Unfinished business and a regression

Here are the French Press Felted Slippers I posted about a few days ago. Apparently they were in the bottom of the bag, not waiting to be posted home. I won't use this yarn for felting again, but they are still sort of cute.



I could not decide what to sew today. All this time is a luxury, and I am wasting it!
After fiddling about adding seam allowances to a pants pattern, I goofed off and made some pyjama pants. Yes, I am not over them, that pre Christmas post was pure self-deception. These are a pair for my husband, because there was a fun woodworking hand tool print at bearpaw quilts when I was buying his bicycle fabric.


This is a set for me.


I was the only person in the family with no new PJ's for Christmas, and thought I should fix this. I don't usually care for shorts sets, but wanted to try out some "what was I thinking" stretch cotton blend lace that I bought at Greenfield's (for a bra - why did I buy the rest of the roll?)so I made a cami top from the left over lining fabric from my Simplicity 3774 dress to wear with the shorts. The machine rolled hem was perfect!!! Sewing euphoria. (Thanks Elizabeth, I should just do as I am told more often)
I am reprinting here Elizabeth's rolled hem instructions from her comment on my misery post
as they may assist fellow fumble fingered hemmers.

"So, from the top, the foot is shaped a little like an H, where the crossbar is the rolling bit, and then there are flat parts sticking out to either side; the one to the right of the curly bit is longer and sticks forward (I'll call that the "tongue") and to the left the flat part is level more or less with the curly bit - let's all this the "cheek". I'm pretty sure that's not the official word, but I'm going for it (and OK, it doesn't look like a letter H, but never mind.)

When you roll the hem, the fabric must go EXACTLY between the tongue and the cheek. Too little fabric, no roll. Too much, sticky-out threads, since the roller tries to feed too much fabric into the roll and can't handle it. So, put the fold just inside the tongue and make sure the cut edge is just inside the cheek.

The mis-position of the fabric is also why you are getting a spiral, since it's feeding too much in.
"

The shorts are lined with a flesh coloured rayon knit from Gorgeous Fabrics, and they are OK on, but I do not care to show this in public :) The pattern claims to be for stretch silk chiffon, but in stretch lace it was around 3 sizes too big, otherwise no problems.
Materials cost:
Woodworking pyjama shorts, about $10 - ($8 fabric, + elastic and thread)
Burda Style 11-2009 cami pj set
Shorts - 50cm lace at $31 per metre, fold over elastic $2, hardly any thread. magazine pattern previously used, scraps of lining knit = $ 18
Cami - about 70 cm of silk/cotton voile from Greenfields at $6.75 per metre, thread, no elastic used, previously used pattern call it $5.
After this flurry of activity I cut out 2 nighties. I was on a roll, except that one of the nighties is silk crinkle chiffon and after the wrestling involved in cutting this one out, I retired, undefeated, to recruit my sewing mojo for sewing it tomorrow - no promises mind you, it might be the work trousers instead. I am watching a trashy science fiction video with my husband, so should get some knitting done.

Thank you for the comments about my Eyelet print dress. I am enjoying the warm weather, those temperatures with negatives in front of them arouse no envy at all (although every so often I strongly fancy sewing a coat). Sharon, yes, those are the new shoes. I wore them to Christmas lunch with my candy cane dress, and hopefully they will have an outing with the eyelet dress as well.