Author Archives: angelina

Pajama Pant Sew-Along: Introduction and Supplies List

If you have been wanting to learn to sew clothes but don’t know where to start or are intimidated and need some guidance – this is the place to begin and I am here to help you. Sewing clothes can be fun and rewarding and the more experience you gain the more control you’ll have over the details that make it worthwhile such as custom fit and custom design elements.

Pajama pants are an ideal simple pattern to start with. You’ll learn some basic sewing terms and skills and end up with a comfortable pair of pants to lounge in. C’mon – let’s make a pair together!

If you’re an experienced clothes sewer but you want to join this sew along for the fun of it – you are welcome to join! The instructions will be completely geared towards absolute beginners but you can ignore what you don’t need and speed ahead and meet us at the end for the show and tell.

“B” is the pattern we’ll be sewing but if you would like to make “C” instead – it’s the same pattern but shortened and I’ll be sure to explain how to shorten the pattern if any of you want to make the shorts.

How the sew-along will work:

The sew-along starts June 1st.

I will divide the project into 4 instructional posts that will be posted once a week. If you want to sew ahead because you can or you want to try – go for it. But it’s totally cool to take this project in small doses week by week – which I highly recommend for new sewers.

Tell me you’re joining in the comments section.

You can join without even telling me – just get the supplies and follow along.

When the project is finished everyone will submit a jpeg image of their finished pajama pants to my email (angelinawilliamson1(at)gmail(dot)com)and you will be entered to win the pair I’m making in XL in that adorable red fox fabric seen above. No photo of your finished pants – no entry.

But the most important reason to submit pictures of your finished project is so we can all share and enjoy each other’s work at the end. No judgements – just the fun of having made something together.

Supplies you will need to join this sew along:

A sewing machine or access to one.

An iron and ironing board.

Sharp fabric scissors.

Simplicity pattern #5314 in either in AA (S, M, L) or BB (XL, XXL, XXXL)

100% cotton fabric in the amount indicated for the size you’re sewing.

1 spool of matching thread.

1 yard of 1/2″ width elastic.

1 7/8 yard of 1/2″ twill tape.

How to choose your pattern size:

Forget about what size you are in off the rack clothing. It bears no relation to what size you wear in commercial patterns. It’s all about measurements. For this pattern you need to know what your waist and hip size is. Look on the pattern envelope at the “Body Measurements” section. Find the size that comes closest to your measurements.

How to take your body measurements.

A tip: if your waist is larger than your hips – choose the size that matches your waist measurement. If your hips are larger than your waist – pick the size that matches your hips. If you’re measurements are between sizes – always ALWAYS pick the larger size. It is much easier to cinch a waistline in than to adjust the pattern to make the waistline bigger.

This is not the time to be vain about numbers. You’re going to put your time and energy into making something fabulous for yourself – for it to be truly fabulous it needs to actually fit you.

How to choose your fabric:

You want to choose any fabric that is 100% woven cotton, light to medium weight. You’re going to be lounging and/or sleeping in this pair of pajama pants and while you could make them out of a cotton polyester blend – I can’t recommend it. That stuff is not healthy. Especially if you have the horrid misfortune to get caught in a fire while wearing it. Also avoid using fabrics that have been treated with a flame retardant. It may retard flames but it may also retard other things like biological functioning as it is toxic crap.

Quilting cottons will work great. Lighter weight novelty cottons will also work great. You can find the content of any bolt of fabric at the very top of the cardboard bolt. You can also find out the fabric width there. Most 100% cotton quilting and novelty fabrics are 45″ wide and this is perfect.

The amount of yardage you need will depend on what size you’re sewing and what width of fabric you’re using. This information is always listed on the back of the pattern envelope.

