My daughter had a Sock Hop Daddy/Daughter dance and didn’t have anything to wear. I decided to make her a simple poodle skirt. However, I ended up making it a little more complicated than that, though it still only took me a few hours to make. Ultimately it was reversible with a middle layer that attached to ruffles.

I love being able to create things like this from my head. It ended up being super cute and she wore it both ways.

I also made a new purse for myself. This one is a variation of an older design of mine. I like to experiment with purses for myself, and if I like the design enough, I make it into a purse pattern. I’m honestly not sure about this one. After carrying it for a week, there are things I like and things I don’t. I’m not sure if it will make it to the pattern stage, or if I’ll keep carrying it.

I also have had a goal to perfect pants for myself this year. Pants are notoriously difficult to fit well, and I have some body quirks that make it even harder. I have high hips. My mom and I call them shelf hips. What it translates to for fitting is that I have to add a couple inches to the back rise of most pants patterns. I also apparently have a deep rear end, at least at the bottom, because I usually have to change back crotch curves from a gentle curve to more of an L-shape. I also have some lovely lower belly fat that I can’t entirely blame on four babies because it was there before I had them, but four kids definitely hasn’t helped. On top of that, my thighs are one or two sizes smaller than my hips, depending on the pattern. This all adds up to a lot of frustration.

I have a knit pattern that I self-drafted a couple years ago, and it works pretty well for knits and very stretchy wovens. Knits are pretty hot though in the summer when you wear shorts to your knees, so I decided to try some stretch wovens. I ordered stretch twill from Simply by Ti fabrics during a sale. I got it in three different colors. I also bought the Ames Jeans pattern from Cashmerette. Jeans drafted for a curvy block are bound to be a closer fit than other pattern companies that draft for size 10 or so and then grade out from there. Sure enough, the measurements for a straight size 16 looked perfect for me. I made the version for pear-shaped pelvis and skinny jean legs.

I ended up taking four inches out of the pattern in height. I took it out in four different places from the legs to keep the correct proportions. I added 1.5” to the back curve and .5” to the yoke. Then I made my muslin and basted together the pieces. I made them as shorts to save on fabric and because that’s what I want right now anyway.

I was pleasantly surprised! My muslin only needed small adjustments, and all of them could be made to the original pieces, so I was able to take everything apart, change the pieces, and then make the shorts again with full pockets and topstitching and everything (except a fly because I didn’t cut the fly pieces). I ended up making a small Low Butt Adjustment (lowering the back crotch curve), removing some of the hip curve, removing the .5” I added to the yoke, and removing .5” from the front crotch curve at the top. Everything looks and feels great. I still have some wrinkles on the back that according to the fitting charts, need either a skinny thigh adjustment or another Low Butt Adjustment. I’ll probably do the latter for my next pair. The side wrinkles are partially from the pocket stays and partially from my hip shape. I’m not sure if I’ll try to get rid of those or not.