unlearning knits

Two nights ago I had one of those light bulb moments in my sewing. It started the day before while I was chatting with Justine about our current works in progress. She was telling me how she was making a top and added a band of hemp ribbing at the bottom hem, stretching the ribbing as she sewed it on to create a "made to wear" look (i think that was the term she used). At the time I thought it was a good idea, but didn't connect it to my sewing.... kinda went into my ear and got tucked somewhere up in that brain of mine without second thoughts on it. Well, fast forward to the next night- I had just pulled out of the dryer the fabric I had dyed up that day- some stretch hemp jersey, stretch soy microterry, and some of the infamous stretch bamboo jersey. As I folded the soy microterry I noticed what a perfect weight and drape it had, just like my favorite store bought microterry bamboo yoga pants. This made me want to make myself a pair of yoga pants out of the soy- and so I did.


But that's when that light bulb went off. Suddenly the technique Justine had mentioned the day before, the one that might as well have gone in one ear and out the other at the time of hearing it, suddenly it lit up my thoughts..... It was the perfect technique for the waistband of these pants (the ones I posted about yesterday). I had designed the pattern months ago with this eco line for etsy in mind- my goal for this line was to have perfect fitting items without any sort of adjustment mechanisms (ie drawstrings). But I was somewhat struggling with the waistband of the pants, not being able to get it fitted enough without making the body of the pants too hard to pull up over the hips. So I busted out the pattern again and made some adjustments with this new technique in mind..... and it worked perfect!!

So I was psyched to get those pants made and learn a new technique (thanks justine!). But the light bulb moment didn't go away with that accomplishment. Just a little while ago I was sitting here fooling around on the computer when suddenly that light bulb went off again. This time it was with the stretch bamboo fabric that had given me so much hell a few months back- the one I had given up trying to work with it. I realized that I had to unlearn what I had taught myself working with normal hemp jersey (no lycra content). With the hemp jersey I learned from experience that the key to getting good seams is to prevent pulling on the fabric at all while it feeds through the machine- otherwise I got ripply stretched out seams. I've perfected my sewing skills with hemp jersey, and thought I would rock it with the lycra jerseys since I've got my technique down. The technique is similar for the heavier weight lycra jerseys (such as the hemp and soy I have) but failed me miserably with the light weight uber stretchy bamboo jersey. I couldn't even get it to feed through my serger, it would get all bunchy and get eaten by the knife and feed dogs. But tonight I realized that maybe I needed to do the opposite of what I thought I should be doing- stretch the fabric as the serger pulled it through...... hmmmmm now that's an idea. I jumped up and grabbed a scrap of the bamboo jersey and tried out this idea- BRILLIANT!!! I had to start off slow, manually turning my serger wheel until a few stitches were in, then I just pulled back on the fabric as the serger did it's work- no problems at all. All that lycra made the fabric spring right back into place- no stretched out seams like I would have had with the non lycra jersey. I managed to sew up a top I had created a pattern for over the summer with a light weight knit in mind- but had tossed aside when I realized I couldn't figure out how to work with the bamboo, the fabric I had planned on using. I'm so freakin' stoked!!!!!


Funny how sometimes you need to "unlearn" things in order to learn something else :)

taking care of number one

This month's challenge over at Gypsy Road is "taking care of number one"- making something for yourself! As the month rolls to a close, I ended up making myself a few things!

When the challenge was first posted I thought it would be the perfect motivation to get that pattern drafted for a dress for myself and my growing to be ginormous belly. I did end up making the dress, but something about it just isn't thrilling me. I whipped it up- literally, i went down and dirty with the stitching of this one- of course, that's almost always the case when i make stuff for myself, can't bear to spend the extra time to put out quality like I do with the stuff i sell, go figure! I've worn it knocking around the house, but probably won't wear it anywhere else. Here's a peek at the dress in my SPW for this week over on flickr....