Choosing elastic and twill tape:

Everyone knows what elastic is unless they’ve been living in an elastic-free monastery. It doesn’t generally come in very many color choices in the fabric store so it’s usually going to be either black, white, or natural. Choose the black for any medium to dark colored prints or solid fabrics. Choose white for any light colored solids or printed fabrics. You can use the natural for any of the light colored solids or printed fabrics too – except for solid white. A natural unbleached elastic may show through a light weight or medium weight solid white fabric and for the most professional results you don’t want a darker elastic showing through your casing.

Not as many people know what twill tape is so here’s what you’re looking for:

Like elastic – it doesn’t generally come in many color options so use the same rules for twill that you do for elastic. If you have a darker print or solid fabric and can’t find a matching or even dark twill tape – then go for the natural.

I always choose natural unbleached things when I can for two reasons – the less bleach in my life or on the planet being used – the better for all. But more selfishly than that – I hate white. I ruin white things. White depresses me in wall paints, carpets, and furnishings and I can’t tell if it’s because it’s so stark and blinding or because I know if it was in my possession I would destroy it in a matter of hours. While white clothing can sometimes be fetching – I am especially skilled at spilling things or sitting on gross staining things when wearing white. So I don’t ever wear it.

But you may like white. Maybe white cheers you up or makes you feel bright and sunshiny. That’s cool. Go with what works for you as long as you first pay attention to the details above.

Choosing thread:

I know I said polyester is the antichrist but when it comes to thread I always choose either a cotton/poly blend or 100% polyester thread unless it’s for a quilt. The reason is this – most 100% cotton threads are weaker than a blend or completely synthetic. The downside of polyester thread is that irons like to melt it on hot settings so you need to be careful.

Does brand matter? I only use two brands of sewing thread for my regular sewing machine (I am less particular about my serger threads) and I don’t think of one as better than the other (though I’m sure you can find people who passionately prefer one over the other). I either use Coats & Clark Dual Duty or Gutermann. Coats is generally much less expensive than Gutermann. Joanne’s frequently has sales on thread so be sure to check for 40% coupons which you can print from their online site.

A 300 yard spool is fine for this project if you have a serger to over-cast your edges with. If you don’t have access to a serger I’m going to show you how to use your zigzag stitch to keep your edges from fraying – so if this is you – you’ll need a larger spool with between 500 and 600 yards of thread on it.

Matching your thread to your fabric. If you are not good at matching colors – bring a friend with you who is. Having your thread match your fabric is one of the most important ways you can make your garment look professional. If you’re using a printed fabric you want to match the main color in it. If there’s a background color that’s prominent – that’s what you want to match. If there isn’t a distinctly prominent color then look for threads that when you hold it against the fabric seem the least noticeable. You want your thread to look as invisible to the eye as possible. Unless you are purposely using contrasting thread as a design feature. But that’s not what you’re doing with this project.

Do you really need sharp fabric scissors?

Yes. You do. Unless you actually enjoy tearing your hair out in frustration. If you have a pair of super sharp scissors that aren’t specifically meant for fabric – feel free to try them out. If they aren’t meant for fabric – even if they work well at first – they will dull quickly and you will hate them and you will hate sewing and you will probably become a menace to anyone standing nearby.

If this is your first project and you don’t know if you’ll ever do another one – don’t buy them – borrow a pair from a friend. You are almost certain to know someone who has a pair who will lend them to you for this project. They aren’t horribly expensive considering their value to you in this endeavor and you can sometimes get them on heavy discount. I personally think that this is one of those things everyone should have in their homes anyway. You never know when you’re going to need to cut up some sheets into bandages in a post apocalyptic situation and woe is the person who has to do that with paper scissors.

Iron and Ironing board:

Technically speaking, you don’t have to have an ironing board. You can fold a towel across a non-meltable or flammable surface (like wood or metal) and iron on that. I don’t recommend it. But if that’s what you have to do – it will work. You can sometimes find super cheap ironing boards at thrift stores or at yard sales if you’re looking for the cheapest option available. If you get one used – be certain to test it out before buying to make sure that it can be brought to its full height and not collapse when you put pressure on it.

