Sewing Jeans - "Mom" Jeans!

This summer, I’m hoping to take the big plunge into sewing pants. And not just any pants - stretch jeans! Of the rather momsy variety, to be exact! 

You see, unfashionable as it may be, I’m rather in love with the pull-on fake-fly front pants favoured by small-town Canadian women over 30. ‘Cause hey, I’m a small town Canadian woman over 30, and I like my clothes comfy! (And honestly, I don’t know why I’m even bad-mouthing these pants. They are a great invention!) The women in my family swear by these Reitmans pants: 

 

I tend to buy off-brand ones, but the concept is the same.

Here’s why they are great:

• They’ve got no bulk around the waist, so shirts sit flat overtop. 


• They have enough stretch that they retain their shape and don’t sag as the day progresses. They also therefore forgiving of large meals and weight fluctuations!


• They end at the natural waist, so there’s no muffin-top and no plumber’s crack! 

Honestly, I love pull-on jeans and workpants so much that I bought THREE identical pairs in Japan. I wear two, and I’ve got one stashed away for when the other wear out! I don’t wear shirts tucked in like the model above, so with a shirt hanging over top, they look like regular jeans but feel like track pants. 

So of course, I want to sew some of my own! The problem is, I can’t find a pattern for this design. There’s the Colette Clover, which has the kind of fit I like…

…but it has an actual zipper, and I *think* it isn’t as stretchy in the waist as I’d like. 

There’s the new Sewaholic Thurlow, which is tempting because Tasia’s clothes always fit me perfectly…

… but look at the bulk of that fly-front! That’s not what I’m going for either, and the legs are a bit flared for me. 

I’m tempted to buy the Clover for the overall shape, and the Thurlow for the crotch shaping… but that would cost me $50 bucks with shipping, and frankly, I could buy 2 pairs of pants for that! 

Instead, I’m going the third route: The Craftsy Jean-ius course! 

It’s on sale until tonight for only $20, so i figure it’s worth a shot. I’m hoping that over the summer I can work up a decent reverse-engineered pattern for my pull-on jeans, and have a few versions by the fall. I’ve already got some dark denim for one version, and bright coral for another! Coraly-orangey-brick is a colour I’ve been loving lately, as you can tell from this part of my stash: 

 

So what do you think? Does anyone have any pattern suggestions for me? How do you feel about pull-on pants? (In the North American sense, not the British one, thank you very much! :P) I’m not starting this project right away, so I’d appreciate any pant-making insight you have to offer! 

The sweet satisfaction of easy projects!

It’s my second day of summer holidays, and already I’ve gone on an epic fabric quest roadtrip AND made up three quick garments! Now that I don’t have to teach everyday, I’m not feeling like wearing woven dresses as much… so bring on the comfy knits!

#1: Stripy Tank

Inspired by the awesome Renfrew tank dresses made by Andrea from Four Square Walls and Mela from Pincushion Treats, I decided to give a Renfrew tank top a try. I didn’t have much fabric though, so mine is just a shirt! I’ve been liking the loose a-line shape in the Wiksten/Tiny Pocket tanks that everyone has been making lately, so I thought I’d give that a go too! I’m not sure it’s the *most* flattering shape on me, but it sure is comfy!

As Andrea suggested, I used narrow bands to bind off the neck and arms… but I was a bit stuck on how to do the hem. I haven’t figured out all that stitches on my serger yet, so I did some kind of strange fold-fold-serge-open technique that I adapted off a YouTube video. Wish I remembered what it’s called, but you can see a better example in my second shirt!

#2: Kimono Sleeve Tee

I got this fabric for $3.50/m yesterday in Fabricland, which was a big surprise: Usually their knits are either awful or expensive! For this shirt, I just traced around a RTW shirt, then used the Renfrew pattern piece to cut a scoop neck out in the front. I did that weird fold-fold-stitch-open thing on the hem again, with looser tension in the needle threads which gave it this exposed “ladder” stitch on the outside. I still want to figure out how to do a better seam finish, but this will do for now! 

I’ve got one more gift project to sew before the day is out… Back to the sewing room! 

