Here’s the thing. I seem to be missing the knack for realizing when a fabric is going to end up looking like pajamas. This is not the first time it has happened to me… in fact, I can immediately think of two others. We all know that I like prints, and there seems to be a combination of print/color/someothercharacteristic which = PJs. And it’s only happened to me with knit fabrics so far. I know, most knit garments are a skosh away from sleepwear anyway, blah blah blah. Most of mine don’t look this much like it.

Anyway, although I’ve seen animal print trends come and go several times in my life, they’ve never appealed to me. But in the last year or so, I’ve collected several in my stash. I’ve realized that I like loosely interpreted animal prints. I can handle the design itself, but I need some color. The fact that these colors haven’t appeared on any zebra at any time in history is immaterial (har-har). Continue reading →

When I pulled out Simplicity 1884 this week, I’m glad I didn’t remember that I was mad at it. I knew that I had already traced it and cut out the pieces, so I was happy that I was going to be able to get to the good part quickly (which for me is anything after cutting the fabric). As I laid out the first pattern piece on my fabric, I was puzzled as to why I would have already snipped the notches… huh… I knew I didn’t have one of these hanging in my closet already? Anyway, no matter, I proceeded with my laying out and cutting. (I had plenty of time to mull over this enigma because I am slooooow at this step of the process.) I concluded that I must have started to cut it out at some point. I knew I hadn’t sewn it — that I would remember. But I couldn’t for the life of me recall cutting it out, either. So I went to the fabric closet and started looking around. My eyes fell on a piece of prized rayon challis that had been part of an unfortunate cutting miscalculation several months ago. Nooooooo, it couldn’t be that one could it… yes, it was. I had gotten so mad when it happened, I guess I had blocked it out. (Why do I have so many issues with cutting rayon challis??) Anyway, the issue was no fault of the pattern’s; I just hadn’t bothered to ensure I had enough fabric before starting to cut. Please humor me and tell me this has happened to you, too.

This pattern was drafted for lightweight wovens. Apparently I will sew any fabric these days as long as it’s a knit, so I went in a different direction. Continue reading →