Before I started making masks, I knocked out a couple baby gifts. I can’t imagine being pregnant at a time like this; making cute smol clothes during that first week of isolation was a real act of hope. If people are still optimistic enough to be having babies, it can’t be that bad, right? Right?

Anyway. The first gift is for a coworker and his wife who aren’t finding out the gender of their July baby. This sloth knit was actually leftover from a pair of unblogged underwear I made for Doc. (Don’t tell the coworker.) This is the Brindille & Twig Harem Romper again and it’s seriously such a great pattern–fast and adorable and easy.

The second baby gift is for my therapist, who’s going on maternity leave next week. The gift was originally just going to be the blanket in the background–the Purl Soho Super Easy Baby Blanket in cotton.

I’d been knitting the blanket during our sessions for a few months so she knew it was coming–but then I realized that this was my chance to sew a ridiculous baby girl outfit. (Everyone I know who’s had a baby has either not found out the gender in advance or had boys.) It was the first week of isolation to boot, so I found a pattern for a balloon romper and went digging through the good scraps to see what I had that would coordinate.

I came up with a big piece of Liberty print, which was perfect: It was leftover from a scarf I made my mom for her birthday 8 years ago. She also loved to sew baby gifts for people (usually quilts) and I know she would have loved this little romper.

Isolation, day 17: I put on a shirt with BUTTONS and wore SHOES and EARRINGS! I also moved the kitchen table and had Doc take pictures of my not-so-secret pajama pants while Toby helped:

These are another pair of Brassie Joggers in a knit from Nerida Hansen–the same place I got my Lisa Congdon fabric and clearly the source of the most amazing prints. This one is by artist Miranda Sofroniou. (I bought it last year, so it’s sold out, but there’s other prints by the artist in stock.)

At this point in my elastic-waist pants journey, I’ve figured out my preferred Brassie mods: I cut a separate pocket bag with trim (as shown in this tutorial) so I don’t have to use the sewing machine at all, just the serger. I’ve also been cutting the waistband as wide as the pants opening so the elastic will form some gathers, for more of a true jogger look/forgiving fit across the belly.

I finished these before the isolation days started but I’m glad I decided to only make stretchy pants for a while. Someday I will wear them out of the house and feel like I’m getting away with not wearing “real” pants.

After you’ve worked from home in elastic-waist pants and a knit top (with a real sports bra underneath!), what nicer feeling than to change into even COMFIER elastic-waist pants and a DIFFERENT knit top?

I didn’t buy all these fabrics with the intention of making a new wardrobe of pajamas to wear at home during a pandemic, but it happened to work out that way:

• The yellow Sloane Sweatshirt was made from scraps from the sweatshirt I made Doc last year; I threw a daruma patch on it (sitting around from this idea) to make it look a little Comme des Garcons.
• While I had yellow in the serger, I whipped up another pair of Brassie Joggers in a palm print double brushed poly I got in my December Fabric.com order. These were going to be pants to wear on the plane to and from Hawaii–I figure I can lounge in them until that trip happens.
• The stripes are another pair of Brassie Joggers, this time in a stripe baby french terry from Surge Fabrics. They had a 29% off Leap Day sale and I had worn my old striped J. Crew pajama pants into literal rags, so it was time for an upgrade.

Last week I didn’t really get “dressed” for working at home and I felt like a slug by the end of the week, so this week I’m putting on woven pants (ok, they still have an elastic waist) from 9-5. Which makes changing into fresh spring loungewear at the end of the day even better.

This is going to be the last “modeled” shot for a while (taken last week) but it definitely won’t be the last of the Greenstyle Brassie Joggers–this is my fifth to date (only the third blogged) and I stress-sewed two more pair this past weekend for comfy isolation wear.

These are in an Ankara print “DTY knit,” which I’d never heard of before, from a big Fabric.com order after Christmas. To me, the DTY (draw textured yarn) feels like a cross between a brushed nylon/Supplex activewear and a double brushed poly knit. It has that cotton-y feel of the Supplex and the softness (but not the sponginess) of a DBP.

Either way, I wore them to work last week and then to dinner with my BFF and he saw them and exclaimed, “Are those Pucci?” Quite a win for what could be pajama pants.

Sometimes you just have to make a very wide and very pompom’d top:

Pattern: Cynthia Rowley for Simplicity, S8636
Fabric: Stonemountain (sold out)
Modeling: “just touch your hair”

This was one of those “buy it NOW, figure out what to make later” purchases from Stonemountain. The poms are woven in, like a giant clip dot, and it has a fairly thick, heavy drape. It also frays like a beast, which meant the quarter-inch seam at the neck had to be unpicked and redone as a half-inch seam because it started to unravel (!).

I also took the ruffle at the bottom off (after sewing 124  inches of ruffle ON) because of the fabric’s thickness/pompom quotient–I don’t say this very often, but it was just Too Much. But I wanted more length so I ended up making part of the ruffle into a banded hem. Then I used the rest of the hem ruffle to make matching sleeve bands, also for more length. It all worked out because it would have been about impossible to do a narrow hem with these pompoms.

It’s hard to capture how tent-like this is but the bottom hem is five feet around. The colors are full Late 70s Clown. It left fuzz everywhere in the sewing room. I sewed it pretty much twice over, between the fraying and the ruffle. And I love it so much.

The Australian fabric retailer Nerida Hansen appeared on my radar last year. Much like my favorite clothing company Nooworks, they work with women artists to make limited runs of fabric. So when I saw that my favorite artist Lisa Congden was coming out with fabric for them, I snapped up three meters as soon as it was available. (Lisa did a very similar print for Nooworks at the same time, if you want a garment vs. fabric.)

Just look at it–there’s a pencil and lightning and snakes and rainbows and an ampersand and a hand that looks like it’s flipping you off but is actually crossed fingers!

I didn’t want to break up that print too much so I went with something pretty simple–Vogue 9198. I lengthened it by about 5 inches and then added an 8-inch ruffle to the bottom. I also just put elastic at the end of the sleeves vs. doing full cuffs, mostly because I didn’t want to deal with interfacing.

I went full FASHUN on the styling (inspired by this image) and honestly I need to wear more dresses with grandma sneakers. It really adds to the “witch goes to art school” vibe of this fabric.

After about two years of earth-toned solids and plain silhouettes, I can’t get enough florals and ruffles lately. Is it just me following fashion? Is it spring?

Either way, here’s another ruffly top–McCalls 7977 in a Japanese-ish print that was on sale at Mood for $5 a yard (!).  It’s a twill, which isn’t ideal for a blouse, but I like how it gives the sleeves structure. (I have enough left over for pants!)

Construction-wise, I skipped the cuffs and the top neck band because I just did not want to deal with interfacing. Instead, I did an elastic casing for the sleeves and finished the neck with bias binding. Super fast, super ruffly, super flowery.

In 1999 I bought a bias cut skirt from The Gap, in silk twill  (back when The Gap had things like silk twill). The print was a sort of paint-by-numbers green landscape with horses on it, with an elastic waistband finished with black lace, and I wore it out. I loved how it was sleek and flippy at the same time and I loved the print.

Then I saw the Evie Bias Skirt pattern and some leftover crane fabric in my stash and thought, “Wait a minute. I can make Flippy Printed Skirt 2.0.”

Interesting print in shades of green? Check. Elastic waist with lace trim? Check. Sleek yet flippy? Check check check.

You can’t go back in time but you sure can make new versions of your clothes.