I did however make two things that I'm really diggin' for myself! The first is an insulated Nalgene water bottle sling. I was thinking along the lines of items to sell at festivals, and decided I would keep the prototype for myself. I love it! It's made out of hemp and I added insulating batting (found this at Joann Fabrics) to help keep the beverage the temp I wanted it to be (cold in the summer, either hot or keep it from freezing in the winter). I've already used it a handful of times this month, turns out it's PERFECT for my hikes! No more awkwardly holding my bottle of water, just toss it in this sling! I decided it would be absolutely perfect if I added a keychain ring somewhere so I could attach my keys too for the days I'm without pockets.

The second thing I'm loving is this pair of soy/organic cotton micro terry wide legged pants I made myself last night. Yesterday afternoon I wasn't feeling like sewing, so I decided to keep with my goal of productivity, to dye up some fabric. I busted out the soy/organic terry/lycra micro terry I bought the end of December- this stuff is great! super buttery soft and the perfect weight/drape for some super comfy pants! And I've added a new color to my favorite dye colors- this one is Dharma's Palomino Gold, but I call it Golden Wheat :) My plans for these pants were a two in one- finish up the pattern for the eco line I want to start on my etsy shop (started!) and make myself a pair of comfy pants for my prenatal yoga class (started!). To my delight they worked out perfectly for both!

I'm really excited to finally get some ideas out into the works..... I've been planning the eco line for etsy since the end of summer- and just now getting the first two pieces into my shop. I had other plans for it, but I realized I wasn't getting anywhere with them so I should just go for it and make modifications as I go. Hopefully sometime this coming month I can take the pictures I want to take for this line and get a few more pieces added to the collection- pieces that I already have the patterns drafted for and samples made but can't model them myself b/c they're tops and look kind of funny with my protruding stomach. My hopes for this line is to reach a somewhat steady income for when the baby arrives and I'll be out of work from the day job for atleast a few months. We'll see how that goes but for right now I'm feeling good that I got part of that goal started.

it's cold out there baby!

I finally sucked it up today and did some modeling outside in the back yard. Let me tell ya, it's FRIGID out there! Last night's high was 5 degrees and today is probably in the low 20s. But I love how outdoor pics come out- the color and lighting is so much truer to life so not only are they better pics but it also saves me a few editing steps in photoshop. The above show the finished version of my last WIP- Blooms of the Eve hemp hoodie.

I'll be adding that new top to my website sometime later tonight, along with this sneak peek top I gave the other night, another hemp jersey tunic top.


And this mushroom hat I crocheted up this past week while watching movies and the Home and Garden channel (I'm hooked on that channel for the new home buyer shows they have- I've learned so much and can't wait to put it to use on our first home!)

I managed to stay pretty busy this week- I sewed up these two tops and crocheted the hats at the beginning of the week, then I had an unusual 4 full days in a row of work at the day job. We had a huge environmental inspection on a General Electric site here in CT- and they needed it pronto. I thought my eyes were going to fall out of my head from going through a nearly 5 foot high pile of documents over at the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). Thankfully I had Nate to help me. I even put a full day in yesterday, on a Saturday! It wasn't so bad though, we met at my boss's house and the three of us worked on reports for the project all day- so much better and easier than doing reports at home, way too many distractions here.

And here's a silly little belly pic I took the other night for my SPW over on flickr- 24 weeks baby! man the time is flying by!

Things that go bloom in the night- WIP

To me there is something magical in night blooms. Especially the fragrant ones like night blooming jasmine, releasing it's intoxicating scent into the warm night air. My current work in progress is a night blooming applique... perhaps I'm longing for those warm summer nights.... yep I can confirm that one :)

It's 10pm and I just finished up this applique and got a few orders packed up and shipped. I have a long day of work for the day job early in the morning, yet here I am wide awake and ready to get back to stitching the rest of this top. I have a feeling i'll have a hard time getting to sleep, between the lack of exercise the past few days (extreme cold and snowy/icy weather keeping me inside) and my body used to going to bed around midnight lately. Maybe I should go make a quick cuppa chamomile tea.....

sneak peek

I just finished up this hemp jersey tunic.... pardon the crappy pic, our house turns from bright and sunny during the day to a dark dungeon at night- the lighting in here sucks! I'm still working on busting down my dyed hemp stash. Another piece of hemp jersey off the shelf! I love this chocolate brown and dusty rose color combo..... and this style sews up relatively quickly, so I focused on a simple yet elegant applique and added a kangaroo style pocket for a little sass. I still need to toss it in the wash and dryer to smooth out some seams- I find that no matter how careful I am when working with this jersey, occasionally the seams stretch a little when I sew, such was the case with the kangaroo pocket. But I found that tossing the garment in the wash and then dryer smooths those seams right up!

