The Man, The Myth, THE JAMS.

HEY NOW! THAT is what I call a celestial body! ARE YOU MY LUCKY STAR, BABY?! Yes, I am catcalling my man. I CAN'T HELP IT. He's looking right down the lens of the camera and I'm DONE. IN A GOOD WAY. Can you blame me? Would you lookit that mug? Are the technicolor, handmade shorts even the focus of this leadoff picture on a *sewing* blog? No, they are not, and YOU'RE WELCOME.

I'm sorry, I'm feeling very ALL CAPS lately. Belligerently so. I think it's because such a large portion of the -ish going on in the world points to a severe lack of listening (among 12,000 other things), SO ALL CAPS SEEMS HANDY.

These shorts, however, point to a very different issue. AN ISSUE OF GQ, BABY! THAAAAAT'S RIGHT! I swear, I didn't intentionally create a starburst at crotch level. Well I mean, I DID, but I didn't consider just how bursty it would be once stitched up.

This picture was meant to showcase the zip fly, but yeah. That's a lotta crotchburst.

Can you believe, the BACK is where I really thought we'd have issues? To be clear, we do, in more ways than giving Rob his own pink portal. There are no pockets. This is what Rob said as we walked out the door to take pictures. I gave him a substantial pause and several calm breaths before promising him back pockets on the next pair.

BECAUSE DO YOU KNOW HOW LONG THE FRONT POCKETS TOOK? A LONG TIME!!! A VERY LONG TIME!!!

If you can pull your eyes away from "Star Marks The Spot" and look to the left of this shot, you'll see a little silver clip. That's my model's pocketknife. This southern man goes nowhere without it. So, right around the time I was considering pivoting and making him a good old elastic waistband, I remembered working front pockets were a necessity.

Apologies for mangling the edges of this fantastic mural, part of Sprayetteville. I had to extend the width of the JPG to fit my blog. I blame the model's gravitational pull, I just wanted to be close to him. But Sideview! Sideview, to give your peepers a break from phenomenal print placement! 

Speaking of print placement, Rob is pointing out the logo of the best brewery IN THE UNIVERSE, run by two of our closest friends and favorite humans. If you're in the hood, check out Crisis Brewery, y'all.

Hey! Now that I'm at the bottom of the post, and no longer distracted by the HotNess Monster™️ gracing my screen, lemme talk about the sewing for a minute.

These shorts are actually a copy of his favorite pair of RTW shorts. They finally got old enough for him to sacrifice them to science. Various methods of making a pattern from RTW have been attempted in the past, none worked to my liking! I find it tedious to trace with thread and silk organza, or rub off seam lines like hieroglyphics....and, yes, I have tried commercial shorts patterns, which always fail to give him space to roam free. I am SO GLAD I finally tried cutting something to pieces, because it worked like a charm! And no, I don't feel bad copying a piece of RTW, especially as he can't find this cut in stores anymore. BELIEVE ME HE CAN'T. I'VE SENT HIM ON MANY A QUEST. Anything to keep me from having to deal with the anatomy of the male membered crotch curve.   

The traffic on this post is going to be stupendously baffled.

For this method, you will absolutely lose whatever you're copying, but it's a pretty solid way to get an exact copy. I decided to document it all, start to finish, on our YT Channel, and dealing with sewing-without-a-net while filming basically put my brain on backorder. But now that I know it works, I'll be looking for more candidates to go under the knife, and I'll share a more comprehensible A to Z with y'all soon! For now, if you'd like to get an idea of how this worked (and be entertained by our fitting session) you can check out the video by clicking right here: Watch: Copying RTW Shorts!

I hope you're digging the video content, for myself, I don't think I would have dove into these shorts otherwise! Lemme know if there's anything you'd like to see in the future. (And, I have no intention of becoming a blogger whose blog posts only include embedded video content, so although I'll alert you to videos here, I'll still be rambling aplenty. In fact I think it'll make me ramble MORE. AIN'T YOU LUCKY? AIN'T YOU ALL CAPS LUCKY?!!!)

Copying Rob's Favorite Pair of RTW Shorts!

OH MY FLIP DOESN'T ROB LOOK SOOOOOOOO HAPPY?! Truly, this picture is everything he ever wanted in life!

Something he actually *has* been wanting in life, for quite some time now: shorts. The perfect shorts, to be exact. I apparently possess the skills to make this happen, but no commercially produced shorts pattern has accommodated his, er, nether regions. So, we decided it was time I cut up his favorite pair of ready-to-wear shorts and create a pattern. Wanna see how it went? It's live on the channel now!

I'll be back later this week with details, and plenty of still shots from my SUPER cooperative model. If you've ever wondered what I'm like when I sew...wonder no more:

Watch Copying RTW: Make Your Own Sewing Pattern here! 

