Beautiful Needlework Friends!
I've been back at the sewing table this week, at last - and have already finished a very nice (in the end, started months ago!) bag, and very nearly completed another pair of fabulous trousers...
Both projects have been sitting around not-yet-done, partly because of more pressing matters on our #sovereignhomestead (like landslide, storms, leaking house) , but also due to the solutions not coming easily.
I need a lot of space to get a project finished satisfyingly, and this really cannot be forced! So weeks and months went by, until I got enough head and energetic space, to concentrate on it sufficiently... and to find the right fabrics and accessories that would make it right.
Hand-sewing, also, requires quiet, long hours of not doing anything else. For me it takes a full day with nothing else on the agenda. In our free and uninhibited life, 
However, once a garment nears the finish-line, it is easier to get stuck in, eh! And the sunny days, sitting out on the grass in the evening glow, next to the cat: divine.
So these big trousers/ pants began as a cut-off pair of turquoise pinstripe kecks, which I wanted to pair with two other contrasting pinstriped trouser fabrics. But in the end I was stuck with not much choice in my fabric store here, which is a fraction of what I hold back in my other house. I tried multiple materials, but nothing resonated... until this nightie caught my eye, and I realised that it would be the perfect fot colours-wise - if I could make the length of it work...
To get the right length, though, I had to resolve the button area, at the top middle of the skirt part that I cut from the nightdress. So I took the old button (material) strip, cut the buttons off it, opened it out, then folded and sewed it into the space that was missing material. And it worked just fine. I love having wee quirks like this in my unique garments; it makes them even more inimitable!
The three elements, the beachy blue-green, the hot red, and the flowery drama, are held together by two additional elements: bordered strips at the top of the flowery print area, to neaten the gentle gathers in them, and also a thin homemade bias-binding strip which I am in the process of adding to the bottom of the trouser legs.
It's the first time I've done a very neat bias-binding job! I used some darts (little V cuts) on some parts of the bias-binding, to help it sit right. The strips were cut from a red skirt ruffle, and the stripey bordered pieces were from the (inside waist of the) previous red pinstriped trousers which make the legs on these ones.
I look forward to a making a photoshoot for you all, with bag and trousers.... 💝💝💝💝
