Trial Balloons: "You've Been on My Mind"

I have to admit that when Rhonda suggested a whole month of pants I was thinking how many different ways can I make pants!? But I now have more ideas than I have weeks!!!! It reminds me that where you put your attention, energy flows. I think we usually stop at the first (maybe second) idea and we never really get to the more nuanced or creative ones. Focusing on pants for a month and coming up with 4 different takes is pushing my brain into those subtler ideas. Thank you Rhonda!

I got a bit excited about our August plan and jumped the gun with week one! So now I am a week ahead of Rhonda and decided to just go with it...I'm not sure if we'll end up in the same place, but I am enjoying the great bottoms and the nice additions to my pant wardrobe.

This week's edition of "Getting to the Bottom Line" is about things that have been on our minds but never seem to get the front row seat. (yes, the pun was intended!) Maybe we have a piece of fabric that keeps getting pushed to the back, or a technique that we have seen or read about that we haven't tried yet, maybe there is a pattern that has been on the pile for a while now....something that has been tickling our fancy but we haven't actually gotten around to doing. The time has arrived!

My "you've been on my mind" project started with a skirt that I made earlier this summer. I wanted a skirt with a flat waistband. I had a top that I wanted to wear for my niece's wedding but the skirts I had all had waistbands that 'poked' out and made the top bunch up and look awful. I needed something that would fit close and be flat under the hem of the top. I ended up making a gathered skirt attached to a knit 'yoga pant-ish' waistband. It worked really well and was sooooo comfortable! I thought about trying it on a pair of pants...and then got distracted and, didn't get to it.

(Ok, yes, it is a way to get a gratuitous photo of my handsome son into the blog!!! 😜)

So that was the first idea....as I thought about making the pants I remembered a piece of fabric that was left over from another project that I have really wanted to make into pants, but I only had a short length of it. It is a piece of Eileen Fisher birds eye woven linen that I had been hoarding and waiting for the right idea. I thought with the knit waistband a short length of fabric would probably work.

Here's the dress that I made using the Eileen fabric for the lower portion....you can read about the dress HERE

OK...waistband, check, left over fabric, check...

I found a piece of knit that was a color match, but it was a bit too light weight and didn't have the stretch and recovery that would hold up to the weight of the linen....hmmmmm....technique idea!!!!

A sewing buddy had shared a great idea for making yoga pants. To get the extra stretch into the waistband she added an 'interfacing' of power net...the stuff that you use to line swim suits! It was just the thing. It added the stretch without adding much weight to the waistband.

...and finally...when I read Rhonda's post about her favorite PJ bottoms pattern...perfect! I pulled out my PJ pattern. It has a fold-over casing at the top so I could cut it off straight across and add my knit band. I laid it out on the linen using every bit of length I could get! Here's what I had after I cut out the pattern pieces...

I really wanted pockets....

I used the "crotch" cut outs and inserted a piece into the center (it had to be on the cross grain!) to get enough to make patch pockets. I think they are kind of nifty.

I ended up putting a facing at the hems to eke out every bit of length I could get and they are still just above my ankles, which I am kind of liking. The 'flood pants' trauma from high school is starting to recede a bit and making pants that are 'too short' doesn't cause quite as much consternation!

I've been hanging out at the lake this week, so I don't have my crack photographer to help me...it's selfie time. 😉

These pants are super comfortable! and so easy to make! (The pockets were the toughest part!)

I am very happy with my "Eileen Fisher" pants...what's not to like...PJ bottoms with a yoga waistband?! It was worth holding out for the right project!