Make It Work

The title might look familiar. I sat down to write the post Wednesday night and accidentally published it for about four seconds. I imagine that was enough to trigger the send and you all got a sneak peak and no post. I'm sorry. Here it is now.

I'm working on a second pair of pants for my holiday wardrobe. There is a front, a back, and a side panel. I had enough length for the first two but not quite enough for the panel. Thankfully, there were lots of remnants so I could make it work. You can see above how much would have overlapped.

After cutting out the pattern piece and WITHOUT unpinning it, I cut a straight line across the top where I was missing fabric and a straight line on a remnant that was big enough to fill the missing space. Twice. Once for each side panel.

WITHOUT unpinning the pattern piece, I stitched the seams, pressed them open, finished the edges, and then re-folded the sections wrong sides together.

The remainder of the pattern was then pinned in place and cut out, resulting in the side panels now being the correct length.

If it was important, I would have matched the design across the seams. Because the pattern is so busy already, I didn't worry about it especially as these seams are high on the side under the hemline of a t-shirt.

Here you can see the seam from the wrong side and, just above my finger, from the right side after the side panel was sewn to the front and back pieces. It's neat, clean, and complete. This method of filling in a space can be used on almost any project which is something I'm really glad to know at this point in my creative journey. At one time, piecing didn't even occur to me and then I didn't think it would be professional enough and then I realized - LOL - I'm not a professional. I'm a maker and this is how I can make these pants in this fabric. YES YES - good and enough.

I'm not even going to tell you what pattern this started with because the end is so far from the beginning, it's not really recognizable. What was delightful is that I had to take them in. I've been eating too many of my emotions lately and was worried about the pants not fitting in the other direction. So nice to be wrong! I ended up taking out the side panels, redrafting them smaller, and sewing them in again and then adding some tucks at the hemline to give the pant legs that lantern shape that is in style this year... like the Arthur Pant from Sew Liberated... although it's in style every year for me because it suits my body type quite well. If if wear fitted or skinny pants, I look like a lollipop on a stick and if I wear wide legs, my widest part is wide all the way down. This curving shape matches my curves and is flattering and emotionally comfortable. Feeling like your behind is a neon sign is NEVER comfortable. With planning a trip wardrobe, I've been watching some 2023 fashion videos just to see if there's anything on trend that resonates. I don't go out of my way to sew the trends but when I'm accidentally on, that's a happy coincidence. I'm a huge fan of figuring out what works for me physically and emotionally and then staying with it in some way. I really like T & T patterns. For whatever reason, I never had a large wardrobe growing up and that has continued into adulthood. I've stopped dreaming of an extensive wardrobe. It never happens and I think that's mostly because it's not my thing. Occasionally, it feels like I'm in a rut and I try to shift things a little, but mostly I'm a "uniform dresser" with my go to favourites. There's more pop in my jewelry than in my clothing. Watching the videos, it seemed to me that while there are definitely trends, there are also numerous styles that have remained constant over many years. And not necessarily classics. I saw it with clothes. With shoes. With bags. With jewelry. Perhaps, those are classic styles for a non-classic fashion personality... like lantern pants are for me. While doing the research, I took note of the styles for bags and jewelry that I already like to create but didn't consider shifting what I do. At this point in my life, I have absolutely no interest in jumping through hoops and thankfully both I and my ideal customer are more interested in handcrafted and one-of-a-kind then what the latest "thing" is. And that's a lovely space to be in. It feels honest and authentic, both of which are very important to me. How do you feel about trends? Do you have a uniform way of dressing? Have a comment to share? You can email me at myrna@myrnagiesbrecht.com. Thanks. Talk soon -