butt room (as it was evidently making the thighs too large). These are not perfect, but they are much closer to ideal. The shortened crotch alone makes a huge difference in the fit; they feel much more comfortable now.

Ok, now for the button up! This is McCall’s 5803 (an OOP Lizzie McGuire pattern, ha!), which I’m so happy to see is finally working for me. After the fitting drama with the Liberty version that I made (which I still wear, but only if I’m having a very skinny day because LOL TIGHT), I knew this pattern would need some serious retweaking before I made it again. I compared with pieces to my TNT B5526 (which I feel is a good combination of fitted without being painted on), and retraced everything to include the neckline and arm holes from 5803, with the waistline from 5526. And hey – it worked!

The fabric I used here is a very lightweight dotted cotton seersucker that I bought from Mood NYC last year (here it is online, BUT it’s sold out. Sorry!). It was a remnant, so I had less than a yard to work with. I’m actually really surprised that I was able to eek a shirt out of such a tiny piece – however, it is pretty wide, so there’s that. I did have to cut the bias pieces (for the arm holes and hem) out of white cotton batiste, but that’s not such a big deal.

Since the fabric is very lightweight – bordering on sheer – I used French seams to finish everything. The buttons are from my stash – I like how they kind of look like huge polka dots :)

Finally – the cardigan!

This part of the outfit was actually an afterthought – I bought the fabric with no real project in mind (it’s seafoam green French terry, FFS. In my experience, when you find French terry – you buy it and ask questions later!); I just knew it would look good with the red pants. I originally thought about making a hoodie with the fabric, but while flipping through my PDF patterns, I saw the Jenna Cardi first. Boom. Done.

I can’t speak for all French terrys – as some of them can be quite drapey – but this particular terry was PERFECT for this pattern. It’s got quite a bit of body and heft, which meant it took to topstitching (and button holes!) like a total champion. It was also really quick to make – even with all the extra topstitching I added – which is a bonus because, after sewing jeans and a collared shirt, I needed a quick project.

I’m really pleased with my button choice! I bought these ages ago at the flea market, been hoarding them ever since for a good match. Think I found it!

Whew, ok, so that was the longest post ever! Sorry, apparently I have a lot to say about even the most basic pieces. With that being said, I think I’ve basically lost my mojo for sewing cold weather clothes at this point. Blech stupid winter cold blues! I think I’m going to start making booty shorts and swimsuits, weather be dammed!

Speak of which, I mentioned this upwards in the post – but I’ll be in NYC next month to teach the Weekends Pants-Making Intensive at WORKROOM SOCIAL. There are still a couple spots left, if you’ve been on the fence about signing up (c’mon, lemme grab your crotch, all in the name of learning. No, that’s not creepy at all.). I won’t be arranging a big fabric shopping meet-up this time round, mostly due to time restrictions, but if anyone is interested in joining me for a drink somewhere as an informal meet-up, let me know! Trying to get a head count :)

** Note: All fabrics for this project were provided to be as per my involvement with the Mood Sewing Network.

Good morning, friends! I hope this post finds you well – I have missed all of you! If you missed out on the drama last week (and/or were wondering why I suddenly fell silent and my website went poof into the night), I had a bit of an issue with an expired domain and transferring it back into my name. You can read the boring backstory about it in this post, but basically – everything should be fixed and up and running. If you’re still having problems getting to the site (I was until last night, thanks to my internet provider), try clearing your cache and cookies and see if that helps. Sorry for all the dramz! Shit should be back to normal from here on out!

Anyway, enough of that boring internet talk – let’s talk about why we’re all here! Sewing and fabric and actual fun happy stuff, yeah!

For this week’s project, I bring you: Jeggings. I’m not sure if this means I’ve cracked some kind of sewing power code with all the ridiculously normal/boring things I’ve made at this point, or if it means I’ve hit rock bottom (I mean, we are talking about the ultimate comfort clothing here. I am not above making fun of jeggings, just so we’re clear). You tell me. What I can tell you is that these are INSANELY comfortable and now I kind of get the hype.

I’m not really much of a comfort-clothes seeker/wearer – I’m ok with being a little pulled in for the sake of looking nice when I’m out in public. That being said, it’s not a very interesting story as to how I came about obtaining a pair of the ultimate comfort/secret pajama clothes. It started out as a fabric review for Organic Cotton Plus. I was prowling around on their website, looking for something to pick as my next project, when I came across their organic knit denim. The fact that it’s called “knit denim” should have raised some sort of warning flag, but I didn’t even notice it – I just saw denim and immediately got starry-eyed. I’m always on the lookout for a good denim source, and this sounded too good to be true. Organic cotton denim with 5% lycra? GET ON MY BODY. I submitted my order and anxiously waited for my shipment.

