It's Kind Of Noisy Here Today

That's because the Tree Men have finally arrived. I don't know what happened to the "first thing Monday morning" scenario, but I'm just glad they came.

Here's either a very brave, or very stupid, Tree Man doing his thing with a huge chain saw:



Lucky me, I caught a picture of a huge hunk of tree just as it hit the ground. See?



That made a very loud "thump" sound. That is the sound of carefully laid centipede sod getting pounded to death. The children and I spent three steamy July days laying sod in the front and side yard many years ago, but the agony of that heat is still with me today. So of course, I decided to come back inside. And play with this, the haul from Joanne's yesterday:



Those are three silky/gauzy, chiffony prints, destined to become tops and blouses for the J-O-B. And also a brown/white burnout linen that will need to be underlined. You may notice that they are all browns. There is a reason for this. Over the past ten years I have taught at two different high schools, and the school colors were black/red and black/grey. Almost everything in my closet has gradually turned to black, or something that goes with black.

This year, brown will be my new black. That's my first goal for summer sewing. I'm steadily collecting fabrics and shoes and accessories in the brown/beige family. I intend to spice it up a bit with some red and dark yellows. We'll see how this develops. The force of a SWAP is compelling, let me tell you. I'm just about to succumb.

Which brings me to this purchase.



What can I say--it spoke to me. It said take me home with you, it doesn't matter that I match NOTHING you own. So I bought it. It's soft, crinkly, drapey polyester and I have two yards of it. If you have a pattern recommendation, just sing out. I need help with this one. It's turquoise with a bit of lime green and ivory.

Since I'm too frail to stand up to the heat of midday (it's currently only 95 degrees) I'm going to make a muslin of this pants pattern. It's Burda 8341. Basic two darts in front, two darts in back, fly front zipper, one button waistband.



What I'm doing here is comparing the back crotch curve to an absolutely favorite pair of jeans. Although the jeans are stretch denim, the crotch curve is not on the stretch part and it looks as though the crotch curve of the Burda pattern is identical to the jeans. At least I will have a really good jumping off point for a start.

Goal number two for summer sewing is to perfect the fit of a basic pants pattern. Then I will have a TNT to use as a basis for all future pants to come. I haven't made a pair of pants for myself in over 20 years, so this will probably be both interesting and highly comical. I just can't wait.

And just so you'll know, if you hate the Mom jeans (in my case it's Grandma jeans) with the saggy seat and the boggy bottom of the thigh, go try on a pair of these Bandolino jeans in the stretch denim. Love them, love them, love them. And when I turned them inside out I discovered they were made in Egypt. I had no idea Egyptians could sew.