inadvertent fashionista

In spite of my fondness for both Ugly Betty and Project Runway, I am a long, long way from being a fashionista. When I redrafted the Jalie 2908 jeans to remove the boot-cut tapering I knew I wanted them wider than I'd muslined, and rather than fuss with leg width at that point I simple ruled a straight line down from the widest hip-point (outseam) and inner thigh (inseam) to the hem. That's a wide leg for a jean.

But I didn't care. I figured I'd get the pockets and zip and crotch seam done, then baste up the legs and fine-tune the width. Then I tried them on, and whaddaya know. I like 'em wide. They seem to suit me. So I left them that way. I don't care if my jeans are in the same galaxy as "on trend" so long as they fit and are comfortable. I figure I've been ignoring fashion for decades, no reason to start grasping at trendy now.

And then I saw these...

... 3 pages torn from the Garnet Hill catalog that landed in my mailbox a few days ago, and which I flipped through this morning. Those are various twill and chino pants, not jeans specifically, but close enough. At least one pair was on a page headed "trend spotting" or something like that. Prices: $68-$88.

Let's see, I got 6 yards of the blue stretch mystery fabric for whatever $1.99/yard  -20% +tax comes out to, and have so far made from it one muslin, one pair of very wearable jeans, and have enough left to maybe make a pair of capris, or certainly a skirt, should I ever get around to that.

There are those who would include the value of my time, too, but let's not go there. Assigning a dollar sign to play time is just plain wrong.

Into the UFO bin it shall go

Butterick 5283 is a no-go, for now. I got the front and back of View B (lower left)...

... done and sewn up at shoulders and sides in about :45 for a quick try-on. I'd taken the risk, when cutting the muslin, of not lengthening the upper bodice. My fabric has more than the "moderate" stretch called for, and is stretchy lengthwide as well as across, so I was concerned that that V neckline might end up down at my navel. Mistake. In spite of stretchiness, I still need an inch and half more length up there to get that bodice seam to sit where it should (which is not perched halfway upslope toward the "bust point," folks). And even in a soft stretchy fabric there's something off about how the gathers sit on my chest, perhaps due to length deficiencies, perhaps not. And the back is still a bit too wide for me, even though I cut it a size smaller than the front.

I've set this one aside in the UFO bin, as it's got potential and is worth trying again. Before I do, I'll want to add sleeves to the muslin and assess those, too, but since this is no longer on my suitcase list I'm moving on. I only have a week of sewing time left, and the less fussing around with fitting I have to do at this stage, the better.

BTW, I happened no notice (when snagging the image) that this pattern is on clearance for $3 at the Butterick site. In case you'd like to try it yourself.

buttonhole relevation

Oh, the joy and convenience of the one-step, push a button and watch it go, buttonhole function! My sewing projects are not buttonhole intensive, but when I've got one (or several) to do, I love that the machine does all the work for me, so almost-automatically.

My practice pair of jeans are this close to done. They still need to be hemmed. And they still need a buttonhole.

The test buttonhole was perfect (and so easy!), but when I set up to do the one on the waistband there was a snag. Literally. The back of the buttonhole foot -- which on my machine sticks out quite a way -- got hung up on the finished belt loop above the pocket, all forward motion of fabric under the needle ceased (just too much going on to fit under the b'hole foot, in spite of vigorous tugging and vocal encouragement from the machine operator) and I had to abort the mission.

Too bad I followed the Jalie assembly instructions so slavishly and slowly, making sure I'd completed each step before moving on to the next. If I'd left the beltloops unfinished (i.e., dangling from the bottom of the waistband, and not yet folded up and stitched into place), doing a keyhole buttonhole by machine woulda been a piece of cake.

Now I have to do the buttonhole by hand (snort: not hardly likely!). Or rip out a double row of tiny, narrow, zig-zag topstitching on the belt loop to make room for the machine to do its thing, and then redo it. Or make a plain buttonhole backwards -- with that pesky belt-loop in front of the presser foot during construction, instead of behind it --but I prefer a keyhole style for a shank button and am not quite ready to give up on it.

Any decision on how to proceed has been tabled until after lunch. My creative ingenuity, decision-making skills, and tolerance for fiddly little details all plummet when I'm hungry.

In the meantime, I've written a large correction to the instructions for next time: "Do the buttonhole BEFORE sewing that last belt loop into place!"