The spoiler here is that this definitely is not denim – not in the true sense of what you get when you buy a pair of jeans. It’s definitely a knit fabric – a very thick, stable ponte-ish type of fabric that looks exactly like denim. It’s the right color and has that twill weave look. It thick and squishy with a good, firm stretch. It’s like a marriage of a tshirt and a pair of jeans. I don’t really understand it, but I’m not going to argue with it. At any rate, I had a yard of this stuff and I realized I needed to make something with it. And that’s where jeggings came in. I wanted to see if I could actually make a pair of jeggings. I did, and now y’all get to see how they turned out.

First things first, I realize that these don’t technically classify as actual jeggings. The material does – it’s more of a knit than a denim, it’s very stretchy and it has a lot of spandex in it. However, these are constructed like an actual pair of jeans. They have working pockets (both front and back), they have an actual zip fly, and there is no elastic in the waistband. The only part about these things that makes them even remotely jeggings-like is the fabric they’re made from. However, I’m going to keep calling them jeggings because – well, I made them, and I get to call the shots. Them’s the rules.

When I was planning these out (after receiving the fabric, but before cutting into it), I debated on whether to make these into jeans-looking pants – aka, true jeggings, with the pockets and fly simply suggested by lines of topstitching. I thought it would be interesting to see how the fabric works when it’s treated like a woven, so I decided to use an actual jeans pattern and follow it the same way I would if I was making these out of denim. I used the Ginger Jeans pattern and basically did not make any changes for the fabric. The size is the same size I used for my woven denim and stretch twill jeans, and all finishing and topstitching uses the same methods as those pairs do. The only difference is that I didn’t flat-fell any of my seams – I figured it was enough that I was making these out of stretch material, so I just serged and topstitched (like you would with leggings). I’m surprised at how well they fit, although I think the legs could be a little tighter around the ankle. Also – they turned out surprisingly long, due to the 4 way stretch. I actually cut 3″ off the pattern legs before cutting (that was the ONLY way I could make these out of a yard of fabric – short inseam!), which should make them the correct length – but they magically grew, and now they’re too long. I’ve cuffed them for now, because I want to wash them a couple more times and eliminate any additional shrinking before I re-hem them.

Making these was really fun, and surprisingly quick! Like I said, I made them the same way you’d make a pair of jeans, except I didn’t flat-fell any of the seams. Everything was sewn on my sewing machine with a stretch needle and the edges were finished with my serger. For the topstitching, I used a triple stitch (thanks to Emmie for showing me the stitch on my Bernina – I guess this means I should probably read the manual more often, ha!), which makes a nice defined topstitch that also stretches quite a bit. The waistband is interfaced with my favorite stretch interfacing (seriously – this stuff is AWESOME), which gives it enough structure to look nice, but doesn’t sacrifice any of that comfy stretch. There is an actual zipper and button installed, however, I did leave off the rivets.

Basically, these look & wear like jeans – BUT THEY FEEL LIKE PAJAMAS. If that doesn’t blow your mind with amazement, then I give up.

Sorry ’bout that VPL, story of my life. I do think the pockets are a bit low, which is likely due to the 4 way stretch. I don’t care enough to remove them and raise them, so it’s whatever.

Here are some gut close-ups so you can better see what I was working with. The material really looks like denim! Everything handled pretty well, except attaching the belt loops did get a little difficult at the end, just because there were soo many layers (I ended up hammering them as flat as I could, which helped a little. Still broke a couple of needles in the process, argh.). All the topstitching was done with a single needle and a single piece of thread, sewn with the triple stitch. I used lemon yellow cotton thread, also from Organic Cotton Plus, which was nice and thick and worked out quite well with the triple stitch. It looks more gold than neon yellow when it’s against the dark indigo, which I really like.

Proof that there’s actually a zipper in there! The zipper is also from Organic Cotton Plus; it’s just a heavy brass jeans YKK zipper, but it works really nicely with this pattern. The 6″ length was just barely long enough for the high-waisted version of this pattern; I ended up cutting about 1/2″ off in excess when all was said and done. The pocket lining is just some stretch cotton sateen I had in my stash. I wanted to use something with a stretch, so it wouldn’t fight against the stretch of the exterior fabric.

And here’s the back! Mock-flat felled seams (just serged and topstitched) and patch pockets! I had to cut the waistband in pieces, because I didn’t have enough fabric to cut it on the fold – but the seam is covered by the back belt loop, so it can just be our secret, ok.

So that’s my little sewing experiment! Turns out you *can* make jeans with jegging material – with all the look of jeans, but the comfort of leggings. Love it! And since there are back pockets, I don’t feel as compelled to cover my butt haha. What do you think? Is this a win or just the weirdest garment I’ve ever made? Have you – or do you – wear jeggings? I always made fun of them, but man, can’t deny how comfy they are!!

