When we last left off with my Ginger Skinny Jeans adventures oh, a mere seven months ago, I had gone down from a size 12 to a 10. And then something mysterious happened and although all my clothes are fitting just the way they always have, I recently attempted to shave the muslin down to a size 8, and they’re still too big. Could this be the result of the denim somehow stretching out over the months of neglect?
In my craziness of sewing up samples for the book and moving my supplies helter skelter, I’ve lost fabric and pattern pieces for my original muslin and am thoroughly confused. At this point I figure I might as well go back to the drawing board and start fresh. I’m now happily assembling the pattern pieces, anticipating more progress this go around.
A few weeks ago, I had the enormous pleasure of meeting Heather in person, and the woman is a dynamo. I love her. We perused the essential pit stop for all fabric and sewing aficionados — Drygoods Design, naturally — and she kept me in stitches over lunch. Fiercely intelligent, wildly witty and full of gorgeousness, you could practically see her brain pumping out ideas every nanosecond. Once again, I’ve discovered how easy it is to transition online friendships into face-to-face ones, and it makes me believe in the power of the internet for good.
So of course, when I finally found my own brain again, I wanted to resurrect the sewing of the now desperately necessary pair of skinny jeans (I’ve patched and patched my last surviving pair from 8 or 9 years ago, and we are reaching a point of no return). I’ve learned not to promise anything, but maybe, just maybe, I might be sporting a brand spanking new pair next week…
Here’s what gives me hope at least: I may let projects languish, but I rarely entirely give up on them. There’s a chance that I’ll be enjoying senior citizen discounts by the time I finish a successful pair of skinny jeans, but I will get them done, and they will be awesome!
I forgot to mention K’s great mask. It looks wonderful and adds just the right girly touch. I’ve got my fingers crossed on the jeans–but I think you could probably make them without a pattern! Directions sometimes slow me down, although I always try to use them.
Thanks Greta! I love the mask too (it’s supposed to be for a masquerade costume or something). I so appreciate your vote of confidence that I could make jeans without a pattern, but with all those yokes and such I’ll need Heather’s excellent instructions guiding me along ;-). I’m not a good direction follower, actually, but I try too!
You just made me cry over my scrambled eggs. BRAVO SANAE. But seriously, what a lovely thing to read this morning – the feeling is entirely mutual, I assure you. ANd I cannot wait to see these finally sewn up, now that you’ve got a little more time on your hands post-book!
🙂 Glad to see you embracing the Whole 30 with gusto, judging from your breakfast fare, Heather! I meant every word! Also, I just finished cutting out the pattern pieces, so I’m making measurable progress!!!
I never for a moment doubted that you would give up on your Ginger jeans project – follow-through is a real gift of yours! And what a fun surprise to see that you may need a smaller size than expected (no, silly, the denim did NOT shrink . . . apparently you did! The stress of the book, perhaps?).
Glad you enjoyed such a wonderful meet-up with Heather and enjoyed some lovely time at lunch and at Drygoods. What a perfect afternoon!
Ha, you might be right about the book stress, Lucinda! I have a fresh batch of grey hairs too! Yes, Heather is absolutely lovely and it’s funny because I had the exact same afternoon with another blog friend just the week before, which wasn’t consciously planned and just happened to work out that way.
You really need to fi ish them. Now that flares are coming back in, it will, or should, be only a matter of time before you cannot get skinnies anymore. Good news for me, but then again, let’s not mention how much of the 70s I have lived through. But flares, aahh!!
Ha, so true Max! I’ve been noticing all the flared jeans on Pinterest lately. I’m looking forward to wearing my very first handmade pair of skinny jeans :-).