It was nice to start and finish this entire piece this evening. Now tomorrow I can start afresh with a new piece- I have another hemp jersey tunic already semi planned out in another size and another hemp jersey wrap top that I think I can do in a plus size like I had originally intended with the Cranberry Blossom wrap. I'm guessing I'll end up making another few hemp jersey tops before I get bored again with tops.... then maybe I'll move on to busting down my hemp wovens stash.... Or bust into all those new hemp and soy knits that have been calling to me from the corner of the room :) Or maybe I'll finish up one of those tossed aside works in progress that I unearthed earlier this evening. I usually don't toss aside clothing projects unless they start giving me way too much trouble or start turning out to not be what I envisioned. One of the projects I pulled out tonight was a hemp jersey wrap dress that I started just over 2 years ago. It was about when I started working with hemp jersey for the first time, when I hadn't perfected my patterns for knits yet. I tossed the dress aside when the fit wasn't what I wanted and at the time I wasn't feeling the patience to figure out a fix, but now I know it's an easy fix- just take in the side seams a bit at the waist for a defined/fitted look and it will be perfect. Then it's a blank slate for some nice applique work and I'll have a brand new dress design! Fun fun!

mouse in the house

This is what my day has consisted of.....

looks like fun.... yeah sure. Yep, it's tax time. I just spent the past two and half hours entering all of my sales receipts, receipts paid, and shipping slips for the past year. It actually wasn't as bad as i thought it would be- made myself a cuppa chai tea, pulled up Itunes and turned up the volume, and entered away. I always love seeing what I actually made at the end of the year for Magnolia Skies. It's always WAY less than I expect it to be. I have to blame that on my fabric addiction. But this year was especially pathetic. I made a quarter of what I made last year in profit. And I've already made twice as much in profit this first month of the new year- although that doesn't really count, i really need to compare to a full year of incoming and outgoing. I think there was two main culprits this year for such a low profit margin- the first being a couple of very large fabric purchases towards the end of the year (fabric addiction). Fabric I haven't used yet. So there was no chance of covering costs on that- the good thing is it will be pure profit for this year. The second culprit was the fact that I worked full time for just over 2 months this past year, as opposed to my usual part time hours at the day job. BUT that is something that will surely be reflected in my profit at the day job- where I'm also considered a sole proprietor and right now have no clue how much I made for the year. My boss should be sending me my tax form any day now, and then I can do our income taxes and see how we did this year. And then see what we can get preapproved for a mortgage.... see, there is a light at the end of the tunnel :)

In other news, when making my cuppa this morning, i noticed little black nuggets in my cabinet. Yesterday I found a package of brown sugar and a package of chocolate chips with tiny rip holes at the bottom of the bags, in that same cabinet. At the time I thought our cat Rusty Peanuthead had gotten shut in there (she has a bad habit of running into any open cabinet when we're not looking) and reeked some havoc. But with the nuggets today, I put two and two together and realized over the past couple of days we must have had a mouse in the house. I was alittle surprised b/c we haven't had any mice in the apartment since moving in just over 2 years ago. But at the same time I kind of figured the frigid temps we've had over the past few days might have forced the little guy into the warmth of our house. Now i can only hope he's made his way back outside and no more of his friends will find their way in. The only other creature experience we've had here is back around Thanksgiving when we had a bat somehow get into the apartment. Yes, a bat! I had gone to bed early and pat was out in the living room watching tv. I awoke to pat screaming like a girl, ran out into the living room to find pat lying flat on his back on the couch, legs up in the air, pillow covering his head, screaming, as a bat was doing speed laps around our tiny living room, dive bombing pat every time it got to that side of the room. It was absolutely hilarious (for me). I'm not bothered by bats, so I grabbed a blanket and managed to toss it over the bat and catch it. But not before the great hunter Rusty got a few swipes at it. Man that was a comical scene. Pat screaming like a bitch, the cat going into pure stalker mode leaping around the room, a bat doing speed laps in a panic, the dog barking and leaping after the cat in confusion, and the prissy Guyman kind of standing around fluffing his fur.... oh and then me the girl saving the day :) I crack up still when I think about it.