As a side note – I mentioned this on Instagram yesterday, but it bears mentioning here too. I’m moving soon! I was finally able to get hold of my landlord with the notice and vacate date (they require 60 days, but they’re gonna let us out in 30 days because they love us for being awesome tenants haha), so we’ll be out of this house by the end of March! My best friend/life partner/former roommate just bought a house in the woods in a small town outside of Nashville, and Landon & I will be moving into the lower level as her roommates! The house is cool as shit, the land is AMAZING (did I mention it’s in the woods? Gah I can’t wait to be a hippie and raise chickens in the forest lolol), and I so look forward to living with my two very best friends in one house. Plus – I get a new sewing room! How cool is that? :)

** Note: Organic Cotton Plus provided the materials (denim knit, zipper, thread) for this project in exchange for a review. All thoughts and options are my own.

So sorry to dump this on y’all yet again – another collared shirt + jeans outfit combination. Yawn.

Well, to backtrack – yawn for you, but :D :D :D :D :D for me hahahaha. I will never get tired of this outfit combination. Or, at least, not anytime soon. Maybe never is too strong of a word to use here.

What’s mildly frustrating about writing a long-term blog (at the time of this posting, I’ve accumulated nearly 500 entries since I started waaaay back in 2009, WTF) is that you eventually reach a point when you’re just making the same thing over and over again (well… those of us who don’t make our blog our full-time income fall in this category. I’m sure if I was sponsored out the wazzoo and had all the time I spend at work to spend making content for my blog, it would be a different story, ha.). After re-assessing my wardrobe at the end of 2014 and realizing that I *still* had shitloads of clothing that I made simply for the new and shiny, I have made it a big point to really be honest with myself about whether or not I’ll actually wear something that I make. Like most people, I have a pretty predictable style. And like many sewers, I don’t want to spend a lot of time reinventing the wheel with new patterns if I can get the look I’m going for with an old TNT. So this translates to repeats upon repeats upon repeats.

So, while you might be yawning about the majority of the stuff that’s been posted in 2015… I gotta say, I am elated with the way my closet is looking these days!

With all that being said, there’s not much to report on either of these pieces since I’ve made them soooo many damn times. Jeans + collared shirt is totally my go-to when I want to feel comfortable but still look like I made an effort in the AM. I’ve found my TNT patterns and I feel good about the way they fit and the construction methods that I use.

The top was made using my beloved Butterick 5526. Y’all, I don’t know if I’ll ever sew another button up pattern again! (we all know that’s a lie) I’ve gotten to the point with this one where I can bang one out in a couple of days, which is really nice when you’re coming up on a looming Mood Sewing Network deadline, ha. The fabric is this amazing tigerlily orange cotton voile from Theory, which is a bit more of a coral-y pink than it is orange in real life (I don’t know how the color translates on your screen, but on the Mood Fabrics website it’s definitely pretty muted. The real color is much closer to what you see in my photos. It’s BEAUTIFUL). It has a beautiful chambray weave, which gives the color lots of dimension. This fabric was so so nice to work with – ok, it was a shifty bitch to cut, but once I got past this point, it handled and pressed like a boss. It’s also super comfortable to wear on even the hottest day.

Since the fabric does have a tendency to fray, I used flat-felled seams every where in my shirt. I also left off the sleeves and finished the armhole with self bias binding – it makes the shirt really casual and, again, awesome for hot weather. The pockets are the same pockets that come with the pattern, but I made them slightly smaller because the original size was a little overwhelming on me. Buttons are from my stash; they’re just your standard white shirt buttons. Oh! And the matching thread also came from Mood Fabrics – I noticed that when I was ordering my fabric, there were thread suggestions at the bottom of the page. I figured I’d try out the service – you know, for science – and I’m super pleased with the color match. Even more pleased that I was saved a trip to the fabric store. Mostly because those tend to be very dangerous places for my wallet, ha.

The good thing about running a long-term blog and making a bunch of pattern repeats is that you will eventually bore of just making things that are passable to wear in public, and start focusing on really honing your skills to the next level. Or, at least, that’s how it worked out for me. Look at those clean finished insides! I should wear this shit wrong-side out.

I did shorten the length of the shirt by about 2″ – I think the original length was just sliiiightly too long for my height. This way I can wear it untucked or tied at the waist. If I do a half tuck, it doesn’t pooch out all weird like some of my longer shirts tend to do. As always, I finish my shirt hems with self bias facing. I think it makes for a much cleaner finish, and it’s must easier to press and sew those curves with the bias tape instead of trying to wrangle the hem itself.

