The pants project

Here is the situation. While I was in Thailand my favorite pair of skinny jeans got a big fat tear in them. About 2.5 inches long and totally in an area that would shred right out (and look worse) if I tried to patch it. 


Last night it came to me in a dream (or really, in the minutes before I fell asleep) I could crop them and use the cut off fabric to turn them into "riding" style pants. I used these as inspiration for the shape and look of the inset. 


Let me show you what we were working with. 

A tear right on my inner thigh. Seriously?! Such a bummer

I did patch the hole with iron on denim and then stitched it down around the edges. It looked pretty terrible like I suspected it would but remember, I have a plan to cover that up!

So I took a couple of attempts to hand draft a nice shape for the inset and finally landed on this one which I liked a lot. 

It follows the general shape of the inspiration image and covers the hole quite nicely. 

Mirror that on the other side and I have a pair of riding pants that look great with my boots!

So cute I think I'll wear them to Bill Maher tonight!  

Father's Day project

I don't know where you live, but in San Francisco where I live the weather report is saying we will have record breaking rainfall so I'm planning my projects accordingly!


First off I need to finish my fathers day quilt. It just needs to be tied off and the bottom edge needs finished. I got an email from pink chalk fabrics that had just the PERFECT fabric and I had to make something for my dad with it. This quilt was inspired by my father's love of gardening and the truck he and I spent about 6 years rebuilding. 

The truck in process

 Me and my truck back in 2007 (I also made the dress)

My parents' puppy in the bed of my truck (she's a huge dog now!)

The quilt is my first attempt at solo quilting (other then square patch quilts which are simple). I never considered making anything more complicated then a square patch quilt until just a few weeks ago my Aunt Dawn, who is an expert quilter, invited me over for a quilting bee with my cousins (or a stitch and bitch as my boyfriend deemed it, funny man) I learned so much and it gave me the courage to try something new on my own. I found this free pattern online at Lizzy house that I really liked but I didn't have the variety of fabrics that she suggests so I made modified versions of section "C" and let my quilt be very random in the placement of each piece. 

 The truck fabric that inspired the project, it even has a dog in the back of the truck!

As you can see there is not a clear "pattern" to my layout, but I like it!

I made a top band out of fabric strips that say, "Greet the day with a song." Something my dad does well!

I love how this quilt has turned out. Now that I have learned so many quilters tricks from my aunt I feel like I might tackle another quilting project soon. I hope my dad likes his quilt! (and that he's not a reader of my blog or else the cat's out of the bag! Oops!)