You cannot sew clothes without an iron. I mean, you CAN, but you shouldn’t and I won’t endorse it. One of the most important tools in sewing is your iron. It doesn’t have to be expensive or fancy but it needs to get hot and have a steam button. You probably already have one. If you don’t, you need to buy or borrow one.

If you have any questions about things I didn’t cover or that are still unclear – please leave your question in the comments and I will answer them.

Okay – go get those supplies and we’ll get this project going!

Garden Update: one agapanthus down and tomatoes in!

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Much progress has been made on the front garden. First of all – those red flowers are ones that Max picked out for me on a trip to Harmony Farms with his Aunt Tara. I put them in the walk so everyone can see them as they walk up the path. Those two containers have bay laurels in them. It’s considered (by pagans and maybe ancient Romans) good luck to plant bay laurel at the entrance to your house. It keeps bad luck and witches from coming in.

I honestly don’t think it’s working that well. But I still like the way it looks and the bay is great in soup.

Let’s revisit the before. Spider condo, aggressively evil agapanthus, lots of pea gravel in the soil.

Spider condo went first, then I started hacking away at the evil. In the end it was hurting my feet (I have very delicate flowers for feet) and after I got 2/3 the way through that clump I had to get Philip to finish it off.

Ahhhh! Look how much room there is for good stuff. I do have plans to get rid of that other sprawling bush. But not right this minute.

First I needed to get some fresh soil. We really could use a couple of yards of soil but we aren’t committing to such purchases until the house situation is resolved. So I just spread a few bags of soil. It will have to do for now.

Next up I planted Max’s flowers, situated the bay laurels for maximum dramatic and witch-deterring effect, and planted my tomatoes. I can’t tell you how tempted I am to stuff a few more in there. I have a tendency to cram things tightly in my garden. I’m resisting the urge pretty fiercely.

Up close shot of the pretty Max flowers.

Some more of them. That little bunch of daisies were also chosen by Max for me.

Cause you know you want to be flogged with pictures of flowers my son chose for me. Next up I have to plant more flowers. I have rudbeckia, red valerian, echinacea, two different penstemon plants, chard, sage, chives, and lettuce.

Hopefully I’ll find the time to get all that in soon. I can’t wait to see this space fill out. Oh – the bare patch near the lion is still in need of much digging – the agapanthus roots are thick in there. My poor feet are finally recovering from their many ridiculous problems so I’m hesitant to get out there and abuse them some more. One thought I had was to cover the area with thick cardboard and then top with dirt but then it will make planting more difficult unless done with seeds only.

What are you doing in your gardens right now?

Agapanthus is the Devil

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This is 1/2 of our front yard. The other half is essentially the same. Small, square, dirt full of pea gravel, and filled with vigorous agapanthus and an unknown sprawling shrub that collects spiders. I want vegetables and flowers like calendula, coreopsis, black eyed susans, grandmother’s pin cushion, marigolds, roses, and zinnias.

That bare spot used to have the other half of that clump of agapanthus in it. Philip has not removed the rest of it as I requested him to do because it traumatized him. So I planned to fill in the crappy soil with some fresh better soil and plant a couple of vegetables.

But I’m greedy for space and this spider condo was on my hitlist. I felt sure it wouldn’t be as hard to remove as the agapanthus. At least I could grow more than one tomato if I removed it. I hate shrubs like this. They’re what you plant when you don’t want to actually garden. They’re what you plant if you’re studying arachnids and need to provide the ideal environment to lure them with.I was right. The shrub was just a great sprawling thing that was mostly dead and brittle underneath the top layer. Its removal revealed a startling sight.

About half of the agapanthus clump behind it isn’t even growing into the ground. It’s packed into itself in a crazy-ass impenetrable tangle of root and fiber and I got blood thirsty.