It's very possible that some helpful reviewer (or many of them) posted a comment about this somewhere on the several PR jeans threads or in the 71 Jalie 2908 reviews, but you could make several pairs of jeans in the time it would take to read through all of that info, so I've done no more than glance at it.

I've got a muslin of Butterick 5238 (knit top) ready to go, so I might take a break from the jeans and work on that this afternoon.

********
2PM update: the buttonhole is done. With 10 styles to choose from, I found one that is reinforced at the back, then sewed it in reversed position, so the reinforcement is at the zip end. Problem solved.

Jeans progress and a fabric score

Stopped in at my LFS to get some kind of jeans-appropriate button(s) the other day and discovered they'd gotten a new shipment of "designer" remnants in. They have a large table of this stuff in the back, piles of flat-fold miscellany, often mostly crap, but some gems in there if you dig deep. Most pieces are 1-1.5 yards or so, some up to 3 yards, mix of wovens and knits, sometimes lace and other "novelty" items. You never know what you will find.

I found this:

Cotton-lycra jersey with some but not too much stretch. Due to camera issues, I scanned this in; about an 8"x10" sample of the 1-1/8 yard piece that I got for $3.76 inc. tax. It will become a top of some kind, don't know what yet. A bit on the hippy-dippy side, but I'm cool with that.

I also got 1-5/8 yards of the most luscious pewter-colored rayon stretch velvet you have ever seen. OMG is it yummy. A small splurge, at $12.20 for the piece, but whatever I make from it will be worth it.

Discount Fabric Warehouse consistently offers a world's-best collection of aloha prints and tropical barkcloth and upholstery fabrics at very reasonable prices, but their garment fabric selection is (for my needs and taste) mostly "miss." So when they get good stuff in I like to show my approval by handing over the AmEx. This time they had a TON of nice stuff, including many textured and embroidered silks/silk-imposters. I was tempted by many, but would have to change my entire lifestyle in support of that kind of wardrobe, so got out the door with only two additions to the stash. And a fistful of zippers in fun colors for future use.

In other news from the sewing room today, who knew that making jeans would be so much fun?! Okay, yes, many participants in the PR jeans sew-along have posted exactly that, but I didn't expect to be one of them. My hopes hovered at the level of getting through the process without bruising my forehead too badly banging it on the sewing table in expected bouts of despair and frustration. But seriously, folks, I'm having fun. Something about completing each step and holding it up and thinking, "hey, this is starting to look like real jeans" is irresistable. I still have to do the waistband and belt-loops, and (eeep) hems, but am already itching to start on a second pair.

Disclaimer: when I say I get a thrill from seeing my efforts morph into something that looks like "real jeans," I am taking some liberties with language. Especially when applied to my top-stitching, which is, um, not at all professional looking. It's downright wonky in more than a few places, at least two of which can be blamed on Cosmo, who is fascinated by the sewing machine and prone to leaping onto the sewing table in pursuit of moving parts at inopportune moments.

Here's a peek at my lined waistband (in progress) and belt-loops strips (also a bit wonky). Not that I care: my pleasure in producing something that looks (to my starry eyes) like "real jeans" is completely outweighing any pride in craftsmanship, or lack thereof:

I've used my various-sized scraps of this Amy Butler print for so many different projects now that I've almost used it up. The pockets are this print on one side, and a different, coodinating one on the other because I didn't have any large enough pieces left to make complete pockets.

By using the scanner today I got a nice, sharp, high-res image of the weird, two-wrong-side fabric I mentioned previously, so here's a closeup of that:

This fabric is so stretchy across the grain that I didn't dare cut the waistband on the bias as the pattern calls for. This is a lengthwise strip: that ridged texture runs across the width of the fabric, rather than vertically as you see it here. I'm actually on the verge of liking it.

 

Inaccessible...

... my photos, that is. I got a new USB cable for the digital camera and tried it out this morning. Alas, the camera is still invisible to my computer. Which means the problem is inside the camera somewhere. I don't know if it's the kind of thing that can be fixed, and if so at what expense. I'm going to turn the problem over to Mr. de Hilo, who is in charge of all technical details around here. Perhaps he can come up with a solution. Probably it will be easier/cheaper to just get a new camera.

