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!