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The blog drought is finally over! I actually blog in my head everyday, too bad there's not a quicker way to get it from there to here! Anyway, here's a some of the sewing I've done.

One pair of pants = a week's worth of outfits! I've been sewing tops that I thought would be quick projects to satisfy my need to sew. They all seemed pretty blah (and sat in a pile marked "will look better with a tan"), until I finished a key piece of my "In Hope of Spring" wardrobe - a pair or ivory/cream linen pants.

There are so many ironies here, it's hard not to mention them 1. the "spring" weather here finally went above 60 degrees the day I finished the pants, 2. because of #1 it hasn't been warm enough to wear any of the "In Hope of Spring" pieces, 3. now that the weather may actually become spring-like, I've got less than a week of school left and will no longer need the "In Hope of Spring" work wardrobe. But, I digress...

I love these pants! They could very well turn out to be THE pattern I use for all mid-rise pants I ever make. Similar styled pants I've made in the past few years have either been too tight (think muffin-top) or too loose; as in I lost weight and now they fit at the hip but the crotch is too low. There were several things I didn't like about the actual construction process but those are easy to change.

Construction Cites

Citation #1. I will not include the traditional fly. Many, many, sewists like these and maybe I did at one point in my life but this is one (time-consuming) detail I will definitely live without. Also, somewhere I read that the whole purpose of the fly is to prevent underwear from getting stuck in the zipper. I'm proud to say that I have never, ever had my underwear get stuck in my pants zipper even without that little extra flap. So, I'm just going to keep doing it my way.

Citation #2. I will attach the waistband like most traditional patterns. I like to fit the pants, then attach the waistband. The instructions here have you attach the waistband to each leg separately and then sew the center back.

Citation #3. I will not fold over the top portion of the belt loops and attach with topstitching when I can just tuck them into the seam allowance..

Oh yea, the pants pattern is Simplicity 4366 (Threads). And pattern numbers for the tops are, from left to right: V8323, S4020, S3790 and OOP Vogue 9040.

More later!