Too bad we're closing in on the end of the month. I've spent way too much already on fabric, cat toys (and food, and litter) and have two more vet bills to pay before little cutie's vaccinations are complete and he's been neutered. And next month I'm travelling for two weeks, with many fabric store visits planned, plus other incidentals, including hotel rooms and meals for the several nights I won't be at Mom and Dad's. And then there's XMas to shop for (yes I'll make some things, but the AmEx will get into play, too). So I don't see where there's any new camera in my budget. Maybe if I ask Santa for one.

In the meantime, I took some pics this morning of my custom-jeans-pocket stitching and my clever lined belt-loops strips. The belt loops are the sort of fiddly little detail that is really not worth doing and a lousy use of my sewing time, but I couldn't help myself once the idea popped into my head.

Since pics are still in the inaccessible, I'll try to entertain you with my pocket-stitching line drawing. The outer line is the cut size of the pocket piece, with inner top-stitching line also marked:

I made this up to size in Illustrator (that's an "Americana" font capital V, converted to outline), flipped the arcs but not the V for the other side, printed them both out, pinned the paper to the pocket fabric and stitched right through the paper. Slowly. Very slowly.

Worked great, after I'd spent about 90 minutes fussing around with every possible top-stitching/bobbin thread combination, several different needles, and every tension setting on my machine, before arriving at a workable combination.

Anyhoo, so far so good on the jeans. If I could retrieve photos from my camera you'd see how laughably un-professional my top-stitching is. Not that I care. I consider these a practice pair, although if they turn out to be comfy I'll wear them anyway.

I need to do some "real work" for a bit, then I tackle the fly-front zip install.

Vogue 8422: nice but not quite right

Yesterday, after setting the pants aside to be hemmed when I feel like it (and playing with the cat for a bit, which did wonders for my mood) I sewed up a muslin of Vogue 8422, View B. Since I'm without photo capability at the moment, you'll have to make do with the pattern drawing:

I used a super-cheap poly-spandex purchased online with the idea of testing stretch knit patterns like this one. Turns out it's more swimwear fabric than a street-wear knit, but it's not too far off the stretch rayon jersey I want to use in terms of weight and stretch.

I lowered the waist an inch, and left off the sleeves, and it turned out well. This top has tons of potential. The lower front is a separate panel that is slightly gathered at the bodice seam, which does a nice job of camouflaging a less-then-flat belly. The ties are huge, though, and have to be because there's so much fabric gathered into them on the side. I took a tip from a PatternReview comment and folded out some of the extra fabric on the left front, to reduce bulk. When I make this up "for real" I might do the same on the right front, too.

 However, I don't think it's the right pattern for the fabric I had in mind, which is this one:

Originally I'd thought the draping on this top would suit the fabric, but now I think the pattern will muffle the print, and the print will disguise the pattern shaping, both of which are worth showing off. I'm going to look for another pattern that will display this fabric better. Maybe something super-simple like the Textile Studio "Santa Monica" Tee.

I do think I'll make this top some day, but I'm taking it off the "get done before Oct. trip" list. I need a top I can wear with jeans, and I don't think this is it. It needs (on my shape) something with minimal tummy bulk  underneath it, like a flat-front pant or slim skirt with invisible side or back zip.

View A might go better with jeans:

I don't love the curved edge on the lower panel, but that's easy to redraft. This version is hovering at the lower edge of my "I might possibly get to this before I go" list. I have another fabric in mind, but haven't checked yet if I have enough yardage. Or figured out what I'd use for that ring detail.

With two weeks left until I pack my suitcase I'm determined to fit a little sewing into each day (something that has not happened the past couple weeks). This morning I tweaked the fit of the Jalie jeans muslin. I've done a lot of grousing about my experience making the Marrakesh pants, but copying that (final) crotch curve for the jeans got me very close on the first try, which is awesome, and well worth the fitting headaches for the first pant. I ended up adjusting the c-curve just a teeny bit, which is no suprise given the big difference in both pattern and fabric. Plenty of work stuff awaits my attention today, but with a little luck I can start cutting out the jeans fabric before the end of the day.

Call me Mrs. CrankyPants

Probably I shouldn't blog when I'm peeved, but Mr. de Hilo is officially fired from "are these pant hems even?" duty. Yesterday I asked him for a visual check of what I hoped was the final pinning:. I even stood on a little stool as he crouched down, so my ankles would be at his eye level as I turned around and around.

"Are these even? Are both legs the same length? Are the hems straight on the side?" etc.etc.
"Yes," he said.

