Turkey Pants, Revisited

Tonight was DS#2's football banquet, signaling the official end of the high school football season for us. His team did make it to the playoffs, but lost in the first round. We blame the weather. It was incredibly cold, even by northern standards. Around 45 degrees with a strong wind. Wind Chill Factor is not usually a term heard in Central Florida, but OMG ... we were miserable, and sorely underdressed. Thankfully, we were able to borrow an extra blanket from people we knew and were slightly more comfortable. The boys on the field had no such luxuries and it showed. The final score was 14-7, so it was close and a nail-biter the whole time.

Anyway, DS got his Varsity letter tonight and Santa is bringing the letterman jacket to go with it. I wore my Turkey Pants to the banquet and actually thought to snap a pic when we got home. The jacket is the one from Burda WOF that I blogged about last year and the blouse is the re-drafted Ottobre Woman "vintage blouse" I made for my (now unneeded) office wardrobe. Sorry, I'm too lazy to link to the older posts. I still love this jacket and I was even glad it was cold enough to wear it tonight.

Wrestling season is up next.

TNT, or is it?

Today, TNT means not Tried-N-True, but Tried-N-Trash. I'm glad I used an unloved fabric for a muslin before committing to it.

The drawing of View C (tie front) looks cute, doesn't it? I thought so. But I didn't read the fine print mentioning that the neck edge was unfinished. With Views A and B, you can always add a binding for a finished edge. Not so easy with View C. Yes, it can be done if I round the corners of the ties and then bind everything all the way around, but I don't know if I want to be bothered. I'm just not feeling the love for this top right now. I'll let it sit on Zillie for a couple of days before I make a final decision.

It came out incredibly long. Like 8 inches or so. Easily fixed if I do decide to try it again.



Here's a close-up of the neckline. I didn't do the topstitching around the raw edges per the pattern, but it wouldn't make any difference. Raw edge is still raw edge.



Here's the neckline with the "ties" hanging. They aren't really ties though. Instead, the tails are slipped through a loop (also raw-edged) that's sewn into the yoke seam and just pulled into a tie-like shape.



Here's the top on me. The fit needs a little adjustment. The sleeves are too tight and I would prefer a little bit more ease throughout. But overall, not bad. Especially since I did not make any adjustments besides to blend between sizes. That's right. No FBA. The darts are even in the right place.

I also eliminated the CB seam for both speed and style. If possible (and it was with this), I prefer tees to be cut on the fold in the back.



I could fix this one into a PJ top if I rip the sideseams and overarm seams and sew them at 1/4" instead of 5/8" in the places that need more ease. I'm not sure if I'm going to be bothered though. But I might ... I don't have very many long-sleeved PJ tops and the temps are going to drop again at the end of the week. (Uh oh. It's the next morning and I'm already mellowing.)

Oh, one more thing I don't like about this pattern — it takes 2.5 yards of 60" fabric. The top front piece has the sleeve front attached and has to be laid out in such a way that it sucks up way too much fabric. The short-sleeve version would be much more economic.

Turkey Pants

Yes. Turkey pants.

You know ... pants with an expanding waist to wear on Thanksgiving so you don't have to unbutton the regular jeans after The Big Meal. ;-)

The pattern is my TNT capris pattern, Simplicity 4605, lengthened to full length. I just wanted easy-wear jeans, nothing fancy. These sewed up in about 2 hours and I was comfortable all day. Besides, since I don't wear tops tucked in, no one but us knows they're pull-on jeans anyway. And you won't tell, right? ;-)

They look boring laying here on the cutting table, and I guess they *are* boring. But I'm boring. So these are perfect for most of my days. Nicer than sweats and PJ pants too.



Nothing fancy back here either. But I did use one of my machine's deco stitches just to do *something* on the pockets. I was all about speed this morning and this is a fast stitch.



Parting Shot

I hope my American readers had a great Thanksgiving! Ours was pretty quiet and relaxing. A few friends, classic T-day food, and football all day long. (Too bad NONE of the games were really worth watching!)

The aftermath:



Hmmm. Time for a turkey sandwich. ;-)

Another Jalie Winner

As I mentioned, we've had a bit of cool snap here in West Central Florida, and after living here for 20 years, I'm a wimp with anything that falls below 70 degrees. Pitiful, I know, especially for an ex-New Englander who grew up with two-foot snowfalls regularly. So as the thermometer plunged to the 50s and even 40s, my need for longer sleeves rose. (As did my need for thick socks and another blanket for my bed!) Enter another Jalie 2806.



Nothing technically new to add since my first post on this pattern, but it's definitely become one of my favorite patterns of 2008. I did get a little creative with the bindings. I could've gone for solid brown, or even self-fabric, but I really wanted a bit of color contrast too.





Both fabrics are from Fabric.com. This, below, is the print used for the binding. A little fussy cutting and the yellow/brown print takes on a whole new look.



I'm pretty darn happy with this one. I love the splash of yellow, and the browns of both fabrics are a near-perfect match.

Test Pattern

Don't stare at it too long or your eyes will bug out. ;-)

Just because I haven't been posting doesn't mean I haven't been adding to the stash. What am I working for after all? Fabric.com recently had a bunch of geometric knit prints and this one had DS#2's name all over it. I liked it even more in person. For him, that is.

So he got another make of Simplicity 4287. But this time, I overlapped the seamed front sections before cutting for 1-piece fronts. Easy to do since there's no bust shaping in those seams.

(Shame on Simplicity for taking this one out of the catalog. I really think they could've lost one of the myriad scoop-neck tunic clones instead and no one would've been the wiser.)



And the result … ignore the goofy smile. The print is moire-like, it almost moves on its own. Very cool to a 16-year old. He's worn it every week since I finished it. I think it's a hit. And I love using knits for this pattern. He looks a little nicer with a collared shirt but there's nothing added to the ironing pile after it goes through the laundry.



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