Jail break

Who am I?

a) an inmate, trapped within the confines of an underfunded, overcrowded prison system

b) a primary school teacher from the '80s?

c) a home seamstress obsessed with the production of a tencel all-in-one

I used my beloved Spotlight denim-look tencel to create this snap-studded sensation.

I really love the sleeve tab detailing.

Cool sleeve tabs

This is the pattern I used:

Hello 1984

I scored this vintage Burda pattern from my friend's late Mum's pattern collection. While I was tempted to recreate the camo number, complete with mesh pocket, I had a feeling that this tencel from Spotlight would drape beautifully and be seriously comfy.

I was right.

I made view B with very few changes. Those old Burda patterns don't have seam allowances included so that was a bit of a pain and I had a terrible time attaching the snaps. Oh My God. My Internet research told me that snap attachment is easy. Lies. All lies. I made such a mess of the whole thing I ended up my local Vietnamese tailor and they unpicked and reattached new snaps within an hour, all for $20. Part of me feels like I cheated, but hey, it was worth it.

Beside the snap debacle this was an easy pattern that came together much more smoothly than I expected. I cut a size 12 for the top and graded out to a 14 and I'm happy with the fit. You don't want wait until the last minute when going to the loo, but that's a small price to pay for all-in-one convenience, don't you agree?

Time to shine corgi legs

I'm not putting myself down when I say I've got the legs of a corgi. I mean, it has it's advantages. Budget airline travel, for example, is less squashy than it is for, say, long limbed Giselle types. And I can stretch my pins out in the bath tub with ease.  But when it comes to rocking a pair of comfy, yet cool, woven pants? Aye Carumba. 

So when I scored a copy of the Hudson Pants sewing pattern from my new sewing buddy, Liz, I had me some serious doubts. I'd already recently donated a freshly sewn pair of Guise pants to the op-shop because they looked absolutely hideous and left me feeling rather lacklustre: stumpy and large of hip. 

Then one day the Spotlight catalogue arrived in the post letting me know that not only did they have a tonne of Tencel (the eco-wonder-fabric!) in stock, but that it was on sale for VIPs. Hello 5 metres. Hello Hudsons.

Maybe I'm stuck in 1995, but I've had a major craving for Tencel pants lately. The ladies at Rathdowne Fabrics told me that hadn't seen Tencel for years, so I went a little crazy when it popped up in Spotlight. I'm glad I did, actually, because it drapes beautifully and is so soft and pretty much goes with everything. As the Hudson pattern is designed for stretch fabric I sized up three sizes and the fit is spot on. 

I didn't add any length to the legs because I thought that I wouldn't need to. Mistake. Take it from me: even if you are short, you will probably need to lengthen these pants by at least two inches if you are going to make a woven pair without the cuff. To remedy my error I cut a pair of cuffs, adding width to fit and sewed them onto the bottom as a subtle design feature. I'll probably just lengthen the pattern for future makes, but this technique worked out fine in a pinch.

The top, by the way, is the super popular Simplicity 1366. It's a great one if you've only got a little bit of fabric to work with. I made it up with some Nani Iro double gauze I had left over from my beloved Sewaholic Yaletown.

All in all, this corgi-legged lass is one happy seamstress.