**Edited: Yeah, so that gift project… I only had 50cm, so I tried to cut perpendicular to the grain… and 2 seams it, it was clearly doomed to be way to small. Oh well. Lesson learned: Respect the grainlines!**

My 30th Birthday! (AKA. How I know that I picked the right husband!)

You’ll have to excuse me yet another not-sewing-related post, but it’s officially my first day of summer holiday today, and I’m excited to catch up on blogging the past month!

I turned 30 this month, and got to celebrate my birthday in Canada for the first time in a few years. We had a lovely family BBQ with my parents, my in-laws, and my sister’s in-laws…

I received not one but TWO gift certificates for the local fabric store, and my sister’s MIL gave me to big boxes of sewing notions from her stash! Woohoo! I’m so lucky that everyone supports my sewing so much! 

But the big thrill of the night was my husband’s gift! You see, he’d been making cryptic comments and asking sneaky questions about music and memories from my past for days… and then spent an entire 8-hour day locked away in his study doing something secret! I was dying to know what it was, and he was really nervous about whether I’d like it… Clearly no need to worry, as this next photo sequence shows!

He made me the most wonderful, thoughtful collage of the first 30 years of my life! We only met 4 years ago, but he’s clearly been listening to all of my random anecdotes over the years, because ever detail was just perfectly perfectly planned!  The basic structure is a tree with a branch for each 5 years of my life. The tree is made of turquoise silk from my stash, and the leaves are cut from free records that came with magazines! It’s the perfect blend of him and me. 

Here’s a tour, starting at the roots… There are all kinds of hidden messages and secrets, but I’ve tried to explain a few of the details!

…and the top half, representing our time together…

…and finally, the top left: our wedding last year, and Jamie himself.

I wish I could explain it all as eloquently as Jamie does - Sometimes I forget that he’s an English teacher at heart as well as a Drama teacher! This collage means the world to me though, and I won’t lie: I’m tearing up right now as I type! I just love that he put time and effort into making me happy, and thought of every little detail and significance. (For example, the branches at the top representing our relationship, profession and passions grow out past the frame to show how we’ll continue to grow together! *Tear!*) He also made me a mix CD of songs from each era on the tree, which was a great soundtrack to me week! Money is tight this year, but this free gift was absolutely perfect.

I hope this doesn’t all sound too cheesey… I’m just damned proud of my man. (He knows I’m blogging this, and was rather pleased to be important enough to show off to the world. Um, duh!) The collage is hanging in our room now, and makes me happy every day. Thank you, my darling!

Enough of this sappy stuff - Now for some pictures of a truly ugly dog! 

The weekend after my birthday we had a lovely time with our generation of the family down at my in-laws house in the country. 

Thanks for sticking with me through this long post - I hope that your summer has begun well, and lots of floaty sundresses and short shorts are in your sewing future! I’m heading down to the sewing room for most of the day today, and hoping that I’ll have a maxidress Parfait by the end of it! 

How does your family support your sewing habits? Do they “get” it? 

Some things are just meant to be!

Folks, meet Sarah: 

Same smile, same nose, same head tilt, same expression, and same fashion sense… Despite the purple hair, she looks more like me than my sister. And yet somehow, we are strangers meeting for the first time! 

Last weekend, a very geeky sewing dream came true: to meet a sewing blogger in real life. Oh yes, it’s true - I have a REAL-LIFE sewing friend! I’ve always been rather jealous of the British and American bloggers who get together by the dozen to fabric shop, swap patterns, and coo over each other creations. I try to follow every Canadian blogger that I come across, but we are few and far between. 

Lucky for me, I realized during the Colette Sewalong that one of the hosts, Sarah from Rhinestones and Telephones, actually lives just 2 hours from me in a city near where my in-laws live. When Sarah bemoaned the lack of sewing meetups in Canada, I knew we had to meet!  A few tweets later, plans were made and a shopping date was set!

(How amazing is this comic dress of Sarah? I love her attention to detail and the fabric placement… plus I admire the all-out commitment to being a proud seamstress and nerd!) 

On Saturday, we finally met up. We arrived both wearing turquoise sundresses, and too excited to eat! We hit the shops straight away, and only stopped when our eyes became too glassy to focus on any more cheap loveliness! Sarah is more organised that I, and she’s already blogged about it here.)

