Silhouette Patterns 3 Piece Yoga Pant- Sew Along

So it's not really a sew a long, Peggy Sagers has a POM or pattern of the month and then she does a few youtube webcasts and shows you how to make them. I LOVE Peggys teaching and technique, but some of her clothes not so much my style- but it doesn't really matter because she is actually teaching me to make things my style. So I figure yoga pants OF course- sign me up! Now I have made a shitload of stretch pants- like a bunch- but they are sort of generic one-size-fits-all-because-they-stretch type leggings. But I am sure you also have a bunch of store bought leggings yourself and some of them look AWESOME- your ass looks great and you look 10lbs lighter, well that because however they were designed, they actually fit you. So I headed down to DTLA fabric district to grab some supplies because God know Joann's don't have no 2 inch elastic and if they did it would be totally expensive.

My go to elastic guy is John TEX and TRIM 818 Wall ST Los Angeles.

Now if you look behind me you will see and 20 thousand pound pile of fabric- I am sure there are some gems in there, but it reminds me too much of my garage and that stresses me out

ahh one of the many aisles of trims, elastics, and stretch lace all neatly organized in NO WAY SHAPE OR FORM. Theres only one way to find what you need, and that is to ask. Hey, I need 2 inch black elastic BOOM. I need half fold black elastic DONE. Do you have this exact thing in say, purple? OF COURSE! And then its all neatly packed for you like this...

But, THIS little bag only cost me 14 bucks. 10 yards 3 inch white elastic, 10 yards 2 inch wide black, and 30 yards of misc elastic for my underwear making. Totally worth it. 

I hit a few other places- and wound up with some solid black, white star and awesome polka dot fabric. Now this is some heavy duty stretch, super strong, thick weight- none of that "your skin is showing through your leggings" crap.

I have some ideas for these.... ill show ya when I am done. Haven't even got the pattern in the mail yet :)

Moving along... from Paper to Fabric

{my first "serious" quilt}

Wow, it seems like forever since I have blogged. A lot has changed around here as I have sort of changed directions on my creative journey. I have always loved paper crafting but what I enjoyed the most was the process. The creations only served as eye candy for a while and would end up getting recycled, re-purposed or given away. What I really was in search of is a creative outlet that served practicality. So I started making quilts. Just easy quilts. I found it fulfilled my love of putting patterns and colors together, much like I did in paper crafting. BUT, after making 7 quilts- I had more quilts than bodies to wrap them around. I did learn one valuable thing through quilting though, and that was to be patient and precise. After learning I could be patient and precise, I figured why not jump into making my own clothing? Now my mom taught me to sew in grade school- but I didn't really have patients so I frequently just cut squares out and sewed them together and added elastic! When I did try patterns, I cut them out haphazardly, ignoring things such as grain line, darts, and notches. I just cut, threw right sides together and sewed. And lets not even talk about seam allowance- I just sewed along the edge and made things match even if they didn't. That was cause for a lot of uneven  shoulders, crooked necklines and bad hems. As with most of my creating I am self taught- AKA Internet taught. There is such a wealth of sewing information out there! I discovered the whole Indie Pattern Making universe and Sew A Longs. My favorite being the Ginger Jean Sew Along from Closet Case Files. After I familiarized myself with doing some simple patterns, I was ready to start tackling some real challenges- like Jeans and  a tailored shirt! I highly recommend Pamela Howards "The Classic Tailored Shirt" Craftsy class.

{my tailored shirt from Pam Howards class- live and in action at work!}

Now I have gotten past the shyness off sharing my handmade clothes and will start sharing here on the blog my sewing adventures!

{My first "practice" jeans. I of course wasn't thinking about the grain line and didn't buy enough fabric- so they were too short! No problem I added a little cotton cuff at the bottom- but lesson learned