30-minute pants...

I did my workout tonight (yoga, which I like, but it's 2 hours long! plus a shower, leaving me not much time to play!), and then C said he was coming home from work early (sad that midnight-ish is early, huh?), so I knew better than to start cranking on the western shirt for him...

instead, I did a little more hooky stuff:

and then I churned out 4 pairs of summer pants for D.

Dana, from MADE, has her now famous 90-minute shirt... therefore, these pants must be called the 30-minute pants... seriously, cutting and sewing, all in under half an hour (of course, at this point, I've made about 40 pairs, over 2 years, so I've gotten faster, but even my first time, probably about an hour... Nowadays I don't even use a pattern, I've memorized the proper shape, so I just have to measure down from the top to the crotch to well past the hemline, and cut my "j" to make the right shape... LOVE IT

this time around I did natural linen, black linen, white-dyed-teal linen, and loosely woven green cotton...

They all need hems, but I have to see how long my boy is first, and, as it's midnight, my 3yo is asleep and un-fit-able.

I make them reversible, no outer side seam, just a crotch seam, with cargo pockets on the hip, (not the knee, too low for little hands), simple elastic on the waist, so my 3yo can put them on and take them off all by himself. He's a RTW 6-8 now, 'cause he's so big, but he can't possibly do all the buttons and zippers expected of a 6-8yo, so I have to make ALL his pants...

luckily for me, they're super fast!

the world's ugliest muslin

I know I've kvetched enough about how hideous this fabric is. and I should totally stop, since I'm the one who ASKED for it (my grandmother thought it was so ugly she was embarrased to offer it to me, but I said, no, ugly sheets make great muslins... but this is beyond ugly, isn't it?)

anyway, I made a muslin of these vintage pants for D.
As I was cutting and sewing, I realized that there was absolutely NO WAY I would ever let him wear these out of the house (or around the house for that matter!), I hate the fabric THAT MUCH.
therefore, I didn't worry about clipping threads, or making fancy pockets, or even putting the button/snap on the waistband.

I just wanted to see the fit, and make sure I understood the directions...
I graded the pattern up a bit, which was pointless, since the elastic back had plenty of room. all grading up really did was make the legs super baggy. oh well, luckily these were really ugly!
I didn't bother hemming, or even lining the pockets (patch pockets, after all, can look patch-like and be fine, so I just serged the edges).
So, not a waste, I'm glad I didn't use good fabric, as then I would have to take this apart and trim it down, and re sew it back together, whereas, with this piece of hideousness, it can go RIGHT INTO THE TRASHCAN! (after I take out the zipper).

Rainy day #6...

First the baby took her morning nap, so I was able to start a granny square with one of the green yarns I dyed last night...

isn't it purdy?!?!?!?

Then I managed to get the boy-o to nap (unfortunately after his sister had already woken up), so I backpacked her, and cut out the envelopes to make this. My envelopes will be of light blue linen (left over from a pair of boy-o pants), and the linings will be different for the kiddos. (I'm making one for each.)

The cards will be linen/cotton, again, depending on the child...

right now they're just boring linen squares, so no pictures yet...

BUT, I did make my first attempt at enlarging the pants pattern for the boy-o, and cut the new pattern out of the hideously ugly sheet...

see:

another future refashion is this awesome fabric, again from my gram (LOVE HER!!!!)

the dress was HIDEOUS, but this fabric bit is sorta cool, and will make an AMAZING pair of psychedelic baby pants! (stripes will be horizontal)

I've been staring at these old baby boy onesies for a while... they're stained, so no use for hand-me-downs to friends, but too small to cut up into underpants, and pretty boring, so... not sure what to do with them right now...

must ponder longer.

vintage boys pants...

My son is a very solid 3.5 year old. I'm told by the dr that I don't have to worry about his weight, but he's not a skinny minny. His shoulders are so wide, that if I buy a woven shirt, he needs a 7-8... (he's like his dad in that respect) His waist/hip (cause he wears his pants right about at his hip bones)measurement right now is almost exactly 22", which is an inch bigger than the measurement for this awesome pair of vintage boys pants...

plus, I'm not sure, when it says "size 4, waist 21" if that means the boys waist measurement, or the finished pant size...

granted there's elastic in the back, but I am planning on attempting my first resize to add an extra 2" to the width. I found this awesome looking explanation of how to do it here...

my gram gave me this old sheet, which maybe is the ugliest fabric I HAVE EVER SEEN (she didn't want to give it to me for precisely that reason, but it's free and totally fine for making boy pant muslins, right?

I guess my cat is color/pattern-blind, cause he thinks this is a great kitty bed...

AT LAST!

I dunno if anyone is holding their breath out there in blogworld, but here's the tute I made on how to make a skirt from a pair of men's trousers...

This skirt is inspired by this page in Blueprints of Fashion. There aren't any directions in the book (because it's just photos of the pattern envelopes), but the idea is just to take a pair of mens suit pants, turn them upside down, and make a skirt out of the fabric. One could do a suit coat too, as shown, but a) I'm a stay at home mom with no need for suit coats, and b) suit coats require patterns, not improvisation . I suppose one could just use a store-bought pattern to make this skirt, but I've been loving my A-line skirts from Sew What? Skirts lately, so I just improvised....


I put the instructions ON the photos (mostly because I just made a bag using a pattern that did NOT explain which picture went with which direction, so it a frustrating game of matching).
Here goes:
I started with really large mens trousers. I wanted fullness around the pant hips (so the bottom of my skirt would flare) and narrow-ish ankles (but not so small that they wouldn't fit my post-baby waist). To make sure pants work for you, read all the directions here, and make sure the proposed pants have measurements the right size or bigger. (ie, super skinny girls need skinny pants, larger girls need larger pants)



Do both legs the same way... i only show one, but do both. These directions make a 6-gored skirt with a side zipper, where the front and back pieces are cut identically (but the zipper belongs on the left, and you put the pockets on the front).

(I guess the picture here of the front/back should have tipped me off that the skirt wasn't going to fit properly without taking in the waist. your pieces should be trapezoidal, not rectangular.)


I know jeans-into-skirts are really popular, but I don't love that weird flat front crossover thing that happens when people rip open jeans and turn them into skirts... that's why I like this whole upside down thing... plus the goring... flattering and EASY!





Somehow this gray wool one (my first attempt) came out better... I think I just measured and tried it on more often as I went along, instead of finishing the whole thing, waiting for the big reveal, and then having it be so big it literally slid all the way down and off when I stood up.

PLEASE let me know if you have any questions or need clarification on anything!!!