My Favorite Thing I've Ever Made

Every time I'm working on a new sewing project, I get it almost finished before proclaiming, "This is maybe my favorite thing I've ever made," which is a big lie from the get-go, because my favorite thing I've ever made is the three-quarter-length fake leopard swing coat with black satin sheet lining I've been wearing to special events in really cold weather for the last twenty-five years. It's nothing too fancy or special, and when I purchased the fabric, it wasn't expensive, but this coat is a real looker and never fails to garner compliments. It is also very warm and has room for at least three people inside.

I digress.

Because I've had some "real work" to do and a couple of home projects underway, I haven't devoted as much time to my sewing in the past few weeks, but I have managed to complete a couple of things, and surprise, y'all, they're for grown-ups.

There was a butterfly shirt for a dear, sweet friend who's going through major life shit, which went from this sketch on a pad --

-- through this process...

-- to become this awesome shirt.

And thanks to the involvement of her scheming wife for confirmation of my measurement estimates, it fit! 

So did the matching patio shorts, so she is completely ready to kick back and watch ALL the upcoming University of Tennessee football games in the coordinated comfort of orange and white tie-dye.

Jack wanted patio pants for himself and selected a gorgeous lemon print cotton during one of our more recent trips to the fabric store. 

He was so tickled with them that he agreed to model them for me and even pulled out his saxophone to show off just how cool these pants are.

We don't have a patio, so we did the photo shoot on our porch.

I call this one the "Abercrombie & Fitch" shot for obvious reasons. HA!!

Since adult clothes are big, unwieldy, and difficult to cut out on our small dining table, I returned to the kid's department for my current project, a fall to spring dress for Lucia from a delightful, retro-look cherry print.

This is a new design for me, and I basically stuck to the pattern and instructions, though I already have a couple of revisions in mind for the next time I make one of these:

It still needs buttonholes, buttons, a hem, and that last good pressing when I trim off the remaining little strings and use my trusty seam-ripper to remove any visible gathering threads or stay-stitching, but I already know Lucia will love it. I do. 

It may be my favorite thing I've ever made.

Patio Pants

I need to start with a bit of a Father's Day addendum --

Having made Lucia and Beatrice an entire wardrobe in which to enjoy the best of summer, I decided it was time to make some grown-up clothes, and Father's Day seemed to be the perfect time to do something different.

Everyone loves lounge pants, and when I ran across a fun, bright green fern print on sale at Hancock's, I found immediate inspiration for Dad's gift -- patio pants, perfect for sipping coffee in the mornings or wine in the evenings; light and comfortable for the season with enough coverage to provide protection from mosquitoes and no-see-ums. 

Not wanting to leave Mom empty-handed, I snagged enough yardage of a coordinating butterfly print to make a simple kimono. 

Easy as pie. Or not.

The pattern looked huge as I trimmed it. Dad has lost some weight, and when I held up the tissue pieces, all I could see was him being swallowed-alive by a giant pair of hot green pants. 

After consulting the measurements on the back of the envelope, I went forth with cutting and construction, and when I was almost finished, I asked Jack to slide on the pants so I could measure them for hemming.

Jack is bigger than Dad, but not that much bigger, and when he was unable to get the pants up any further than his hips, I realized that I'd made pants for Dad's 1968 chassis instead of the current model.

Being the good sport he is, Dad tried on the pants, but they were obviously two sizes too small.

Luckily for Mom, they fit her perfectly.

In a change of plans, the coordinating butterfly print was repurposed from a kimono to three additional pairs of patio pants - one for Dad, one for Lucia, and one for Beatrice.

I shared this photo on Facebook, now everybody wants some: