New directions...and some new pants.

As you've all noticed, even since I've been back my postings have been virtually non-existent. Attempting to back track and recount everything I've been wearing for the last month and a half would be difficult enough, but since I don't have pictures of the vast majority of said outfits, doing this is essentially impossible. This break in the original project has led me to think about what I'm going to do now. Counting  back and starting up again on day two hundred and what not (or wherever I am at this point) is just too complicated (mostly because of laziness), and for this reason I have decided to rethink the purpose of this blog. The daily outfit chronicling has more or less served it's purpose in my opinion, letting me take a more critical look at what I really do and don't wear and therefore making an impending closet purge a bit easier. While there will still be outfit posts here and there, whenever I think it's an outfit worth sharing, the primary focus of this blog is going to be more sewing/project related. I will make a concerted effort to better document my projects in their various stages of completion (starting with the next one), and hopefully through this process will also take more time and care with certain steps that I tend to fudge and cheat through in my sewing. I will of course also be including chronicles from any trips or events of any interest as well, along with any other interesting tidbits I come across. That said, posting will no longer be daily, but I will hopefully have at least one thing a week to share (hopefully more as long as school is out for the summer and I have more crafting time). So, that said, I'd like to kick off this new stage in my blogging life with a new(ish) project.

Many of you remember my tan palazzo pants...

A couple of months ago I purchased more of this linen/rayon blend in black and red to make two more pairs of these incredibly comfortable pants. I started the black pair before my trip in hopes to have a second pair to wear in Panamá. However, someone has a tendency not to make notes on patterns when I make alterations and frequently the second time around things don't work quite so well, despite my best efforts at rechecking measurements. I got the fabric all cut out and the pants almost finished when I decided it might be a good time to try them on. Woops. So apparently I forgot to add some extra seam allowance or something and that six pounds I gained last semester wasn't helping things either. Needless to say, the pants didn't get finished before I left and have consequently been sitting in a bag waiting for some attention for almost two months. These were the first things on the docket when I got back, since I have a bad habit of letting unfinished projects sit forever. I managed to lose that extra six pounds when I was in Panamá, which helped, but they were still just a bit on the snug side, particularly around the low hip. My first thought had been to add a self-fabric stripe down either leg (a-la tuxedo pants), but the slight bias of the pants seam was not really conducive to this (especially since I wasn't thinking things through too carefully), and it resulted in a bit of unsightly stretching on the right outseam. I scrapped the stripe idea and attempted with sufficient success to press out the seam so it would hang straighter. The fabric has enough give that it should stretch a bit, but I still need about an extra half inch through the hips. After consulting my mom and another seamstress friend, I decided to add a narrow yoke and button plackets down the sides. The right will be a false placket, and the left should give me just enough extra room to make them fit alright. I may just have to refrain from eating in these pants until they stretch with a bit of wear. Oh well. I think the problem is more or less solved and they are turning out pretty cute. The pictures aren't great since I was taking them at 2:00 am last night, but you get the idea.

The fact that I had just eaten an entire can of Pringles and a bowl of cereal was not really making effective fitting much easier.
I found a picture of some Schiaparelli beach pajama designs from the early 1930s online while trying to figure out what to do with these pants, and one of the designs had a pointed yoke that I thought was cute.

I decided to do a narrow, shaped yoke and shaped button plackets to make them a bit more interesting. Obviously they're not nearly finished yet, but this is how they're turning out. I found these buttons in our button stash, not wanting to make a special trip to find something to finish these pants with. No point in spending more money on notions if I don't have to!

My goal is to get these things finished today, but if not then tomorrow at the latest. Then I'm moving on to another dress project. It will either be a polka-dot version of the DKNY Vogue dress, or a maxi-dress (something I avoided for the longest time but have recently come to love, despite my mother's insistence that they were bad in the '70s and are still bad now). We'll see what I feel like working on once these puppies are finished up.