So I pressed, trimmed the excess to 2", folded up a double hem, and pressed and pinned again, and set them aside to be stitched. I didn't get to them last night, though, and this morning I decided to check them one more time, using the camera and timer.

Aaaagck! The left leg was noticeably longer than the right in the back and to a slightly lesser degree in the front, and clearly not hanging level in the side view. The right leg was not quite level front-to-back, either.

Seriously? How could he not see that?

That's not why I'm cranky though. Making sure the hems are right is my job, not his. So I took the pants off and on a couple times, sat down and walked around in them, getting them to settle, and took two more sets of photos, just in case I'd managed to capture one weird moment of bad posture. Nope: consistent not-even, not-level results.

So then I repinned and re-photo'd. Twice more. Finally I felt confident they must be close enough. So I took one more round of front/back/side photos. And then, ta-daaaaah: my computer decided the camera does not exist. I've rebooted and reconnected twice, turned the camera on and off about six times, tried the cable in all 4 of the USB slots on my notebook, and nada.

And that's why I'm cranky. I think I've finally got the hems as close to right as they are likely to get, but the image in that little viewscreen on the back of the camera is just too small to be sure. That's why I've been checking full-size pics on the computer.

So, I'm giving up. I'm going to HEM THE *#$^%@! PANTS as they are and be done with it. When I can stand to look at them again. Which might not be 'til tomorrow.

And, believe it or not, in between all this pants stuff I've managed to sew up my first-ever knit top (yay!) and have cut fabric for another that I hope to get to this afternoon. I've been looking forward to showing them off.

I'll try hooking up the camera to hubbie's computer, but if the problem is the USB cable I'm out of luck until we get a replacement. I already know we don't have any other USB cable in the house that fits the camera, 'cause I looked last time we lost this one. And no, I don't have a smart phone to take pics with.

two wrong sides?

Couldn't capture this in a photo, but perhaps you've encoutered something similar: a fabric with two wrong sides.

I'm muslining the Jalie 2908 stretch jeans in a too-stretchy something I picked up for 1.99 to test the pattern with. It's an icky pale blue, light-denim weight but not a twill; the weave on one side looks exactly like the "wrong" side of real denim. The other side looks exactly like the wrong side of something else. What, I don't know.

While cutting the fabric I changed my mind several times as to which side was the "right" side, and finally decided there wasn't one. I picked a side and decided to go with that. Today, basting up front/back for a quick try-on, I went the other way.

Not that it matters. One glance in the mirror was enough to convince me that light-colored stretch anything is not a good choice on my butt, especially in a jeans fit. Unless I wear a tunic over it, which is a possibility. I wasn't going to stay in them long enough to find out, though, as it's too hot in the sewing room for trying on pants for more than a nanosecond.

I wish I'd remembered to cut the muslin with extra-wide side seams. "Boot cut" and I are not friends, so I straightened out the taper, adding some width at the knee and bringing in the flare to a straight line. The end result would be fine if I were slimmer through the hips, but as things are now the narrow leg makes my wide parts look even wider.

On the whole, though, not bad for a first muslin. I'm already thinking these could be cute at capri length, under a tunic. If nothing else, it might be worth finishing these pants for those days when I don't feel like working out. I could put them on instead of my exercise clothes and admire my rear view for a dose of instant inspiration.

Speaking of pants, I finally got the Marrakesh pants pinned for hemming. It took about six tries, spread out over ... how long has it been? 10 days? Felt like for-frickin'-ever. Anyway, as of this morning they are pinned and ready to hem. As soon as it cools off enough to plug in my iron I'll press them and try to remember how to use the blind-hem foot on my machine.

I've heard that every blog post needs a picture, so here's my little cutie enjoying one of his favorite toys. This box had one open end for pantry use, and when he became fascinated with it I cut a large hole in the other for greater play possibilities. He likes to "hide" in there (sticking out both ends) before pouncing.

Look who followed me home...

Ever since moving to Hawaii in 1999, I've been thinking "some day it will be nice to have a cat again." But with no urgency about it. It would happen when it happened. I figured when the time was right the right cat would find me: some fine day I'd go out for a walk and hear a kitten mewing in the grass, or something like that, and that would be it.

The years have gone by and from time to time I've wondered when my cat would appear. Then, this past Monday, Mr. de Hilo and I went for a walk, and on our way up the hill on our usual route this little cutie was crouched in the grass by a banana patch, mewing. I stopped to pet him, as I do any friendly cat. He's not quite a kitten anymore, but still young, about half-cat sized, and just adorable.