I thought that not having to dig them out of the actual ground would make them easier to remove – I was terribly terribly wrong. By the way, all the time I worked on chopping up the spider condo yesterday it was in the 80′s and I sweated like mad and it was awful and gross. This morning was no different.

That mess is all growing above ground. It’s thick. It will most likely break my shovel handle. I’m using Philip’s burly digging bar which helps but my long held suspicions about agapanthus have been proved true.Agapanthus is the devil.

Would you look at that gnarly mean mass of shovel-breaking root?! It’s living off of itself, people! No wonder they always plant this in parking lots of malls and institutional buildings. This is a corporate strength plant. It will survive balls of fire and lightning bolts of blight.

I had to come inside to hide from the stupid heat. You have to actually hate yourself to dig a cancer like this out of your yard in 85° heat. I may be temporarily defeated but I now have my sights set on removing the entire mass instead of just half of it. And I intend to make Philip remove the rest of his too. Because on the other half of our front yard we have THREE MORE OF THESE ENORMOUS CLUMPS OF AGAPANTHUS.

Cajun Spiced Potato Empanadas

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I created this empanada in hopes of Max liking them. He loves cajun spiced fries. He loved fried potatoes. He needs to eat less fried foods (as in: frozen tater tots and fries). So I thought some cajun spiced empanadas would be just the ticket. Flavors he likes all neatly packaged up in dough.

He didn’t like the filling because it was too mushy. However – we loved the filling! I made twice as much filling as I needed to fill the empanadas but I’m going to present the recipe here just as I made it because the leftovers make a fantastic breakfast. If you don’t like leftovers (WHAT?!) then halve this recipe.

Cajun Spiced Potato Empanadas

Serving Size: 24 empanadas plus amazing leftovers for breakfast

Cajun Spiced Potato Empanadas

Ingredients

1 batch of empanada dough
4 russet potatoes, peeled and diced small
3 Tbs olive oil
1 onion, finely diced
2 tsp cajun seasoning, plus extra for dusting dough
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1 egg whisked with a little water for brushing the dough

Instructions

Bring a pot of water fitted with a steaming basket to a boil and steam the diced potatoes until tender and just falling apart.
Preheat the oven to 375°.
While potatoes are steaming, heat the olive oil in a skillet and add the onions. Saute onions until they are translucent and soft.
In a large bowl mix the potatoes, onion (scraping any extra oil into the bowl from the pan), and the seasonings really well.
Roll out the empanada dough according to the instructions in the recipe. Fill each round with a couple of teaspoons of potatoes (adjust according to the size of your empanadas - you want them filled as full as you can while still being able to close the dough shut without leaking the filling out).
Place empanadas on a baking sheet fitted with parchment paper.
Brush them with the egg and water and then sprinkle a little cajun spice on each one.
Bake for 25 minutes

Notes

The way I've made these isn't that spicy. My cajun spices are mild and I only added a little cayenne. You can ramp up the spiciness as much as you like.

I used an actual teaspoon to fill mine. If you use a real teaspoon instead of a measuring teaspoon then you just want a scant teaspoon. That is - if you are making small empanadas. I have no idea how much you will need in each empanada if yours are a different size than I made mine. Just wing it. You can do it.

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Empanada Dough Recipe

Polka Dot Shirt and Striped Pyjamas Show and Tell

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I said I was going to make myself wear patterns again. I told myself that if people out in the world want to think a large lady shouldn’t wear polka dots or loud prints then let ‘em! I’ve been hiding for so long now in shame because I hate my body so much. It has deprived me of the joy I experience wearing patterns. Especially stripes and dots. It has made dressing a dreary affair. My clothes are all exactly the same. I look like I wear the same thing every day because I do. I have 3 of every shirt. Now, the pants I wear are still the only ones I’m going to wear for comfort. I like them. It’s a style I wore before I got really fat so until a day comes when I’m not this size I will continue to wear the exact same style in the same fabric.

