Two for the price of one

My pantsapalooza is back on! I finally made the olive pair of Thurlows, and now have 3 more to go. I also learned as I was cutting these out that, once again, I did err on the side of too much fabric. So rather than fold up the remaining large piece of fabric, I just went ahead and cut out a Hummingbird skirt while I was at it! I already had a zipper in my stash that would work, aside from the one I'd bought specifically for the pants, and I used the same buttons for both, which means that aside from sewing time, this skirt was essentially free. Can't beat that!

Of course, this also means I'm going to have leftovers for the other 3 pairs of pants, too. I already have an idea for my grey twill, but I'm also going to have some charcoal and navy lightweight denim (as two separate yardages) to figure out what to do with. I'm hoping that I can get my cutting table cleared off today so I can cut as much of this out tomorrow as possible, given that I'm actually going to be a working musician tomorrow as well. (I love playing weddings, they're such easy money!)

Anyway, on with the projects, shall we? I'm attempting to track stash usage as I go this year, since I'm on the Stash Diet. So that information will go below.





Pattern: Sewaholic Patterns- Thurlow Trousers (worn here with my Simbelmyne top)

Amount of time it took to make: about a week, I'm going to estimate about 10 hours total

Fabric used: A cotton olive green twill, plus a quilter cotton for the pockets and waistband facings

Amount of fabric used: Approx. 2 1/8 yards (really more, I was left with 1.5 yards of the twill, half the original width.)

Stashed since: 2012

I think this is going to be my new indoor spot for photos. The light just seems so much better in here than in our living room! Plus, you know, books. Anyway, aside from an hour or so spent basting and unbasting the back seam to tweak the fit, the second round of these went together much, much easier than the first.

The welt pockets look pretty good this time, I think! It helps that it's a better-quality fabric than what I used for the brown pair for certain. But practicing the construction with the first pair helped a lot, too. They're still not perfect in the corners, but certainly passable.  I did also realize some things about the waistband construction that made the end result look much better--it was probably obvious to a lot of people, but I figured out that stopping the stitching 5/8" away from the raw edge made the zipper area fit in much, much better! I got the pockets sorted for what side needs to be out for the insides to look pretty this time, too. Which is good, because I'm actually super-excited about what I get to use up for one of the next pairs, and I want to show it!









"Guts" picture! This quilt cotton has been around forever, from some fabric my mom gave me from her own stash when I was trying to get this quilt planned out. It didn't quite work out for that, so I'm glad I finally found a use for it. I did discover that the twill creases quite a bit during wearing, but nothing that a little dryer or iron action won't fit. The creases are mainly in the front from sitting, anyway, and I generally wear my shirts untucked, so I'm not worried. Incidentally, I'm pretty sure I can count these pockets as "Itty Bits" for the Stashbusting Sewalong, too.

And now for the skirt...

Pattern: Cake Patterns- Hummingbird skirt (worn here with the "Autumn in Lancaster" Renfrew, since there is some olive in the print.)

Amount of time it took to make: Probably about 5 hours, if you count the time I had to spend ripping out my fitting mistakes.

Fabric used: same as the Thurlows. I'm calling this my "Tapenade" skirt, because that's the sort of thing you'd make from leftover olives, right?

Amount of fabric used: a 1.5 yd x approx. 30" piece of twill, cut crosswise, + 5/8" yard cotton

Stashed since: 2012

Despite the fact that I've made this skirt twice already, I had a surprising amount of trouble with the fitting! When I made the hemp Hummingbird, I had to take the top in at a pretty extreme angle, which you can see much better in the pocket detail picture for the TARDIS skirt variation. I don't know if it's because the twill has much less give than the hemp, or because there was no stretch involved like there was with the denim, but it didn't work at all this time! The skirt sits pretty tightly against my waist, and when I first tried it on, there were these weird wing-like protrusions at my hips. Which is pretty much the last place I want wing-like protrusions. So I had to rip out the seam, the serging, and the topstitching (argh) that I'd already done, soften the angle quite a bit, and then restitch it. I guess this means I may need to rethink my pattern alterations before I use this one again!

Also, I completely blanked on constructing the pockets--the good news is that I got the right edges lined up first try, but that means the wrong side of the pocket fabric is showing from the inside. Oh well, it could be much worse.

Aside from fitting, a few minor tweaks I made was doing a centered zipper instead of invisible, just because that's the sort of zipper I had on hand. I also added topstitching to the front and side seams, to give it a more casual look.


Total yards out: 4.25 (twill used up, only large scrap left of cotton left, so I'm counting it.)

Current stash total: ~334 yards


Diet rules: 2 pieces of fabric, 2 separate patterns out of 4 before I can buy more of either. Which I'd better get cracking on, because Doug and I are planning a weekend trip to NYC in February, and he said we could go to Mood! I've never actually bought anything from the physical store, though I did have a chance to step inside it once, so this is really exciting! I do have things I can legitimately buy to finish already planned projects, like a winter jacket lining, and I did build in a travel exception, but I still want to be very thoughtful about what I do buy there.