Anyways, I've left the cabinets open in case the mouse is still around- I have faith that if he is he won't be for long, not with Rusty in the house. She's a great huntress :) "gah maybe they won't see me if I stick my head in this hole..."

Decisions, decisions

sometimes it's just so hard to make decisions. When one part of you is saying GO FOR IT! and the other part of you is saying TISK TISK you know you shouldn't do that. I've been wanting to take a screenprinting class for about 6 months now. Back when I was making mad loot at my crazy health and safety position over the summer I almost signed up. Money wasn't the issue then, it was the issue of am I going to miss too many classes since we tend to be out and about more in the summer. So then I told myself I would sign up for my birthday present in November. But then I ended up getting that kick ass camera instead. And now their winter classes are starting next week and I was SO close to signing up. But this time around it's the money issue. A huge part of me is saying DO IT, this is the perfect time- you know you won't be able to take that class for a while if you wait till after the baby arrives. But then that nagging conscious in me is saying HELLO! you have a baby coming in a few months and you are planning to start house hunting in just a month, save your money! When I think about potentially buying a house in the next couple months the nagging little conscious wins. Especially when I combine that with the thought of being out of work for a few months when baby arrives. I guess I'll make a last minute decision on Monday.... or atleast find out when their next session is- I might be able to make the next session, and by then I'll know if we're buying a house or having to stay put in our apartment for a little while longer. Well atleast I know I'll be starting my prenatal yoga classes next week- Pat's dad got me a gift certificate to the yoga studio for Christmas (we drew names this year) so that classes are already over half paid for. That made that decision easy :)


Well I'm still remaining accomplished this week :) Just got finished adding these two hemp wrap tops to the site. I had big plans to make the cranberry one in a plus size so that I had a nice variety of sizes, but when I went to cut out my pattern I realized I was short almost a yard for that size. The fabric width was about 6 inches too narrow to make the plus size shirt, meaning I would have to use an extra yard..... bummer.

This weekend I have to dye up a couple batches of hemp fabric for Taylor of Little Hippie.... She's getting her spring/summer line in the works so I'll have quite a few batches to do over the next month. There's nothing better than the Fedex man showing up with a 60 yard roll of hemp fabric that I didn't have to pay for. Sure I don't get to keep it, but it's almost just as fun dyeing it up and not feeling guilty about already having way too much in my stash, hehe :)

All this cold weather (we're in a middle of an Arctic blast cold spell- single digit temperatures, brrrrrrr!) has kept me inside the past couple of days. The Dukester hasn't been too happy about it. He's just too damn cute.... here he is patiently waiting at the front door.... please oh please just take me for a hike, please pretty pretty please....

giveaway over at the Gypsy Road featured artist!

The etsy team Gypsy Road that I'm part of just released it's first featured artist article, featuring the rockin' Julie of The Peaceful Peacock. We'll be doing a new featured artist each month- it will be cool to find out more about all the talented artist in that team.


So you should head over and take a few minutes to find more out about Julie.... for alittle motivation she's holding a giveaway for a set of fabric grocery totes and a cutie little scarflette!

another WIP

I did mention how accomplished I've been lately, right? hehe, yes I sure have :) Today I made up a custom padded pouch (which I spaced on photographing before mailing it off to its new owner) and started another wrap top in size Medium/Large. With this brand new applique.....

