I gave up on sewing ‘for christmas’ some time ago…. when I got sense!! I used try and make some pressents and also a ‘christmas outfit’, and while most got done it was always with compromises (omitted details, and dodgy hems) – I pretty much stopped doing a lot of it in the last 15 years, and just doing a christmas card drawing as my christmas effort.

Most of my sewing plans for the year remained undone. To be honest, I have been doing less sewing as realistically my wardrobe has enough clothes, and I like and wear them all (except for the ones that mysteriously have become too small) so it all seems complete. The re-sews now are a bit more contemplated and much slower – and also this year was fairly distracting with everyday seeming the same with a consistant wary-ness – I even think the reason I started wearing scent the last few months was to have something different….. I have also started wearing earings again (I think I am trying to distract myself with shiny things), and I changed roles in work, to a 5 day week in the hospital (I miss my 4 day week but there is a new roof to be put on our house, and again, I think there may have been an underlying desire for change) .

I was strangly relieved/glad when the shops opened again here after the last lockdown even though I am not an avid shopper – again, I think is the distraction, seeing as cinemas are closed or when open very little is showing, and travelling to other towns to galleries if open is off the cards. At least I can still meet a friend for walks and chats weather permitting – and as of tomorrow we are in a level 5 again (ie lockdown).

The day before the October lockdown, I had popped by a charity shop and saw a nice large womens herringbone tweed suit. I only had so much change in my purse and was 2 euro short of the price tag so I figured I could get it when the shop opened again – and sure enough I called to the shop about 3 days after the reopening in December, and it was not there! But I did find a man’s wool trousers marked 5 euro in the womens section.

The waist size meant I would have enough fabric for my hips, and the wool was a lovely quality. I am always surprised by how big the pockets are in mens trousers. I place a pattern on top to check if there would be enough fabric, and there was for slim cut ‘ankle grazer’ – Burda trousers from the September issue.

The cut was fairly straigh forward, I decided to go for a side zip, and kept the back pockets as well as the small ‘watch pocket’ to the front as my ‘dumb phone’ fits nicely in it. I reused the front lining in the same way as well as the zip and the hook closure. I have photos below of the cut.

I was unsure what to do for the waist, but decided to keep with the original pattern and have a waistband. I rarely use waistband, preferring a faced waist but as I could not introduce additional darts at the back, due to the back pockets already being in place. I ended up easing the trousers into the waistband and then using the steam iron to flatten the ease into place, and shrink in the wool – below photos are before steaming…… wool is the most agreeable fabric to work with!

so it all sewed up fairly quickly. I was even happier when I picked up a perfect blouse in the charity shop a week before christmas, so all set. Its a nice simple cut – and interesting fabric of black chiffon like discs sewn on to similar fabric. Its probably to be worn with less underneath as only the front has a layer of lining, but works very well with a black base layer (and sensible warm) as well as the super new-used boots.

By the time christmas morning came, I was in two minds on whether I should just spend it in pyjamas seeing as christmas visits would not be happening this year, but I parked that idea – and happily spent christmas morning listening to some old tunes, and new tunes (Brian Eno LP for Christmas), and started into a new book – while the dinner roasted away in the oven.

Wishing everyone the very best for 2021 and a brighter new year.