Vogue 1517 pants in stretch faux suede

More crazy lighting.  It looks like I took these photos on the surface of the sun or something, not a shady spot in the backyard!  Anyway, the pants are black (not navy) and the sweater is lavender (not white).  The cowl is detailed here.

These pants are Vogue 1517 from last fall.  I have finished the jacket, also, which I started waaaay before these pants.  I think I finished it not long before the move, so you know how that goes... Pics of that coming soon.

I cannot for the life of me remember where I got this fabulous fabric.  I thought it was GorgeousFabrics.com but I can't find it in my order history.  I don't think it was Pennie Fabrics in Florida.  Maybe it was from SawyerBrook.com.  I'm not sure.  Anyway, it is a great stretchy faux suede.  It has just enough stretch for these pull-on pants.  I think the fit of mine turned out pretty spot-on to the fit on the model.

I usually lengthen my pants by a few inches, but I forgot on these.  When they were finished, I decided they were a smidge shorter than I wanted so I added a little cuff on the bottom.  This turned out really well.  The fabric holds a fold beautifully, so I can leave them unrolled, cuff them up, or roll them halfway, so they go with any shoes I might want to wear.  In these photos, they are half-cuffed - rolled up just enough to cover the seam.

The fit on these is quite good.  I always have good luck with Vogue pants.  They are a little wrinkly, but I don't think you can avoid that with a close-fitting pant.

I am very happy with the fit from the side view - no bagging under the butt or in the crotch region.

My only dislike about these is the narrow waistband.  I find myself hiking them up quite a bit, and I think that could be improved with a wider elastic waistband.  Of course, this is something that I could fix in 30 minutes, and who knows, maybe I will, but they are fine for now.

I tried to get a nice view of the vertical seaming and top-stitching.  This is the best I got.

These pants fit right in my wardrobe.  I am still a big fan of skinny pant and long tops.  I am trying to come around to the "new" silhouette of roomier pants, but you know me - I'll always be a few years behind.

Summer Purse

I was sooooo proud when I finished this purse, and now I am soooooo sad that it didn't hold up.  I got it in my head to make a "perfect purse" for me.  I wanted it to be cross-body and pretty small, but big enough to hold all my necessities.  I wanted to to be colorful but to go with everything, of course.  I wanted professional-looking leather elements and metal hardware.  

I was able to achieve all of these goals, and I used this bag with delight for about a month... and then the problems with a bag made from cute quilting cotton became evident - it was getting dirty and it became so totally floppy as the interfacing got broken-in that I wasn't happy with the way it looked anymore.  I am really happy with how the leather bits turned out, though.  I love the contrasting colors.

I started out with a pattern from the book Zaka Style, but I significantly changed the proportions and pockets.

The only sewing challenges I had was getting that orange pocket to stay straight without being able to pin or even binder-clip it in place since it wasn't on the edge, and the long leather strip just above the orange pocket.  That strip was one of the last things I did, though, and I think I was just getting tired and losing my patience to go slowly.

I was so pleased with my little cell phone pocket on the back with the magnetic snap.

The straps even turned out pretty well.

I really enjoyed picking my fabrics, and not a lot was needed, so it wasn't very expensive to make.  I also had the scraps of leather on hand as well as most of the hardware.

See?  It perfectly held everything I like to lug around.  It is the floppiness that drove me nuts after a while, though.  More interfacing would definitely help, but the issue of it just getting dirty isn't so easy to solve.  Oh well.  I enjoyed it for a while, and then I went out and bought myself a nice little blue cross-body bag that I've been carrying since.  

Market Bag from Handmade Style by Anna Graham (Noodlehead)

I got the book Handmade Style for Christmas.  I am finally getting around to making something from it!  This is the Market Bag.

I think the lifestyle sell is that you take this to your local farmer's market to gather up fresh produce, but there will be no dirty organic carrots in my pretty white bag, thank you very much.

The quilting lines kind of took forever, but don't they look pretty?  The leather handles are a really nice touch.  I got mine from Tandy Leather.online and in the process found out there is a brick and mortar store less than a half hour from my home, so that's good to know for the future!

I was stressed about sewing on the handles, but it wasn't bad at all.  I tried with thick upholstery thread, but there were skipped stitches.  Regular thread and a leather needle worked best.

I got the woodland fabrics at a little quilting shop near my mom's house.  I had seen these fabrics before and really loved the colors and cute little animals.  They would make an awesome quilt for an outdoorsy kid.  I have enough left for another small project, maybe a smaller bag.  The tonal white fabric has been in my stash forever, and I am so happy to use it up.

There is one little interior pocket.

It's perfect for essentials for a day of shopping, or...

 for holding your stitch markers if you use the bag to hold the world's largest sweater project.

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