Movin' Right Along...Crafty : Wool Pants for My Girl

(Another song I love! By the Muppets..)

Ahh! The relief and release of the monthly moon cycle. Even though I dedicatedly keep track of it, it still manages to surprise me every single month! So I am blushing in my predictability with that last post; apparently the Kali-like premenstrual time is alive and well, even if I do feel a LOT more even-keeled with recent supplementation. But as I learn to embrace the ebbs and flows of this womanly rhythm of mine, I can also embrace this temporary ferocity as a gift. It gets me to the mic.

Moving through that, I can start checking items off the To Do, To Learn, and To Make lists.

A revelation that I had while in Mexico was: I like what I create with the sewing machine. I have a unique design style, and I like the way I incorporate thrifted clothing and their fabrics into new fun items. Right before our trip I discovered a bag that I made six years ago. I used parts of some corduroy pants, with a trim of vivid t-shirt. The iron-on patches had since come unglued and lost their relevance, but, damn, if that is still not a stylin', excellently useful bag! It was my favorite the whole month we were away. And our tiny friend Stella sported a couple of my originals while visiting us down there. Sharp clothes, if I do say so myself.

Complementing that revelation, I discovered a blog by a kindred spirit of mine up in Canada, that is so entertaining and inspiring to me in the creative department! The author of While Tangerine Dreams is a dirt-loving, Waldorf-inspired homeschooling mama who raises chickens and and milks a cow, spins (ridiculously scrumptious) yarn and designs fashion from her strawbale home! If that isn't a whole list of activities near and dear to my heart, she also writes with a fresh humor that keeps me coming back. So thanks, Kathy, for adding some wind to my crafty sails!

I feel a little sheepish telling you we are traveling again so soon - to Oregon to visit Stella and her family. We had a window of opportunity and we took it. So I felt the creative urgency to make Anjali some wool pants to weather the rain! Ahh! The rush of a sewing deadline! The only excuse I have to survive and thrive for a day on nothing but coffee and raw milk lattes. Ha!

Anjali likes the pants so well that she wouldn't let me take them off after the first fitting, and wore them for naptime. Which actually gave me the time to do everything *else* I needed to before leaving this evening! I used a pair of knit tights-pants as a loose guide to the sizing, and a felted merino wool sweater in my fabric pile just happened to have perfectly-sized sleeves. So I just had to fit them together, adding gusseted crotch, and a few patch-pockets for flare. Considering I always tend to fly by the seat of my pants when sewing, there were complications (once I'd committed to using the brown sweater and cut off one sleeve, I realized the other sleeve had been used for a previous project and had a sizable piece missing from it. Heh heh. Add a another patch to the list. If unique use of fabrics is my forte, that's my main critique of my sewing: that my projects are often jury-rigged because of the last-minute nature of my motivation. Perhaps the trade-off for a Tiffanie-made creation these days..) BUT I made it in time! A pair of wool tights my girl has for our rainy trip!

The only shot I have of them is a fuzzy, midriff-bearing shot, but yummy nonetheless.

The top heart patch has a slit pocket! A must for this girl: "One-two pockets!"

The second photo is of a beginning of a checking-off of the To Make and To Learn lists: creating labels en Espanol of every household item we can! I wrote the words, and then my assistant added embellishment and tape.

Manic days like this are the ones where I squeeze in a short but still existent jog, *and* manage to sweep the bulk of the cat hair and crumbs out of sight before we woosh out the door!

Oooo! (James Brown-style)

Feels good!