However – I am making tops in patterns, as you have seen here already. The Cannibalistic Hot Dog Over-shirt and the Sherbet Top with striped details have taken me way out of my comfort zone. I photographed the cabbage rose smock too but lost them with the great computer erasure. I will photograph them again and show you. But today I am showing you the polka dot knit top I made.

It looks much nicer on my dress form than on me but I don’t care. I love this outfit. I love this pattern of dots. It’s from the Doodles line of junior knits. I got it from Joanne’s.

I have been experimenting with my Pfaff’s knit stitches since I don’t have a cover stitch machine. Zig-zag stitches give clothes a homemade amateur look so I don’t like to use them. This is my favorite knit stitch on my machine.

My tunic pants. I usually only wear them in black and brown. I cut this pair out at least a year and a half ago but never finished them. I finished them yesterday. On all my previous pairs of tunic pants I’ve left all the hems as serged edges. While I like this look it allows the hems to shred over time which makes my clothes look shoddy. Doing knit hem stitches on my machine is tedious – it goes very slowly – but I’m now making myself hem everything so it all looks nicer and lasts longer.

Robin wanted to see my striped pyjamas. Here they are! The sleeves aren’t different lengths – I promise. I just didn’t adjust the shirt well before taking pictures and didn’t notice until I was editing the pics. So – the pants are the same pattern than I use for my tunic pants but without the skirt. Very comfortable. I may end up wearing the shirts as clothes and make two more pyjama tops that aren’t polyester. I made a huge error, one I rarely ever make, and thought this fabric was a rayon with spandex blend (95% and 5% respectively). I know I looked at the bolt end but somehow I got it in my head that it was rayon. I don’t wear polyester. Polyester is an awful fiber. It doesn’t breath, it’s essentially made of plastic chips (I got to see polyester in its original state in a fiber exhibit years ago), it will not break down in a landfill until the earth explodes, and if you get caught in a fire wearing polyester it will melt onto your skin. Your skin will not recover from that.

But I have two of these shirts now and I don’t have much of a fabric budget so I will wear these. The summer weather is arriving early this year, though, and sleeping in a fiber that doesn’t breathe is NOT NICE. I do love the way this stripe looks. For my real pyjama tops I’m going to buy some cotton t-shirt knits online. Cotton breathes much nicer and so is better for sleeping in. Well, it’s better for everything.

Today I’m going to cut out new tunic-pants in black since all of my pants are full of holes and the hems are pitifully shredded. I love the look of my pyjamas so much and they’re so comfortable that I think I’m going to make a few pairs for day-wear and then make some drapey tops to throw over them.

If you have any projects you’ve just finished – show them to me! Link them in the comments so I can see!

Cinnamuffin Recipe

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I first made this muffin when Max was a toddler and he loved them until the great food rejection began. I got the recipe from The Bed & Breakfast Cookbook by Martha W. Murphy. It’s a great little muffin full of oats, low in fat and sugar, and has a maple glaze. I decided to make it for Max to try again but I knew the whole oats would be texturally repugnant to him so I came up with a revised version of this muffin by pulverizing the oats in the food processor until they were as fine as I could get them and this worked well for Max. The result went like this:

“This tastes just like a cinnabun*! You should give this recipe to them to make and sell. Seriously mom, it’s THAT good!”

*I don’t think it tastes like a cinnabun but I’m perfectly happy to have him think it does.

For Max’s sake I have been making the glaze into more of a frosting and I make it fresh each time and don’t measure at all. I will provide instructions for making the glaze how the recipe was originally meant to be (thin) and I will tell you how I have perverted it to suit Max’s needs.