For my jeans, I used my now-favorite-ever-pants-pattern, the Ginger Jeans. I’ve made this a few times before (and I definitely don’t plan on stopping – I finally was able to invest in one of the denim kits because YAY) and I’m just really happy with the way this pattern fits my body. The fabric is a cool metallic gold stretch denim. I was actually looking for white denim to make this up, despite me being a stain magnet when it comes to white. At any rate, this denim’s wrong side actually is white flecked with very subtle bits of gold, and these very well almost became white jeans. I talked myself out of it because I was afraid the not-quite-pure-white would make the jeans look like they were dirty, plus again, stain magnet. So I stuck with the gold side. Also, this denim doesn’t have as much stretch as my other denims, so the jeans are a bit tight. I had to let the side seams out to 3/8″ or else I would have never gotten these things over my ass. They’re still a bit tight – mostly around the calves – but I’m hoping that they will loosen up a little with wear.

Not much to report on construction. I used a combination of flat-felled and serged seams (as how most RTW jeans are made) and a triple stitch to really make the topstitching stand out. I would have loved to use topstitching thread, but I couldn’t find a good match with what is admittedly kind of a weird denim color. It’s gold, but it’s also kind of beige. Fortunately, Mood Fabrics REALLY came through with that thread match, as you can see in these close-ups.

What else? I did not interface the waistband (I like my jeans with an uninterfaced waistband; it’s much more comfortable. Not sure how that would work with a lower rise, but for the high rise version, it’s perfect). The jeans button is from Pacific Trimming, and the cotton pocket lining is left over from this crazy blue dress.

I will admit right now that this outfit inspiration came way of my boss’ closet. Since I do all her laundry for her (if you are new to this blog and that sounds REALLY WEIRD, I should probably point out that I’m a personal assistant :) ha!), I’m always lurking on her clothes and I’m always finding inspiration in some of the strangest ways. She has a similar coral chambray shirt – hers has sleeves and a lace inset at the yoke, though – and white jeans. And I wanted that outfit for me. So I made it :P

So, hey, in other news that doesn’t involve me making my fifty billionth b5526 – I’ve got an article out in the current issue of Seamwork Magazine! If you haven’t heard of Seamwork, it’s a sewing magazine that is published online by the masterminds behind Colette Patterns. The magazine is free to read and there are optional pattern downloads with each issue (the patterns you pay for, however). ANYWAY, my article is all about visiting Nashville! I had so much fun writing a city guide about my favorite city in the entire world, and I hope you have fun reading it (and are inspired to come visit because, hey, Nashville is awesome! Really really awesome!). You can read The Seamworker’s Guide to Visiting Nashville at Seamwork. My first published article! Yay!

I’ve been swimming through muslin hell this whole week (crazy me decided to even make a SECOND MUSLIN to verify all my changes, wtf who am I turning into amirite), but fortunately, I have an old make from pre-Maine that I can share with y’all! Jeans! Yay!

Remember when we were all scrambling around to buy those fancy Cone Mills Denim kits with our Ginger Jeans earlier this year (and last year too, for that matter)? I’m so happy that I made space in my budget for one, because Cone Mills denim is awesome. It’s the same denim they used to make Imogene + Willie jeans (which I can personally vouch for as I own 2 pairs – they wear really well and hold their shape beautifully, which means I never need to wash them in order to shrink ’em back down at the end of the day), and although the kit wasn’t cheap – it is certainly cheaper than buying the actual jeans. By the way, if you’re thinking, “Where the hell is this kit so I can buy one???” I’m sorry to be the one to tell you that they were on limited pre-order, and have been sold out for a while now :( Hopefully there will be more where that came from!

EDIT I have just been informed that Threadbare Fabrics sells Cone Mills Denim! Yay!! I apologize in advance for those who end up emptying their bank accounts after reading this post :)

Anyway, the point of that somewhat sales-y sounding paragraph was to say that I finally used one of the pieces of my denim for this pair of pants. I received the kit way back in April and have been anxious to sew it up, but I wanted to wait until it was actually something closer to pants-season before I got too excited.

Also, just a head’s up before we delve too far into this post – sorry in advance for all the weird bobble-head shots. I didn’t realize my camera was tilted so much, and I don’t care enough to retake the photos. Also, there be VPL in most of these pictures. Not sorry about that! Deal with it!

The denim itself is what really counts when it comes to a good pair of jeans. You want a material that is a good medium weight (not too light, but also not too heavy) and if it has stretch, an awesome recovery. The single thing that’s plagued me the most when it comes to making my own pants is finding material with a good recovery! I hate having my pants bag out by the end of the day – it’s annoying enough for every day life, and utterly useless if you’re traveling and don’t have access for a quick wash (or just plain don’t own a washer and dryer, which was totally my situation up until we moved this year!). Plus, washing denim too much can fade out the color and cause the fibers to break down faster. I like my jeans to be a really deep, dark indigo blue, so fading isn’t my first choice. Figuring out fabric recovery is really difficult to do without actually wearing the fabric – which means you have to sew it first. So whenever someone gives me a head’s up on some good stretch bottomweight, I tend to snap it up without hesitation. I knew the Cone Mills denim was good stuff, so I’m glad I was able to get my hands on some before it sold out.

