The journey to owl pants

I knew that unless I wanted today to be a repeat of yesterday's spectacular failure to sew, I would have to sew while Ellie was at school and Stephanie was home with me.  This plan came with a strong warning that read something like, "Do not try this at home."  When Ellie is here, she and Stephanie play beautifully (most of the time) or at least keep each other company.  When Ellie is at school, it's all on me to keep that energetic 4 year old fulfilled.  Today, I let her watch a video while I sewed.  Of course, I'm cautious and slow and the video was short (just over 30 minutes), so that didn't last.  She wanted her pants, so she asked if she could sew with me.  She wanted to do the pins.  She wanted to lift and lower the presser foot.  She wanted to hold the fabric all by herself as it ran through the machine.  When she tired of this, she decided to entertain the cats who are not normally allowed in my sewing space.  As I sewed (with my back turned, alas!), she opened up the plastic bags holding my carefully, twice-measured-and-cut patterns and gave said pattern pieces to the cats for playthings.  Those will now be thrice-measured-and-cut pieces.  Woo-hoo!  Meanwhile, I notice the top seams don't line up when it's time to make the waistband.  Is this a problem?  Not if I cut  off, it's not!



On the upside, we now have a completed pair of some stinkin' cute owl pants, if I do say so myself.



The wide legs combined with the orange and brown colouring of the owls against the dark blue corduroy gives the trousers a quirky retro look I don't find at all objectionable.  I really like the cut and fit.  I was able to use a 1" elastic waistband for comfort, and there is a good 1.5" hem at the cuff, allowing for growth.  The wide legs are probably wider than we like, but they will be good when I attempt to line future pairs.

 

 I feel very full of myself about the cuteness and professionalism of the pockets, so naturally Stephanie doesn't want them.  She rightfully pointed out that she doesn't keep her hands behind her and she doesn't "collect things to put on my bottom" (fair enough).

 

She also wants to know if another pair is ready yet because she needs more, this time in turquoise and without pockets.
Now would be good.