Saturday 25 October 2008

Zen and Sewing


The child had one pair of pants. One. From amongst a pile of too-short, too-tattered relics of the past year emerged the last remaining pair of jeans, still sturdy to the world. This is a challenge, right? I could pop over to Value Village and pick up a $5.99 pair of perfectly serviceable jeans for her, or I could go down to the basement and try out How to make easy kids' pants, which I'd been itching to do for, oh, over a year ;-) Besides, I had the perfect fabric in mind: a soft light blue baby corduroy that I'd been saving for something nice. There would be just enough for a pair of pants.

At the same time as I was getting all adventurous and taking apart an old, nice-fitting pair of Safiya's pants to trace a pattern from (never done that with pants before, so was kind of nervous, but it worked out well), I was also having an argument.

It doesn't matter with who, especially because the person wasn't there. I was not paying attention, just indulging, and what I wish I could say or should have said came pouring out in a fantasy (one-sided) conversation where everything got resolved, and where anger and hurt feelings had free reign. Oh, and of course, where I was right, and vindicated, and all that good stuff ;-)

Now, I hear you saying, how can you do that and sew at the same time?

And of course, the answer is that I can't. I cut the pants out completely backwards and the fabric was not salvageable. Which forced a big sigh, a kick in the brain-pants for me, and a refocus on the project at hand. Ugh. Those thoughts, those arguments, while they seem satisfying in the moment, are ultimately so deceptive and unproductive.

Hands with scissors, on the other hand (ha!), can be quite productive:


I'm discovering that it is very difficult to get a four-year-old to stay still! Especially when fitting things....oh, I take back all that wriggling I did to my Mom when she made me clothes years ago....arg!


The back-up pair did turn out just fine, and I highly recommend this method of making pants; once you get going, you could probably make a pair of pants start to finish in 30 minutes-ish.

I do not, however, recommend sewing angry...imagine what all our clothes would look like!

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

haha, oh dear, i have totally done that too... sad that the nice corduroy was a casualty, but it looks like those finished pants came out very sweet. i love the whole outfit! (helps to have such a cute model)

xo anna

Things Hand Made said...

Oh well, glad its all resolved both the trousers and the argument.

Michelle said...

Yes, angry sewing is not so good. Well, angry just about anything doesn't work for me. Angry baking is not very tasty and angry cleaning is bound to break something. Not that I'm speaking from experience. Ahem.

On a positive note the back up pair is very cute!

Amy said...

Lucky it worked out in the end - they look great. Thanks for the link also - I've been itching to try a pair of kids pants for a while now.

Anonymous said...

Lovely! I've been meaning to try my hand at sewing some pants for my daughter, but right now she's in a "dress only" phase!

Anonymous said...

the pants look like they turned out great. and i definitely know what you mean about angry sewing. I love your etsy shop by the way! you have super cute stuff.