Remember last week when I asked about wearing clothes made from recognizable fabric  while fabric shopping? Well, you all told me to do it, and I did! 

You were totally right - It was way more fun! Thanks for the pep talk. 

Of course, massive stacks of fabric were bought…

At the front there, I’ve got coral and navy stretch denim to try making pants; graphic floral linen for a maxi dress; polka dots for a blouse; Navy floral lawn for a Parfait; and some white cotton for underlining. Towards the back, Sarah has some really cute fabric for her daughter, some classic seersucker gingham and stripped shirting, and a really cute (cheap!) floral. Added bonus: We both wore green purses with our turquoise dresses! 

Of course, the shopping was fun… but the best part of the day was finding out just how much we share in common. Some of it superficial and funny, some of it profound. It took me a day or two to process some of our conversations, but the whole experience was reassuring, inspiring, and helpful. Thank you so much, Sarah, for a wonderful day! 

One last picture to end off: Apparently I’m not the only one interested in fabric!

Have you met with other bloggers before? What was the experience like? 

Fabric Shopping Fashion Faux-Pas?

I’m packing for a weekend away, and this question keeps plaguing me: 

Do you wear homemade or RTW clothes when you go fabric shopping? And would you ever wear me-made clothes to the shop where you bought the (recognisable) fabric? 

(My denim dress is me-made of fabric from this store, but I figured no one would be able to tell since I sewed with the fabric inside out!) 

I’m always afraid the clerks will be judging my shoddy seams and wonky fit when I wear me-mades… Though I’m sure they have better things to do! I never wear recognizable fabric to the store where I got it, which is getting tricky since most of my stash comes from the only fabric store in town! 

What do you think? Is it time for me to get over my hang-ups? 

Summer is hot, and the sewing is easy...

It’s hot in Canada this month - hotter and more humid than normal. (Though still cooler and less humid than Japan!) Part of my school are air-conditioned, and parts aren’t… as I tend to jump around and wave my arms like a fool when I teach, so I sweat even in winter! 

Which leads to my newest, fastest make: Sleeveless Pendrell #5! (Or is it #4? One was a disaster. Does it count?) 

*Editors note: OMG, it’s #6! in 3 months? That’s… horrifying? Amazing? I just don’t know!)

It is made of some… umm… fabric. Of some sort. Rayon? I bought it this spring because it matches my spring palette completely. It was a shifty little devil to sew, but if I was less lazy, I would have spray starched it! 

From start to finish, it took 70 minutes! I like how this one falls into slight cap-sleeves… I’ve got to remember to make this an actual design feature, not just as accident of poor fitting! It’s far from perfect, but it’s absolutely wearable. 

Uh, not like this though! Without a belt, it’s frumps-ville. With a belt or tucked in, everything is fine! 

I’m starting to wonder if coworkers will notice I wear versions of the same shirt so much… but really, who cares? Not me, and not them - I’m sure they’ve got other things to think about! For the record, here are my previous versions: 

Do you have any patterns you’ve made an embarrassing number of times?

Pattern Storage!

First things first - Thanks so much to everyone for weighing in on how to finish my seersucker Truffle! I took your advice, and the dress is just waiting for a final press and some thread trimming before I take pictures. It was so nice to wake up to all of your lovely comments overnight! Merci!

Pattern Storage. It’s a bit of a mystery to me. I mean, those tissue sheets NEVER fit back into the envelope, and then there’s my traced pattern, and sometimes a muslin… Once that project is finished, where does it go? So far, the answer has been: On the floor, with all the other patterns and fabric scraps! 

That was all well and good for the first few months… I’d clip the pattern pieces together, and pile them up somewhere… but with more complex patterns, I’m getting paranoid that I’ll loose something important! 

Enter my dollar store solution: Plastic envelopes! 

Each envelope is big enough to hold the original pattern and instructions, as well as my traced and modified version. I had fun labeling and illustrating each pattern using a Sharpie - though I don’t imagine that the fancy labeling will continue every time I make a pattern! For now though, it was fun, and my patterns are all neat and safe for when I need them next.

(However, to my great shame, I missed a letter in one pattern. Did you see it? Did it drive you nuts? Grrr.) 

So, how do you organise your patterns?