I decided to go along with a theme of spinning off my common appliques to create new ones. This lotus leaf and buds will go across the front wrap section, and I'm pondering adding a full bloomed lotus to the hood. I like adding an applique in the front and back of a piece so it gives off uniqueness no matter what angle you see it at- so I'll probably end up adding the lotus to the hood. I have this top all cut out and the front applique done, machine all threaded and ready to start stitching.

I also managed to use up another piece of my hemp jersey stash! I keep almost all of my hand dyed eco fabrics on the top shelf of my fabric shelving unit.... up until a few weeks ago this shelf was packed to the absolute max.... i could hardly even pull out a piece of fabric b/c it was shoved in there so tightly. But as you can see on that right side (my knit side) there's almost 4 inches of head space now!!! And I think I've already got plans for that cranberry red jersey about halfway down the pile.

I'm planning on having this top finished up by tomorrow. And then to start on that cranberry this coming week. I'll probably hold off adding this new top until I've finished one more piece.... I don't want my mailing list folks to start feeling like I'm spamming them!

I've been taking little breaks all day- it's snowing out again and Pat is putting in another overtime shift at work with plowing, so it's just me and the animals again this Saturday evening. I'm debating whether to sew for alittle longer or go find a movie to watch and label my soap bars. I'm finding it very interesting how over the past week or so my sales are picking back up, becoming more how they were before I fell into such a creative slump this past year. I'm a firm believer that every person puts off their energy which influences what comes their way. I think this new found energy (or the return of an old energy?) I've been putting into Magnolia Skies is already working its magic :) Now let's hope I can continue to feel this inspired!

finito!

Whew I'm feeling pretty accomplished this first week of the new year!! I know I could be getting even more done for Magnolia Skies, but compared to last year I'm already miles ahead! I feel like I'm falling back in my old groove of things- last year was just a big funk of some sort when it came to being creative.


I finished up this top that I gave a sneak peek of the other day. It's a hemp jersey wrap top- one of my favorite top designs. Hemp jersey that has been in my stash for quite awhile.... it feels good to start whittling down that fabric stash..... urrr or atleast my dyed fabric stash..... those 80 something yards of undyed eco fabrics stashed away in the corner of the room, they don't count.... right?..... sure.....

I also finished crocheting up this hat last night. I was planning on starting a new hat but found this one half finished in my yarn bag. I have no idea when I started it, but last night was a good time to finish it up :) Funny how the color scheme of the top and hat are the same :)



And to top it all off I got my Lavender Tea Tree handmade soap photographed. I plan on putting this on Etsy too, so this time I got a little fancier with my photography. In the past I just white out the background for my site photographs, but I notice Etsy tends to go for more elaborate photo schemes.


I'm still debating if I want to add my crocheted hats to my etsy shop too.... it seems like avid etsy sellers are either half for variety in a shop or half for a very narrow selection of goods in a shop. At first I was going to post just my eco clothing there, but then I wanted to get rid of that bamboo jersey so I added that and it sold really well, so then more fabric made it's way in there. And now the soap. hmmmm..... I guess I'm going with variety.... after all variety is the spice of life! and really I want my etsy shop to somewhat reflect my Magnolia Skies website, which I consider to be a boutique of sorts.... The only thing I've decided to limit is my clothing selection, I still only want to add my eco clothing to etsy. I'm not sure why, but that's what I'm set on right now so that's how it will be.


So to complete my accomplished feeling day, I'll be adding these new goods to my website sometime after dinner.