This certainly is not my first pair of Ginger Jeans – I’ve made a classic indigo denim pair, a red cotton twill pair, a gold denim pair, a version of jeggings and shorts version. What can I say – when I like a pattern, I tend to stick with it :) And I REALLY like this pattern – it’s a nice, classic jeans pattern with all the good details you see in store-bought jeans, minus the shitty denim and strange fitting issues.

Having made this pattern numerous times made me feel confident enough to break into my mega-expensive denim for the pair you see here. I knew I already had the fit pretty good, so I could focus more on visual details with this version. That being said, there are a few changes to this pair that aren’t evident in my previous makes.

The biggest change is that I went up one size, to a 4. While I like the fit of the 2 (all my other Gingers are 2s, fyi!), I’ve gained a little bit of weight over the summer and I got this weird paranoia that I was in denial about my size. Those 2s are great and super comfortable, but the legs are so tight that they look painted on. I was horrified at the thought of people thinking I was trying to squeeze into a too-small size, so I went up to the next size. I think the 4 definitely fits better, but the are a little different. Namely – those wrinkles at the knee. What is the deal with those? The calves aren’t too tight (they are looser than the tightness on my 2s, and my 2s don’t wrinkle like that), so that’s not the issue. Maybe they’re too loose at the knee and need to be taken in a bit? Thoughts? Btw, the wrinkles look worse in photos than they do in real life!

Since I was going up one size and I don’t trace, I had to reprint the pattern. I know Heather updated the Ginger jeans pattern at some point last year, and I had both an original version (that I got when it was first released) and an updated version (that came with my purchased denim kit). I printed the new version so I could try it and compare to the original one. I don’t recall exactly what changes were made to the jeans, but there are some slight differences in the rise and the shaping around the crotch and hips. The waist is definitely a lot higher than it is in the original version – and this was after I shortened the crotch. The major difference in the updated version is the pocket bags – instead of normal jeans pocket bags, there is a drafted pocket stay (also called an instant tummy tuck).

With a pocket stay, the pocket bags go all the way across the front into the fly. This helps pull everything in and give you a smooth line in the front (hence the tummy tuck name). I wasn’t sure if it would be comfortable, but I tried it anyway and I’m glad that I did! I don’t care about smooth lines or whatever (I mean, c’mon, I’m basically always rocking dem VPLs. Death to thongs!), but what I do love is that the pockets stay in place when you pull your pants on. You know how tight pants always have to get the pockets shoved back down after you go to the bathroom? Not with these babies! Plus, since the pocketing isn’t folded over anywhere, there isn’t a weird bump at the coin pocket. I never was a fan of that.

Damn, shoulda pressed those insides before taking the photo. That fly shield wrinkle looks awful.

All the topstitching and jeans-y details are what really made these fun to sew up! I just love the way jeans topstitching thread looks when sewn up against denim, so good. I kept my I+W jeans on hand and used their stitching colors as inspiration for this pair (here’s an old post where I took close-ups of the jeans right after I bought them, if you’re curious). The kits came with the zipper, button, rivets, copper topstitching thread and denim needles. However, you can buy all that stuff individually as well – Taylor Tailor has most of it in his supply shop for really reasonable prices. I did buy the orange topstitching thread from Taylor Tailor, which I think looks awesome next to the gold topstitching.

Now that I’ve overloaded you with pictures of my butt and crotch, here are some flat jeans shots.

As you can see, I used the orange topstitching thread pretty sparingly – just for the bartacks and belt loops. I can’t say I thought of this myself, as I pulled the inspo straight from my I+W jeans. They also use a third topstitching color in the second line of stitching, which is not something I did with this pair. Also note that the I+W jeans don’t use rivets, but I did use them here. I love hammering those things in and I think they really finish off the jeans nicely. I just kept them on the front pockets and coin pocket – I don’t like the look of rivets on the back pockets.

Again, using my I+W jeans as inspiration – I flat-felled only the back yoke seam, and serged + topstiched the leg seams (this will make it way easier to take in the legs if I need to, so yay!). I used orange thread in my serger, which mimics the orange bartacks. I LOVE the way it looks!

Whew! Sorry about all that cat hair!

This is my absolute favorite little detail of these pants – the side leg bartack is a little L for Lauren :) On my I+W jeans, they have a little + sign on one leg in place of a bartack, and I thought, hey I can do that with an L. It’s only on one side, and it’s quite subtle unless you already know it’s there.

