Pattern testing: Tofino PJ Pants

I was lucky enough to be a pattern tester for another of Tasia's patterns, the Tofino pants/shorts. It was still cold here in Chicago when testing took place, so I made the pants and they are an absolute delight! I have worn them so much in the 6 weeks or so that I have had them!

Here is the pattern:

 Since I am not really "pear-shaped," they body type the patterns are designed for, I made a 0 and they fit nicely. Don't worry about them being too short for all you normal height folks, I had to cut off quite a few inches on the hem.

 I used some cute cotton from the haul Alicia gave me a few months ago. It is salmon and teal and off-white print. I stongly suggest making your own piping, which Tasia provides pieces and instructions for. I bought some piping in a "contrast" color from the shitty selection at Jo-Ann and after I sewed it on relaized it look atrocious. So I ripped it off and ended up with no piping, which is such a cute detail! Sadz. I will be making more pairs, though.

 The bow is cute and the elastic waist is comfy.

 i have been wearing them constantly for about 6 weeks now. I need to make another pair just to give these guys some relief.

The true sadness was right after we took the pictures to send to Tasia, I was rummaging through my makeup, which is on the shelf by the bathroom window. I knocked off a bottle of neon orange nail polish, which then shattered on the floor and exploded EVERYWHERE including on my first-time-worn pants, the wall and the tile. Witness:

I have still been wearing them though. That was the first time in my life I had broken a bottle of nail polish and then in the same WEEK, I broke a bottle of gold polish in the same way in the same spot. Clearly, I am learning...I did jump backwards in time to save my clothes and some acetone fixed the floors and wall. 

Sorry I have been posting so infrequently, I have been gardening and doing pottery and being lazy and I have been sewing, but I need to take pictures of my projects!

if you want some cute pj pants, you can buy the pattern here!

More Molly-made pottery

After my five week class ended, I signed up for the ten week class. It's a lot of fun and slowly my projects have been getting much better. First, they had us make cylinders to practice pulling shapes and then shaping cylinders into vases and things.

I have made a ton of things, but these are the only four finished objects I have now. four cylinders that I decided should be small flowerpots. They still aren't perfect, but they are much better than anything  I made in the first class!!!

After bisque firing

Glazed and finished: spodumene, iron red, josh blue and celadon green.

I planted my tiny seedlings in them with a layer of rocks in the bottom for drainage. Lavender and three mints. 

 For scale, the biggest one (blue) is about five inches tall. I have ten more vases and things that are being glaze-fired right now and i'll post about them soon. This class has been taking up most of my free time that I usually sew during. The class is three hours on Wednesday nights, but then I go in after school another day or two to trim, glaze or throw more pots.

The weather is getting nicer ad that makes me want to sew summer clothes, plus there's only three weeks left of my class so expect more sewing soon!

An Epic Fail, or why I need a walking foot

I got that big piece of velvet in seafoam green color with all of that free fabric from Alicia. My original thought was "om nom nom" and I knew I would make a jacket out of it, a Cordova jacket! I wanted to do a trial run with the pattern and this fabric would be perfect!

Andrew saw the fabric and said ew. I ignored him. 

 Sadly, he was right. Just for the record, I didn't even finish it. After I put in the zipper, I could tell it was a lost cause. So it is not hemmed at all.

Problem one: Velvet. I was like "No, man, I got this." I made a velvet dress before, it'll be fine... Yeah, thinking back, I rush-made a really shoddy red dress for the last day of school before Xmas break. Seriously, go look at it. Such a turd. So since that was my sum total of velvet experience...

Solution: I need a walking foot for my machine. I tried my best, but the pieces would get fed through at different paces and every. single. piece. was. off. I did find a picture online and looked through all of my miscellaneous feet, but I don't have one. Sooo.....something to buy soon.

Oh lawd!

 Problem two: Style + fabric, use some logic please.

The Cordova pattern is for a nice, slim jacket with some detailing and a zipper front. There have been some very good versions that I have seen around the interwebs. Trisha made nice purple one and Tasia made nice tweed one. Everything about the fabric, color and style is all wrong; the sleeves look absurd. It looks like some poorly done costume for an un-researched movie set in the 1800s, minus the not-yet-invented zipper. I am frowning just looking at the pictures. Sooooo ugly.

Solution: Sometimes it is necessary to sit down and actually think about if a pattern and a fabric will

LOL I know!

 Problem three: the zipper. Seriously, if you can't find a zipper that matches (which was impossible at Jo-Ann, the only place I looked) you should not use a random, white, separating one from your stash. Plus it was a little too long, so I cut an inch off the top. The top. So now there is no metal stopper, and the tab can just shoot off into the atmosphere. When I realized this, after I had sewn it in (unevenly, due to no walking foot), I just quit. We're done here, folks.

Solution: Find a damn zipper that matches!

Saggy McDroopertons

Plus,I think the fit is too baggy in general even though I made my usual size 2. It will definitely need some sizing down if I make it again.

Now that it's finally starting to feel like Spring, who cares about jackets!

Feel free to say whatever mean things you like about this wad of crap! I have zero attachment to it and it will be going in my freecycle fabric scrap bag. Oh no wait, I already did that. Haha!