The Facts

Fabric: Stretchy Cotton Blend in olive green.
Pattern: Colette’s Clover
Year: Contemporary
Notions: Threads
Time to complete: 3 hours.
First worn: Sunday for drinks on a glorious outdoor patio!
Wear again?  Yes!
Total price: $7.50…Yay for coupons!

Hiya, everyone, so nice of you to be here this week!  I am excited because on Friday (when I normally start my Sew Weekly projects) I had come to the realization that participation in their week’s challenge was going to be really, really tough. I was going to skip it all together in order to regroup.  Then, in true last minute fashion, inspiration struck and I decided that it was worth the try to get something put together. If it was a total failure, then I’d just say I needed a break and return next week.  I am so excited to report that everything worked out!  I found this stretchy cotton blend in my stash, the weather took a turn for awesome in Chicago, and my first ever attempt at pants presented me with very little in the way of problems. I don’t want to jinx it, but this might be ‘my week’ people…just saying…but not saying…you know. Gods know I am due for a no-problems week some time soon.

So the pants.  I’ve read quite a bit that these Colette pants can be quite fickle, so I prepared mentally. My shape is kind of wonky in that I have a larger waist and smaller hips so I cut the waist to size and then attempted my first ‘grading’ down to my hip size. The instructions and sewing went by without any issues due to the wonderful instructions.  Then I went to try the pants on.  The bulges on my hips were HYSTERICAL!  It was like I was part of the British Calvary or Women’s Land Army circa 1914. So I did some tweaking to solve the issues at the hip…success!  Then I noticed that the crotch area was pretty low and causing some weird bunching. Back to the machine! I eye-balled it and some how the problem was solved. No more frontal bunching. Excellent!  So as not to test my luck, I hemmed the bottoms and got myself ready to meet a friend for an afternoon cocktail. I rode my bike the 1.5 miles to Lincoln Square and felt so sassy the whole time riding!  The weather was beautiful and here I was with a new favorite shirt and some self-made hot pants.

I have a Dr. Jeckle and Mr. Hyde type of style.  I am a teacher during the day and despite trying to be ‘stylish’ there are some things I am drawn to that just aren’t meant for my school wardrobe.  Because I see these pants as a sort of transitional piece, I wanted to style it two ways.  The first (pictured above) is definitely something that I can wear to work and it would impress.  The second, though is more my style, especially when it comes to riding my bike in fall or early spring. The very feminine fitting pants styled with my favorite steampunk-ish boots and my ribbed hooded shirt.  For me, I go with what is practical and comfortable, which means style 2 wins most of the time. Case in point: St. Paddy’s Day.  I have a friend who plays in an Irish  band (yah, yah, I know) and each year we go to see them play and we dance. And dance. And dance.

This means I need practical dancing attire…

I think they’ll hold up just fine. Now I just need to decide the best way to style a 3rd look for next week’s St. Paddy’s Celebration!