Welp, that ended up being a super long post! Do you see now why I love making jeans so much? All the little details are so fun and make the end result look extremely professional. Not to mention, all the customization options – from fit, to denim, to topstitching details. I’m so glad Heather released the Ginger pattern and I’m even happier than we were able to get some of that fancy-ass denim to make it up with! I still have one more piece for one more pair of jeans – and I’m thinking I might do the low-rise version next. Could be fun!

Good morning, friends! I hope this post finds you well – I have missed all of you! If you missed out on the drama last week (and/or were wondering why I suddenly fell silent and my website went poof into the night), I had a bit of an issue with an expired domain and transferring it back into my name. You can read the boring backstory about it in this post, but basically – everything should be fixed and up and running. If you’re still having problems getting to the site (I was until last night, thanks to my internet provider), try clearing your cache and cookies and see if that helps. Sorry for all the dramz! Shit should be back to normal from here on out!

Anyway, enough of that boring internet talk – let’s talk about why we’re all here! Sewing and fabric and actual fun happy stuff, yeah!

For this week’s project, I bring you: Jeggings. I’m not sure if this means I’ve cracked some kind of sewing power code with all the ridiculously normal/boring things I’ve made at this point, or if it means I’ve hit rock bottom (I mean, we are talking about the ultimate comfort clothing here. I am not above making fun of jeggings, just so we’re clear). You tell me. What I can tell you is that these are INSANELY comfortable and now I kind of get the hype.

I’m not really much of a comfort-clothes seeker/wearer – I’m ok with being a little pulled in for the sake of looking nice when I’m out in public. That being said, it’s not a very interesting story as to how I came about obtaining a pair of the ultimate comfort/secret pajama clothes. It started out as a fabric review for Organic Cotton Plus. I was prowling around on their website, looking for something to pick as my next project, when I came across their organic knit denim. The fact that it’s called “knit denim” should have raised some sort of warning flag, but I didn’t even notice it – I just saw denim and immediately got starry-eyed. I’m always on the lookout for a good denim source, and this sounded too good to be true. Organic cotton denim with 5% lycra? GET ON MY BODY. I submitted my order and anxiously waited for my shipment.

The spoiler here is that this definitely is not denim – not in the true sense of what you get when you buy a pair of jeans. It’s definitely a knit fabric – a very thick, stable ponte-ish type of fabric that looks exactly like denim. It’s the right color and has that twill weave look. It thick and squishy with a good, firm stretch. It’s like a marriage of a tshirt and a pair of jeans. I don’t really understand it, but I’m not going to argue with it. At any rate, I had a yard of this stuff and I realized I needed to make something with it. And that’s where jeggings came in. I wanted to see if I could actually make a pair of jeggings. I did, and now y’all get to see how they turned out.

First things first, I realize that these don’t technically classify as actual jeggings. The material does – it’s more of a knit than a denim, it’s very stretchy and it has a lot of spandex in it. However, these are constructed like an actual pair of jeans. They have working pockets (both front and back), they have an actual zip fly, and there is no elastic in the waistband. The only part about these things that makes them even remotely jeggings-like is the fabric they’re made from. However, I’m going to keep calling them jeggings because – well, I made them, and I get to call the shots. Them’s the rules.

When I was planning these out (after receiving the fabric, but before cutting into it), I debated on whether to make these into jeans-looking pants – aka, true jeggings, with the pockets and fly simply suggested by lines of topstitching. I thought it would be interesting to see how the fabric works when it’s treated like a woven, so I decided to use an actual jeans pattern and follow it the same way I would if I was making these out of denim. I used the Ginger Jeans pattern and basically did not make any changes for the fabric. The size is the same size I used for my woven denim and stretch twill jeans, and all finishing and topstitching uses the same methods as those pairs do. The only difference is that I didn’t flat-fell any of my seams – I figured it was enough that I was making these out of stretch material, so I just serged and topstitched (like you would with leggings). I’m surprised at how well they fit, although I think the legs could be a little tighter around the ankle. Also – they turned out surprisingly long, due to the 4 way stretch. I actually cut 3″ off the pattern legs before cutting (that was the ONLY way I could make these out of a yard of fabric – short inseam!), which should make them the correct length – but they magically grew, and now they’re too long. I’ve cuffed them for now, because I want to wash them a couple more times and eliminate any additional shrinking before I re-hem them.

