Southwestern prints – Threading Lightly

Patterns: Sewaholic Tofino pants, McCalls M6681 & free-form pants

Skills acquired:

Adding pockets
Piping

I’ve made some PJ pants in my time, in fact I’ve made a lot recently. I decided to consolidate them all in one post, for more efficiency (another one of my job skills – companies take note!).

Pajama pants are probably the most basic garment there is. It’s the perfect thing to make when you are first learning to sew. You don’t really need a pattern, there are no zippers and they are made from basic cotton fabric. There are ways to dress them up and build off the simple design, but for the most part there is nothing easier. The most basic patterns have two pieces for the front and two for the back. These all get sewn up pretty much how you would imagine (even the order doesn’t matter too much) and you end up with two legs. The waistband gets folded down, an elastic is added, the pant legs are hemmed…and voila! Something you can lounge around in that you made all your own.

Put it in your pocket

I wanted to make my boyfriend a new pair of lounge pants since I felt like I could improve upon the pants I had made him a while back. He said to me, “If you do make another pair, could you add pockets?” Hmmm…this was something I never thought of. There aren’t too many patterns out there that include pockets on such a garment and I didn’t really trust myself to figure this out on my own. I found this handy tutorial online and decided to experiment with some pants I was going to make myself, just so I could get it right. I had a remnant of flannel which I really liked, although I did not have enough to make full length, which is why these are cropped.

It was all pretty straightforward, however I kept messing up because I had a hard time Continue reading “A tribute to lounge wear – a few variations” →

I’ve decided that I like going fabric shopping on vacation. It’s usually pretty tough to squeeze it in, but if you do your research ahead of time and you have an understanding travel buddy, you can make it happen.

While I was in New Mexico a few weeks ago, I made the discovery that there was a fabric store a block from the B&B I was staying in. It was a sign! The store was Stitchology in Albuquerque,a very small and very cute sewing shop. For such a small place, it had a pretty decent variety of fabric types.

I bought some embroidered cotton & a yard of blue rayon that I thought had an interesting print.

I liked what I bought, but I didn’t feel it was really Southwestern enough. I wanted something that would remind me of this trip and capture the spirit of region. I made an extra stop at Southwest Decoratives, Continue reading “Bringing back the southwest” →