Cinnamuffin Recipe

8 -ish muffins

Cinnamuffin Recipe

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups rolled oats, pulverized in food processor to a coarse flour
1 1/4 cups whole wheat flour
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup applesauce
1 1/4 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup brown sugar
3 Tbs melted butter or vegetable oil
1 egg
butter or oil for greasing the muffin tin

For the Glaze:

1 Tbs. butter, melted
1/2 cup powdered sugar
2 Tbs. maple syrup

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 400°.
Grease a muffin tin.
Mix all dry ingredients, except for the sugar, in a medium sized bowl.
Mix the sugar and all the wet ingredients together.
Add the wet ingredients to the dry, avoid beating the crap out of it.
Fill the muffin tins about half full.
Bake for 20 minutes, then cool for a few minutes before removing the muffins.
Make the glaze by madly stirring the three ingredients until they become super smooth. If you want a thicker glaze (as shown in the image) add more powdered sugar until it reaches the thickness you want. If you make a thick glaze it will cover fewer muffins, so make MORE. Capisce?

Notes

About the yield: my square muffin tin yields between 8 and 9 muffins depending on how I've divvied up the batter. If using a standard sized round muffin tin you'll be more likely to get 12.

This recipe is adapted from The Bed & Breakfast Cookbook by Martha W. Murphy.

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The Black Smock with Striped Seersucker Details

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This is my favorite of all the smocks I’ve made recently. I admit that it’s largely because it’s mostly black. With stripy details. I should have washed my cotton gauze before sewing this because when I washed it the black bled into the seersucker a little bit. It’s not that I don’t know about pre-washing, it’s that I’m insanely lazy and the one piece of housework I loathe with every fiber of my being is laundry. I hate it. I avoid it. Here’s the other thing – I love ironing seams and hems flat but I don’t like ironing yardage because it’s unwieldy.

Back detail. I love the black and white stripes. I want to do a jacket in pillow ticking. I also want to do one of these over-shirts in solid black.

The facings continue to give surprise enjoyment. So do the buttons. I’m using buttons I’ve had around for ages. No button buying for me.

Love the pockets. However, last night I ripped the damn pocket which got caught on a door knob. I destroyed the first shirt by catching its pockets on a door knob too. I mended it but it will never be the same. So these big pockets are a design flaw. What sucks is that I really love them – perfect size for shoving my hands into and for putting tissues and lip balm in when taking walks. On future smock-shirty-things I need to consider either putting the pockets on the side seams or putting them inside. The other option is to put a button and button-hole on the pocket to keep it closed. But then I can’t just shove my hands into them without fussing with buttons first. There’s nothing insouciant about that.

How to Make Laundry Detergent

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Laundry detergent is very easy to make and costs a lot less to make than buying the eco-friendly and natural detergents that I use. If you are used to buying really cheap detergents with lots of perfumes and unnecessary chemicals then you may not see much of a cost savings. My friend Sharon and I made a batch of this detergent and have some notes to share about it:

You use 1/4 cup per regular load, more for heavily soiled loads, but if you want to get stains out you may still need to treat stains before washing. Sharon’s son’s white school uniform shirt did not come entirely clean with this soap.

This works for high efficiency and front loading machines (that’s what Sharon uses) but you need to put it directly in the load rather than in the compartments you might normally put your detergent in.

The bar soap you use may make quite a difference in the finished detergent. Most recipes call for either Fels-Naptha or Zote – both are really heavily perfumed and have ingredients I don’t want in my laundry but I know Fels-Naptha is a great stain remover so your detergent may not need stain treatment pre-wash if you use it. For this batch we used Trader Joe’s tea tree oil soap because it’s cheap and natural. When I used it in a “handwash” load in my machine it left some residue on a dark shirt – so this may not be the best soap for the job. This did not happen with my last batch.

You do not have to use distilled water but it’s better to use water with no added chlorine or other chemicals in it.

The cost for this batch was $6.39. How long it lasts will depend on how many loads of wash you do a week and how much detergent you generally use. I usually spend $11 or more for liquid detergent that lasts less than a month. The last time I made this detergent a gallon of it lasted a month and a half.