Making these was really fun, and surprisingly quick! Like I said, I made them the same way you’d make a pair of jeans, except I didn’t flat-fell any of the seams. Everything was sewn on my sewing machine with a stretch needle and the edges were finished with my serger. For the topstitching, I used a triple stitch (thanks to Emmie for showing me the stitch on my Bernina – I guess this means I should probably read the manual more often, ha!), which makes a nice defined topstitch that also stretches quite a bit. The waistband is interfaced with my favorite stretch interfacing (seriously – this stuff is AWESOME), which gives it enough structure to look nice, but doesn’t sacrifice any of that comfy stretch. There is an actual zipper and button installed, however, I did leave off the rivets.

Basically, these look & wear like jeans – BUT THEY FEEL LIKE PAJAMAS. If that doesn’t blow your mind with amazement, then I give up.

Sorry ’bout that VPL, story of my life. I do think the pockets are a bit low, which is likely due to the 4 way stretch. I don’t care enough to remove them and raise them, so it’s whatever.

Here are some gut close-ups so you can better see what I was working with. The material really looks like denim! Everything handled pretty well, except attaching the belt loops did get a little difficult at the end, just because there were soo many layers (I ended up hammering them as flat as I could, which helped a little. Still broke a couple of needles in the process, argh.). All the topstitching was done with a single needle and a single piece of thread, sewn with the triple stitch. I used lemon yellow cotton thread, also from Organic Cotton Plus, which was nice and thick and worked out quite well with the triple stitch. It looks more gold than neon yellow when it’s against the dark indigo, which I really like.

Proof that there’s actually a zipper in there! The zipper is also from Organic Cotton Plus; it’s just a heavy brass jeans YKK zipper, but it works really nicely with this pattern. The 6″ length was just barely long enough for the high-waisted version of this pattern; I ended up cutting about 1/2″ off in excess when all was said and done. The pocket lining is just some stretch cotton sateen I had in my stash. I wanted to use something with a stretch, so it wouldn’t fight against the stretch of the exterior fabric.

And here’s the back! Mock-flat felled seams (just serged and topstitched) and patch pockets! I had to cut the waistband in pieces, because I didn’t have enough fabric to cut it on the fold – but the seam is covered by the back belt loop, so it can just be our secret, ok.

So that’s my little sewing experiment! Turns out you *can* make jeans with jegging material – with all the look of jeans, but the comfort of leggings. Love it! And since there are back pockets, I don’t feel as compelled to cover my butt haha. What do you think? Is this a win or just the weirdest garment I’ve ever made? Have you – or do you – wear jeggings? I always made fun of them, but man, can’t deny how comfy they are!!

As a side note – I mentioned this on Instagram yesterday, but it bears mentioning here too. I’m moving soon! I was finally able to get hold of my landlord with the notice and vacate date (they require 60 days, but they’re gonna let us out in 30 days because they love us for being awesome tenants haha), so we’ll be out of this house by the end of March! My best friend/life partner/former roommate just bought a house in the woods in a small town outside of Nashville, and Landon & I will be moving into the lower level as her roommates! The house is cool as shit, the land is AMAZING (did I mention it’s in the woods? Gah I can’t wait to be a hippie and raise chickens in the forest lolol), and I so look forward to living with my two very best friends in one house. Plus – I get a new sewing room! How cool is that?

** Note: Organic Cotton Plus provided the materials (denim knit, zipper, thread) for this project in exchange for a review. All thoughts and options are my own.

Hey guys! I have some new workshops coming up this fall – check it out!

Master Sewing Class at Pintuck & Purl
October 5-9, 2016
Pintuck & Purl, Exeter, NH

Join me for a super fun, pick-your-project sewing workshop weekend at Pintuck & Purl! Similar to my prior retreats at A Gathering of Stitches (which, btw, I will be back – but probably not until 2017, due to schedule conflicts. Wah!), this long sewing weekend is all about what YOU want to work on! Want to work on fine-tuning your fit so you can really nail that TNT pattern? Want to make a coat? What about a bra? Do you just want to hang out and sew with other awesome people who are also sewing and know that you have a teacher on hand for any last-minute oh-shit-I’ve-made-a-huge-mistake situations? I GOT YOU. This is *your* retreat, and you can spend it however you like! The class fee includes a welcome party, lunches, local excursions, signature drinks and a swanky dinner out on Saturday night. Turn that shit into a sweet-ass sewing vacation already!

Pintuck & Purl is a new sewing shop located in Exeter, NH, another gorgeous (well, so I’m told ;)) New England town that I am guessing is gonna be FUCKING AMAZING come October. The retail shop will be closed to the public during this retreat, so we’ll have the whole place to ourselves (who wants to join me for some pantsless sewing? Anyone?). Pintuck & Purl is also an authorized Bernina dealer – so if you’re hearing the siren song of the Bernina and want to spend some time sewing on one before you take the plunge – here’s your opportunity!