On our way back down the hill, he trotted out to the road and followed us (mostly me; Mr. de H could see where this was headed and was staying out of it). When we got to my street, cat still tagging along, a woman from the neighb stopped to wonder if it was the same little black stray her husband reported seeing around her house, a few blocks further down, several days ago.

Little cutie was a bit thin, very hungry/thirsty, but seems otherwise healthy. In 24 hours, he ate two entire cans of tuna and little bit of dry food, and visibly filled out. He is so adorable I couldn't believe no one was looking for him. Tuesday I went all over the neighborhood talking to whoever I could find and flagging down cars: "do you know anyone who's lost a little black cat?", and leaving notes with my phone number in mailboxes. Put a Lost and Found ad on Craigslist, and other in the local paper. Sent emails to local animal shelters, to say if anyone calls looking for a little black cat, pass them my number.

Then we (yes, Mr. de H has fallen for him, too) spent the rest of the week hoping no one would call. Yesterday was the last day of the local "found cat" ad, and the one call we got from it was someone looking for a black cat with a white throat, so not this one. Phew!!

Last night we finally allowed ourselves to believe that we get to keep him. Mr. de H has named him "Cosmo" in honor of "hipster doofus" Cosmo Kramer from Seinfeld. I think that's a fine name for a cat.

No sewing got done this week, as free time was spent bonding with and playing with our little cutie. I will have pics of at least one new garment soon, promise.

One Block Wonder Distractions

Thanks to Shelley (aka Elsie's Girl), I am now obsessed with the idea of making a One Block Wonder 60-degree triangle quilt. Who could resist turning an awesome fabric into something even more eye-popping?

My front entry/foyer features a large wall that would be perfect for displaying a spectacular quilt. So I've been planning to make one. In my mind this future project was going to be a paper-foundation extravaganza in the style of Karen Stone. You know: something that would take me a year to draft, and ten years to complete (by which time we will probably have moved again).

So when I poked around the OBW flickr group, a light bulb went on in my head: this method would be PERFECT for a foyer quilt, fun to make, and -- big plus -- something I might actually complete within a year. I started to think about what colors I would like for that space, and what scale/density/contrast of print would deliver the results I was imagining.

Being highly susceptible to distractions of the creative kind, I couldn't help rummaging in the stash for something to play OBW with on a smaller scale. You need six repeats, which I was able to cut as 15"x18"-ish pieces from the Amy Butler fabric left over from making this pillow for my Mom last year. Shelley was kind enough to email me capsule instructions, so I cut 3-3/4" strips, found a 60-degree ruler that has been lurking, unused, in the sewing supplies for eons, and produced 16 sets of identical 3" (+SA) triangles:

I played around with arranging each triangle set into a hexagon, then pinned each set in a stack with the pin in the point that would be the center of the block when I sewed them up, as you can see at the top of the pic, above. I set these aside by my "in-betweener" pile in the sewing room, with no intention of getting around to the next stage anytime soon.

Thursday evening, having cut all my teal chabray for the Marrakesh Pants, I sat down at the sewing machine to change the thread to teal, and saw that I had ivory already threaded. It seemed crazy to switch to pants sewing without taking advantage of the ivory setup to do a few triangle-hex seams to see how it would go:

How it went was speedy! By the time I paused, I'd done so many I figured I might as well finish them up. Finish meaning half-hexes, as far as it's wise to go before deciding on a final layout.

Once all my triangles were in half-block sets, how could I resist playing with them? I don't have enough to make anything substantial, but I'm thinking that arranged like this with corners filled in (or maybe appliqued to a backing fabric), I'd have the front and back of another 18"-ish pillow. Or fronts for two pillows.

So that's why I didn't start sewing up the teal pants right away. They are looking good, BTW, and fit well as basted. I also got the pocket pieces attached and the elastic and the waistband assembled. Next step is to do the fly extension and zipper. When I looked at the clock at that point yesterday it was 4:30 pm, which for me is the error hour when my energy and concentration slip and I'm prone to making stupid sewing mistakes. It didn't seem like a good time to attempt my first-ever fly-front zipper.

