Pants for me

I finally got my pants finished today - talk about s-l-o-w progress, but nonetheless, they are finished and I even wore them to my daughter's Christmas concert this afternoon. I'm pleased with how they turned out (tho they could be a tad longer, but I used every square inch of fabric so this is the best I could do). The pattern required some tweaking to get them to fit my tush, but pants are not the easiest thing for me to fit so I wasn't at all surprised. I even made two muslins (something that is rare for me)! The final pants were still a little off in the waist and I think that is due to the stretch of the fabric (it's a stretch woven with some lycra in it). So I ended up pinching out some in the back waist to get a better fit which resulted in scooping out a little more of the crotch so I didn't have a wedgie. All in all, I'm very pleased with how they turned out and I feel like the style flatters my figure. I really do need to get myself a TNT pants pattern that I can have as my master pattern and then change up the design elements to create different pant styles. If you have a swayback, you know what a pain pants fitting really is. Anyway, here is my review on PR if you'd like to know more.

Of course I just had to make my daughter a new dress for her Christmas program at school. I bought some panne velvet at Joann's a few weeks ago to make myself a dress for hubby's work Christmas party, but decided that fabric might not be the most flattering for me so I didn't make the dress. DD fell in love with the fabric and kept wrapping herself in it and begging for me to make her something so I decided to make her an Olivia hoodie dress (it's a European pattern brand called Farbenmix). It's such an easy and cute dress and she has several more in her closet that she loves so I knew it would be a hit. Well it was definitely a hit and she hardly wants to take it off!

Last, but definitely not least (and the reason why I didn't finish my pants sooner) was because I was making the kids their Christmas pj's. I started a tradition a few years ago of making the kids pj's for Christmas that they get to open on Christmas Eve right before bed. The above picture is obviously DD's pair (the top is a basic t-shirt from Ottobre and the pants are McCall's 4708 ~ I made these for her last year too and she really liked them. For the boys I used Simplicity 8493 for the pants (also made of flannel - a race car print) and the shirt pattern from my favorite KS knit pj patterns. Sorry no picture of the boys pj's - I must be sneaky so they don't see.

Next up is.....I haven't a clue! I seriously have this huge long list of things I want to do, but I need to be realistic. We leave for our cruise in a month so I should be thinking ahead to that. Problem is I haven't a clue what the weather will be. We're going from LA to northern Mexico and according to the average temperatures it will only be mid 60's (brrr!). So I guess it will be more like a summer Alaskan cruise! LOL I honestly haven't a clue what to take. I doubt I'll be lounging poolside in my bikini. When we're a week out I can see the forecast better, but until then I guess I'll have to think warmer things, tho mid 60's may feel like a heatwave to me in a month! ;-)

Tomorrow I think the kids and I are making a Gingerbread Train so no sewing will probably be happening. Hopefully we can get the train made with minimal mess - go ahead and laugh, impossible with four kids!