One of my goals this year is to make a pair of pants that are comfortable and fit well. No small thing since I haven't worn pants in several years. Don't get me wrong -- it is not that I am too elegant to wear anything other than dresses, rather it is because an ever-expanding rear end is easier to accommodate in them.
I assumed the great pants project of 2014 would take several attempts (assumption #1). I ordered a "coral" stretch fabric online to use for the first muslin. I assumed I knew what color "coral" would be (assumption #2). Imagine my surprise (shock ?) when I opened the package and found that the coral fabric was orange, bright, bright, unforgiving couldn't possibly look good on me orange:
But, hey these were just the first effort, so I pressed on with the only-fit-to-wear-to-a-UF-Gator-football-game colored fabric. I tweaked the pattern (Vogue 8751) to be a pull-on pant with more of a flare in the leg below the knee. (I have somehow deluded myself into thinking that a flare in the pant leg balances out my too big for my height thighs. This is similar to my delusion that wearing all one color makes me look tall. If I am gifted at anything it is delusions.) I also made a full butt adjustment to the pattern (not to be confused with a full bust adjustment). And I was astonished to find that the pants fit -- they actually fit and they were comfortable. They were just a butt ugly color.
So there was no way I was discarding a comfortable, well-fitting pair of pants. However, I couldn't manage to make myself leave the house in pants that resembled traffic cones. Then I had a flash of brillance -- I could reverse dye them with bleach. I assumed this would be an easy way to get a groovy tie-dyed look (assumption #3). Turns out whatever method was used to produce this lovely color had some staying power. I spread the pants out on the table and ever so gently started painting with full-strength bleach expecting to see immediate results. I was ready to rush the pants under running water to stop the bleach process quickly so I didn't overdo it. Only the color did not budge. I finally ended up basically pouring streams of bleach onto the pants and letting it sit for 20 minutes to finally get a somewhat tye-dyed look.
Since pretty much all of the assumptions I made for this project were wrong and I still ended up with a pair of pants I like, I am going to count this as a happy ending (and chalk my daughter's comments up to her being jealous she hasn't managed to make such a cool pair of pants).
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