Marrakesh Pants Progress Report

Finally moving on from the muslin stage: whoot! Here's my fabric for MPant #1 (assuming I love them and make more than one pair; not a sure thing, but I'm choosing optimism):

There's a bit of flash glare going on here, but you can see I'm using a teal cotton chambray (warp threads are bright teal, weft are black), which may or may not work well for the pattern in terms of weight (similar to linen) and drape (minimal). I chose it because I dearly want a pair of loose, light-weight pants to wear here in the winter, when it's often too cool for a short cotton skirt (but not cool enough for jeans) in the middle of the day, when I'm most likely to be out and about. I originally justified the purchase of this fabric (from Fabric.com last year sometime) by the thought that this color would be great on Mr. deHilo and that it might be nice to make him a shirt someday instead of just sewing for myself all the time. (Snort: who was I kidding?)

The pocket and waistband lining is a cotton that's been in the stash for many years, that I've been snipping away at for various quilt projects. It's a Liberty (Wm. Morris repro?) knockoff, nothing pricey. It will make me very happy to walk around with butterflies in my pockets, even if no one else knows they are there.

The pieces are now all cut out, and I will begin construction as soon as I finish this blog post and have one more mug of coffee in me. I would have started on the sewing yesterday evening, but I got distracted by something else (all Shelley's fault), which I will ramble about in my next post.

I cut the seams off my last muslin, traced the pieces onto lengths of butcher paper, then added seam allowance. I'll use the original pattern pieces for pockets, etc., my pattern for pant front and back. Here's a brief recap of fitting adjustments.

1) Back crotch curve:

These are close to the pattern 16 through the hip (I moved the HP piece a few inches up, so it doesn't cover my pattern lines). As you might be able to see here, I added about 2" in height at the center back waist, changed the crotch curve slightly, also extended crotch point a little. After all the tweaking, it came out closer to the original than I'd expected.

2) Front crotch curve:

I changed this curve more than the back, to a much gentler slope, That HP "J" shape did not fit me at all: weird pooching going on there on the first muslin. Took a few tries to get it right. Added to the height here as well, but not as much as at the back. I also added a distressing amount to the inner thigh. Maybe in a future version I will divide that extra more between front/back pieces, but this seems to work okay. Maybe in a future version I will have worked out more and not need all that inner-thigh pudge room. My front ended up at about the HP size 14 after tweaking excess from the hip.

3) Hip curve:

I'm happy to say it did occur to me I ought to make sure the outside pocket shape fits my hip curve, which it does. That's nice. Unfortunately, I forgot to add to pocket height when I cut them, so these may sit up higher than I'd like. If necessary I can nudge the pockets down a little by minimizing seam allowance at top and bottom. I doubt it will be a big issue.

The other adjustment I made was to correct the leg width. Somehow through the lengthy muslining process I'd managed to reduce the wide leg quite a bit. That's because my learn-to-fit-as-you-go method involved much trial and error, and at a couple points I tried resewing the out- or inseam to help correct the hang of the leg, when (as I eventually figured out) pulling up at the side hip works better. Anyway, as I was drafting the new paper back/front pieces I redrew the outseam from the hip point down to be perpendicular to the hem, and matching the original pattern leg width. I may decide that's too wide, but I can always taper in.

So, I'm ready to sew baste these up. I plan to baste the front and back together and try on one more time before adding the pockets, waistband, and fly front. More updates to come...

Self-Stitched September?

I thought about signing up for SSS, but really, what's the point? I already wear something I made every day. In the morning and evening (when temps are cooler) it's usually a maxi house-dress, sometimes yoga pants and a top. The yoga pants-top combo may be all store-bought, but I only wear it for part of the day. Here's a sample of the sort of sef-sewn garment I'm likely to be wearing at any given moment during warmer midday hours. None of these are new, I'm just throwing together a quickie post here ;-):

Mid-day reliably finds me in either a short dress or a skirt and top. Skirt-top combos are most often either top or bottom self-sewn, and the other half purchased. But a day in which I did not don anything self-sewn between waking and sleeping? Hasn't happened in a long time. If I had a real job, and challenged myself to wear self-sewn work clothes daily for month, I'd be in trouble. But I work at home, so comfy rules and goofy is welcome, and I've got a closet full of that kind of stuff.

My ONE BIG GOAL for September is to finish a pair of self-sewn pants. They have to fit, to count. I'm getting closer. I might even cut out the Marrakesh pants from a "fashion" fabric today, if I have any energy left after doing errands. And if I can decide on a fabric.