I love love LOVE these types of open-sewing workshops, and I am super excited for this one! You can sign up for the workshop here! There are a limited number of spots and I expect this one to sell out like all the others do, so register early

Jeans Making Sewing Intensive
November 3-4, 2016
Workroom Social, Brooklyn, NY

That’s right – I’m coming back to teach another class at my beloved Workroom Social, this time it’s all about the jeans!! Y’all have been asking for a jeans class, so we are here to deliver😉 In this 2 day intensive at Workroom Social, we will be making a pair of Ginger Jeans (my fave jeans pattern, obvs) – including basic fitting and pattern adjustments, construction techniques, and everything you need to know about finishing (topstitching, installing hardware, etc). Jeans are one of those funny projects that look super intimidating, but are actually really fun to make. Not to mention – out of all the handmades I’ve ever made, jeans tend to top the list as far as what impresses people the most😉 You can see my Gingers here – skinnies, Cone Mills 1, Cone Mills 2, gold denim, red stretch twill, and Jorts! The pattern that goes on forever, basically😉

If you’ve never taken a Workroom Social class, you are in for a real treat! The class fee includes use of all the tools and machines in the studio (which, by the way, is the cutest little Brooklyn sewing studio ever), as well as a delicious catered lunch + end of day cocktail hour (both days!). We have all the sizes sewn up beforehand so you can try on a muslin before you cut into your fabric, which lets us jump straight into fitting and then sewing! These classes are LOADS of fun and an absolutely prime excuse for visiting NYC if you’ve been looking for a reason. Not to mention – you get to go home with a new pair of jeans THAT YOU MADE YOURSELF. Impress all your friends! Do it!

Weekend Pants-Making Intensive
November 5-6, 2016
Workroom Social, Brooklyn, NY

Like I’d go all the way to NYC without teaching a Weekend Pants-Making Intensive😛 Are you kidding me – this shit is my bread and butter!😉

So yes, we are running back-to-back pants classes at Workroom Social that weekend! After jeans, we will be immediately diving into our TNT basic Pants Making Intensive. Interested in making pants but don’t want to deal with jeans specifically? Then this is the class for you! In this class, we will be sewing a trouser-style pattern (don’t worry, it still includes all the fun details that make for a not-basic pair of pants – think slash pockets, front fly zipper, and a proper waistband – you can see the sample I made here) while going over basic fitting and pattern adjustments, construction, and the aforementioned trouser details. I loveeee teaching this class and I am so excited to be back for another round! PANTS!

As with the jeans class, this Workroom Social class includes all the same things with the fee – use of equipment and tools, lunch and snacks, dranks, endless giggles and crotch grabs (I hope you’re comfortable around me, lolz). T

Want to take a workshop with me but don’t know which one to shoot for? Here’s a breakdown:

Master Sewing Class at Pintuck & Purl
For those who want to sew, but hate being restricted to a particular class project – you get to pick your own! This will be a more intimate, relaxed sort of class, with fun excursions and lots of hangout opportunities. This is also a longer weekend, which means SEWING VACATION amirite.

Jeans Making Sewing Intensive
You don’t just want to make pants – you want to make JEANS! You all about those fun details and hardware that make jeans stand apart from a typical pants pattern. You can also take time off work – as this class runs on a Thursday-Friday. This also means you get an open weekend in New York City, should you choose to hang around for a few days! Again – SEWING VACATION amirite! Please note that prior pants-sewing knowledge is not necessary for this class – we will be covering all that while we construct the pattern – but it IS helpful, since you’ll then be able to focus more on the finishing and details.

Weekend Pants-Making Intensive
If you’re not particularly interested in making jeans, but you still want to get some pants knowledge crammed up in your head – this is the class for you! This class is all about PANTS, but is not restricted to jeans (so no topstitching or hardware, no sewing stretch denim, etc). We will still cover all the construction and fitting that you need to get you lookin super fly and pants’d, all while using a more traditional trouser pattern. You can definitely apply this knowledge toward future jeans, so don’t get too worked up if you’re having trouble deciding between the two.

For those of y’all who are asking about local classes here in Nashville – I do teach classes at Craft South, as well as offer private lessons (which you can sign up for on the website – please be aware that I *only* do private lessons on Fridays, and make sure you request me specifically if that’s what you want!). They are just 3 hour sewing basics classes, though – no big weekend workshops. Honestly, I use those as an excuse to travel😉 So I’m not sure if that’s something I will offer in the future locally, but you are welcome to fill out a request form on the website – if there’s a demand, we are gonna fill it! And if you are in another city and want me to come teach – get me in touch with your local sewing shop and maybe we can plan something fun! I am always down for checking out new cities!

Are you signed up for any fun classes this fall? Do I have anyone here crazy enough to sign up for two – or even all three! – of these classes? If so… want to be my dinner and drinking buddy?😉