On the personal front, I'm feeling great! Pat and I went to my monthly check up last week and got to hear the baby's heartbeat again.... well me again and Pat for the first time. I was really glad he didn't have work that day so he could have the chance to hear it. And my second ultrasound is on Tuesday- I made it late enough for pat to come to that too, since personally I think the ultrasound is WAYYYYYY cooler than hearing the heartbeat. that first ultrasound is when it really hit me that I have a baby growing in me- and I have a feeling it will be just as jaw dropping for Pat since he didn't get to go to the first one. I've managed to get 7 cloth diapers completely finished, and have atleast half of the work done for the rest. In the next week or so I need to sit my ass down and enter all of my business stuff into my financial software to get ready for our income taxes. At the beginning of the year our state switched me over to yearly sales tax filing, instead of quarterly. Filing my sales tax quarterly for Magnolia Skies forced me to enter my stuff atleast 4 times a year, instead of letting it pile up a foot high at the end of the year like I did this year. But I just have to think of the light at the end of the tunnel.... once our income taxes are done in the beginning of February, we can go see what we can get preapproved for a mortgage. We've been wanting to buy a house for almost 2 years now, but I think this winter/early spring will finally be it for us! We're much better off financially than we've ever been, so our fingers are crossed we can get approved for something reasonable, can find a house before this baby arrives, and can break our current lease without too much harm done...... If not we'll be apartment living until September when our lease is up again.... which I prefer not but either way I think this year will be our year for buying our first house.


Anyways, I should get back to being accomplished.... my little reward break should be ending :)

WIP- a little inspiration found

Here's a sneak peek of my current work in progress. Up until today I haven't found the energy or inspiration to make any clothing in the past month or so. Almost everyday I *almost* felt the urge to sew something for Magnolia Skies, but it fluttered away before I could get to sewing. But today I finally felt inspired- I'm almost done with this wrap top, just need to stitch up a few hems and I'm finished! Won't be tonight b/c I have work for the day job in the morning (thankfully i don't have to be on site until 10am!).

This applique is completely original for me.... I think I was stuck in festival mode when it came to appliques- I tend to stick to simple and quick appliques for the majority of my festival pieces to keep the majority of my work at a certain price point, such as the sweeping leaves applique I've been doing. Today I realized this and decided to drag my appliqueing ass out of festival mode and back into original mode. Sometimes it's just easier not to have to think of an applique design and go with something easy, but eventually I get bored of easy... thankfully!

This wrap top is hemp/cotton jersey- the main portion is a piece I dyed up Olive Drab- it is the very first batch of hemp jersey I dyed up! Wow that piece has been sitting patiently in my stash for awhile, haha!

I should have this on my site by the end of the week :) Off to get my beauty sleep :)

Featured! Do it yourself Fashion

I was just checking my stats for my website when I realized I was so excited about being so productive today, that I forgot to upload all my new stuff to the web, haha! I did all the work, just didn't FTP it over to my site, duh! So I was curious to see how many people checked my site in the 15 or so minutes through my mailing list..... when I stumbled across a referal from Do It Yourself Fashion

It turns out back in November they featured my site for my applique work! Wow! I think this is the first time I've stumbled across someone featuring my work that I didn't know about, and man what a flattering feeling :) *blush* Thanks DIY Fashion!

While reading the article I clicked on this link giving a rundown on what to look for when buying handmade clothing. I thought it was really cool that this article exists for folks who don't really understand handmade clothing (haven't we all at some point run into someone who thinks handmade clothing means shoddy, poor quality work?). I especially liked that the author pointed out to take time and materials into consideration when looking at the price, something that I think alot of people not familiar with handmade clothing fail to think about. Anyways, I'm a blogging maniac today, two posts in one day, haha! Just wanted to share this article :)

a little bit of productivity never hurts

I'm trying to start off the new year right as far as productivity goes. I feel like I wasted alot of time doing nothing in 2008 when it comes to Magnolia Skies. I only work part time as an environmental geologist, which should leave me plenty of crafty time. I should easily be able to create 2-3 new pieces each week, give or take depending on how my hours are at the day job. But that certainly wasn't the case in 2008. So to start off 2009 I added some new goods to the site. These two dresses I had in the works for awhile, but finished up last week, and now they're fresh up for sale. I didn't really feel like sewing today so instead of bumming around or wasting too much time on the computer I decided to photograph and get these new goods onto the site. Make my time a little more productive.

I adore these two dresses- the marigold yellow one is made from a hemp/tencel blend I dyed up. I love that fabric, it has an amazing drape for dresses and skirts. And I love how it hardly wrinkles (unlike some of the hemp/cotton wovens).

