Erin from House on Hill Road made nine pairs of wide-leg lounge pants from Amy Butler’s In Stitches, and they were so cute, I couldn’t resist making a pair of them for myself. I’m so glad I did.

When I first started cutting out the pieces to make these lounge pants, I was alarmed at how wiiiiiiide they were. Turns out, that’s one of the features I like the most about these super comfy pants. They make me feel like dancing and prancing about.

I’ll be making more of these, to be sure. I only had to make one change to the pattern. As long-legged as I am, I had to shorten this version about one inch more than the pattern suggested. I might make it one-and-a-half inches shorter next time. That will help me keep the hems out of the apple juice spills that tend to happen around our kitchen each morning…

Simplicity 2874.

I cannot figure out the magic formula for making clothing Claire loves. She’d gladly wear her favorite red skirt every single day, but won’t touch a purple skirt I made just like it–and purple’s supposed to be her favorite color.

Something about this little cherry print jumper really appeals to her. Perhaps it’s the bright, happy colors or the big pockets she immediately filled with toys. Whatever it might be, I’m glad of the outcome.

I’ve been completely obsessed over trying to sew a dress to wear to my sister-in-law’s wedding next month. It has turned out to be two or three times as much work as I anticipated. Here’s the first dress (which I’m embarrassed to show you):

Oh. my. god. It’s soooooooooo terrible. I look pregnant.

I love the fabric. I love the design (as pictured on the pattern envelope–Simplicity 3831). But this looks sooo bad on me. First of all, I should have known better than to put in a french seam where fabric had been gathered, but I didn’t, and ended up with that ghastly bulky seam. Also, it has become evident to me that commercial pattern drafters don’t like breasts. If I had no breasts, the bottom of the bodice would have fallen in a flattering spot. This most certainly does not. I redrafted the pattern, adding two-and-a-half inches to the length, just to get the seam beneath my breasts rather than directly on them.

The redrafting worked out fine. Nevertheless, the dress still made me look pregnant, so I scrapped that in favor of something a little more streamlined. (I’m going to rip apart the dress and use the fabric to make a blouse later on.)

The second dress has presented its share of challenges. I think the fabric is beautiful, but it’s slippery, stretchy, likes to fray and resents any effort from the iron to press it into shape. It was extremely challenging trying to cut out the pattern pieces, and as I’m sewing, I frequently have to compensate for cutting irregularities. Despite that, it’s coming together much better than the first dress.

My mother will be paying us a visit early next week, which is great, because I’ll need someone to demonstrate installing a zipper. I just can’t wrap my head around it…folding and pressing the fashion fabric and lining, how to get it to all come together… The dress is very close though, and from pin-fittings, I know it fits better than earlier attempts. I just hope I don’t end up looking like too much of a fuddy-duddy in my homemade garment. Many of the wedding guests are fashion concious and care a lot about labels, trends, etc. I’ve never been one of those people though, so I’m not sure why I’m worrying about it now!

Meanwhile, news stories like these are worrying me, so I’m off to market to stock up on food staples:

• Japan’s Hunger Becomes a Dire Warning for Other Nations
• Food-Rationing Confronts Breadbasket