Happy last day of summer, y'all. Hopefully, he can sneak in a few more wears. But I have a feeling I'll be using this pattern to make pants soon....

Outside the Spectrum of Color...and the Pattern Envelope!

Don't you dare tell me summer is over when I am sitting here, RIGHT THIS VERY HOT MINUTE, in the sunshine, in seven yards of wax print.

Did I say seven? Indeed I did! I nabbed one lonely yard of this gorgeous explosion of flowers from House of Mami Wata, and then my parents, completely on the same wavelength and completely unaware, sent me a standard six-yard cut for my birthday! They sent me a BUNCH of goodies, actually--this is the first of four technicolor prints they chose.

A dear friend of ours--a civilian non-sewist, mind you--has been peeking in on my adventures in fashion, and told Rob he thought I lived "outside the spectrum of color." After hearing that, forget it. You could use my inflated head to power the Goodyear Blimp.

I get my penchant for technicolor from my parents, no question. Our house, our clothing, even our taste in music was as colorful and mixed as our family of four. (Though I must add a disclaimer, Brother Beast went rogue in high school and started dressing all black, head-to-toe. His color comes from head-to-toe tattoos. Now THAT is commitment to color.)

With seven yards suddenly on my hands, I wanted to make the sweepiest, fullest maxi I could think up. All that's left from the making of this bad boy is one long strip of fabric, about 6 inches wide by 2 feet long. Enough to add a little ruffly sleeve, or maybe a contrast fabric for another dress...

YES IT IS ENOUGH FOR A MASK AND NOPE I AM NOT MAKING A MATCHING MASK FOR IT. THAT'S RIGHT! I STAMP MY FEET AND CLENCH MY FISTS!!! 

Sorry, after sewing around 400 masks, I needed that. Don't get me wrong, I'm a thousand percent #TeamMask (and also Science Is Real, please vote, please god vote), but on the sewing front, I'm a little...spent. Besides which, this baby is a poly-cotton blend, and me no likey the poly for breathability around the mouth and nose region. Who would have ever thought that would be a consideration in garment making? Who would have ever thought a LOT of things, for that matter...

(HoMW is very good, by the way, about listing fabric content. Many of her prints are 100% cotton. And many of them became aforementioned masks.)

This is a self-drafted bodice, which I used to make three versions of this dress. On my YT channel, I mentioned I'd be putting up suggestions on what you can use to get this look--here's the thing, any bodice pattern with princess/prince/vertical seams will get you here, and I'm wrangling up a how-to video for you on that. But, for example, if you've got McCalls 8108, 8103 or 8094 in your stash, you're golden. Just take your underbust measurement, throw it in a circle skirt calculator, and attach the skirt at the bodice seam for 8108 and 8103. For 8094 (the closest match to what I did) you would slash the pattern at the underbust, adding seam allowance.

I used a half circle skirt (my favorite, lots of fullness with just one seam at CB!), and the addition of two gigantic gathered tiers, cut on the crossgrain, gave me the maximum swish I wanted.

By the way, notice there are three current pattern options you can use to get this look, all of which came out this Spring/Summer? At an eventual point in your sewing, you learn that a lot of the new big 4 releases are versions of what you already have. And, while it's lovely to buy another pattern and go to town from start to finish, it's also wonderful to look at what you have, and how you can achieve a new look by adding your own tweaks.

Alright, I've got some shorts to make for Rob, who said that this dress makes me look like I'm carrying around my own personal spotlight. HOW CAN I REFUSE HIM SHORTS AFTER THAT. 

I'd love to hear about what you've been sewing! Wherever you are in the world, are you sticking with summer? Or onto The Season That Shall Not Yet Be Named? Do tell. You know, cuz I'm going to NEED breaks from figuring out my man's crotch curve. And sewing talk is the best break.

New on the channel: What I Made in August!

This is a quickie post, cuz I was up till 3am getting this video up on YouTube. THAT'S a ridiculous sentence, ain't it? Last night, as I edited out yammering, and watched spinning uploading balls, I kept telling myself: we're in ridiculous times, might as well act the part.

Summer is waning, and so is the shelf life for these wax print maxi dresses, so I wanted to get this out today! (At least, the shelf life for their public consumption--I'll be wearing these well into 2021 where, and when, ever possible.) Plus, I've got another very important summer-sew to finish. You'll see.

Here's my August Sewing Output (I have a very hard time calling it "makes," as the youtubers do...) hope you enjoy it, and truly hope you have some happy in this Summer Sunday 💕

I'll be back with still photos later this week, and suggestions on how you can get this look!

Watch What I Made In August: Wax Print. EVERYWHERE here!