I even did a little crocheting while watching movies in the evening. In the winter I love curling up on the couch in the evening with some yarn and my crochet hook, all my animals curled up in various places around the room, Pat sprawled out on the other end of the sofa, and watch a good movie. I finished up this hat that I had nearly finished over this summer while camping. This one has some really yummy yarns- two super soft and airy alpaca/wool blends and a hemp/wool blend in the dark brown.

This purple tam I crocheted up last night- the light purple is a specialty wool blend yarn that has a vein of sparkly going through it- the sparkly and the colors remind me of holiday sugar plums :)

I also added a piece of hand dyed bamboo linen to my etsy shop. I might be adding a few more pieces of hand dyed eco fabrics over the next few weeks to make room for all my new eco fabrics.

So my general goal for 2009 is to be more productive with my time. I'm learning to go with my instinct more- if I don't feel like sewing don't feel guilty about it, which then leads to doing nothing, instead find something else to do like dye up some fabric (even if I don't need it right at the moment) or sit down and crochet. Or like in today's case, get some stuff onto the site that has been sitting around patiently waiting to be added. I think that's a manageable enough goal :)

Lucky You

actually, Lucky me. My new Lucky Brand Jeans maternity jeans just showed up at my doorstep, 3 days before I was expecting them! Let me tell ya, those belly flap maternity pants, they SUCK! I was hoping to find a pair of under the belly pants but the few stores around us that sell maternity pants only sold the fully belly panel ones, or the couple pairs that I found that went under the belly fit all wonky and were near capris they were so short on me. After a week of wearing the full flap maternity pants, walking around with my pants crotch halfway down to my knees cause the damn things don't stay up, tugging at the uber stretchy panel since there's no belt loops, resulting in stretching it up to my boobs and the pants part not even moving.... I gave up.

I decided to try out the elastic band trick my mama gave me with my normal FAVORITE jeans- my Lucky Brand Jeans. It worked like a charm, except it's a little drafty down there and if my shirts aren't super long someone might think they're getting lucky :) A little background to my expensive jeans- my mom instilled in me the bargain shopper. I rarely buy commercial clothing full price (this whole blurb excludes handmade items), and the clearance rack is where it's at. Yep, that worked right up until I was about 24. Then I guess my body started developing those "misses" curves. No longer could I fit perfectly into any $30 jeans off the junior's rack. I wandered the stores with armloads of jeans, only to be disappointed every time. With a handful of OK fitting jeans in my closet, I longed for the days of good fitting jeans. Cause I'm a jeans kind of gal. With the exception of during the summer when i live in my skirts, and the exception of now that I'm pregnant and I live in cute dresses, I wear jeans everyday. And then one day a few years ago I wandered into Lord and Taylor in the mall, and on a whim tried on a pair of $100 jeans, the bargain shopper in me going berserk. But they were on sale for $65 so I bit the bullet and tried them. OH MY. I found the perfect jean for myself. No more wasting hours in random stores trying on every jean on the rack only to be disappointed. These were jeans made for me. Even at $100 a pair, they were a bargain for the time spent trying to find a good fitting pair, for the perfect fit, and for the amount of times I wear them, costing less than pennies a day in the end. And even better, I later learned they're made right here in the USA. Even better..... lucky me!

In my growing older I've learned that if there's two things a woman splurges on for herself in the clothing department, it's the perfect fitting daily pant (jeans in my case) and the perfect fitting bra. With those two things covered, you can look good, and feel even better. I only wish I had known that when I was younger. I'll admit I love clothing. I love how a good fitting outfit (whether handmade, store bought, clearance rack, full price jeans, etc) can top off feeling good and top off confidence.

Anyways, yes, so those new maternity jeans.... I ordered them during the pre christmas sale over on the Lucky website. They fit just like I dreamed of, just like my good ol' jeans. no more crotch down to the knees, no more stretchy band sticking out from under my shirts if I move the wrong way. They look and fit the way a jean should. As I unwrapped the packaging this sticker was the first thing to greet me. Yes, they have given me hope that I no longer have to suffer with poor fitting maternity jeans. Lucky me.