It is NOT dangerous to work with washing soda if you refrain from getting it in your eyes or mouth. So don’t eat it or wipe your eyes right after you’ve hand your hands in it.

Sharon had an old Parmesan cheese grater and this worked so well I want to get one to grate my soap with too.

I based my recipe on one I found in the homemade laundry detergent recipes post on Tipnut but my method is a combination between Tipnut and my friend Kathy.

Homemade Laundry Detergent

Ingredients

2 cups washing soda
2 cups borax
2 cups bar soap, grated
2 gallons distilled water

Instructions

Bring the water to a boil in a large pot.
Once water is boiling, add the grated soap and boil until all soap is dissolved then turn off the heat.
Add the washing soda and borax and stir until dissolved.
Put a lid on the pot and let sit over night to let it set up.
If the detergent is soft and gelatinous - go ahead and put it in the containers you plan to store it in.
If the detergent is hard - stir it by hand until it's broken up enough to allow an immersion blender to do the rest of the work. Blend it until it is in a pour-able state, then put in storage containers.
Use 1/4 cup per regular load, 1/2 cup for heavily soiled loads.

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That cheese grater was awesome! The last time I made detergent it was a pain to grate the soap.

We learned an important lesson: turn the heat off before adding the washing soda and borax UNLESS you use a huge canning pot like my friend Kathy does -because it boils up really fast.

This is how we found it the next day. it was very stiff like a jello with too much gelatin added.

We broke it up with a spoon but the clumps were big and it was a lot of work trying to break them up.

The clumps were too big for this to be easily scoopable.

So then Sharon had a brilliant idea: use an immersion blender! It worked. It still has a clumpy look to it but is now pourable/scoopable.

I store my detergent in half-gallon jars but you can use old liquid laundry detergent containers or any other glass or plastic container with lids.

Cannibalistic Hot Dog Over-shirt

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There’s little hot-dog men eating hot dogs while their olive-headed wiener dogs loaf around, as they do, and I have to wonder if the hot dog the hot dog is eating is ACTUALLY a barbequed dog? Or some third-party wiener?

I think of these over-shirts I’ve been making as smocks. Philip doesn’t like the word “smock”. He prefers “over-shirt”. Both the over-shirt and smock are ideal words to describe a garment meant to hide my formidable ass but I like “smock” better because it’s a word of action where-as an over-shirt is an inherently lazy garment. You put a smock on to DO things in, often creative things. You put on an over-shirt just to cover yourself.

I think, however, that most people feel that a smock is not a garment you wear out in public whereas I have every intention of wearing mine in public. So let’s call it either and be done with it.

Again – remember that my dressform is much smaller than me. My shirt is a little less roomy on me. From the last version I have added some width to both the front and the back and made the shirt a couple of inches longer.I cleaned up some pattern issues and changed the back. This newer version comes together more smoothly. I trued all the seams – a really important step in pattern drafting.

These particular buttons aren’t vintage but are part of my stash. No button buying for me for a long time. I’m on a use-what-you-have button diet.

This picture illustrates the issues I’m having with my pattern in the front of the shirt. I need to fix this so that the curves match in the overlapped part. I also might need to move this button so that it holds the top and bottom more closely aligned. It’s an easy fix and I’m pretty lazy and not likely to keep the top button buttoned so fat chance I’ll fix it.

Here’s the new version of the back. I definitely considered doing away with the contrasting fabric but my desire to see the hot dogs next to the polka-dot won me over. I like contrasting fabrics. I’m happy with this.

I now have 4 over-shirts done (I’ll do separate posts for the other two) and I have the two linen ones left to do. Then I have pants and pyjamas to make and I’ll be done sewing clothes at least for a little while. Which is good because I’m quickly exhausting all the Midsomer Murder videos my video rental place has.

Santa Rosa better get ready because I’m putting this shirt on right now to head to the store!