Tie Dye Time!

If the Unfashionista were to have a personal motto (other than "Fun with Colors"), it would have to be "Never Say Never."

Though I claimed last year that one dip in the tie dye bath would be enough for me, I was wrong. Tie dye continued to flourish in the world of fashion and even home furnishings, and it was said to have experienced a huge wave of popularity during the spring and summer. I didn't observe this personally because I pretty much took a break from fashion in favor of social distancing, but that's what they say. I did feel personally that it was one of the most trendy things I own, so my single tie-dye shirt became pretty much my go-to tee over the past year, whenever I wanted to seem a little bit more with the times. (Self-congratulation alert: I even got a compliment on its bright and happy colors during a hike despite our noticeably less friendly times!)

But this post isn't about my tie-dye tee, it's about my tie-dye blouse!

Once I had gotten over my initial aversion to the idea of tie dye, I continued to see examples of "tasteful tie dye" in my news feeds and shopping haunts, and decided I wouldn't mind having more of a good thing. Late this summer, I bought two tie-dye tops at Swap.com for a total of 5 dollars, one of them being this one!

 

This one took a little work to get into a wearable condition. It was very short and very wide and very unflattering on my frame. 

 

I reduced the size of the sleeve openings and took in the sides, then added waist ties to give it a more body-conforming shape.

It's still shorter than I prefer a loose shirt to be—I thought about extending the length with the offcuts from the sides and sleeves, but decided that wouldn't work. So it's finished!

I had the opportunity to wear it out into the big wide world today because I had a dentist appointment. If you ever want to feel better about having two teeth drilled, just wear a new fashionable top for the procedure!

"Fashionable" is relative, of course—the same sources who informed me of the tie-dye wave this summer also tell me it's on the wane. But if the Unfashionista were to have a third personal motto, it would have to be "Better late than never!"

Sweatpants: a DIY

Once it became clear, in late summer, that I was going to be confined mostly to home for the foreseeable future, I invested heavily in comfy pants. Tunics and leggings had their moment last spring, but I wanted, once in a while, to be able to wear a shirt of a normal length while lounging around the house. So a shopping spree ensued. I ended up with 5 secondhand pairs of sweat/lounge pants, which, being secondhand, were mostly of a somewhat dated straight-leg cut. Something had to be done.

It seems like it was only yesterday that I converted my first pair of straight-leg sweatpants into what was, at that time, a trendy pair of joggers.

These days, it only takes a quick perusal of Tik Tok or Instagram to show that joggers are no longer trendy. If you're going to be wearing sweats, they had better be the baggy kind with elastic cuffs—the very kind I loathed as a youngster and hoped never to wear again.

Alas, even an Unfashionista cannot resist the siren song of cultural relevance, so I had to bite the bullet and commit to the trendiest ugly silhouette of 2020.

And thus, I began the conversion of my too-short straight-leg pink pair of sweats into the bottom-cuff kind.

I checked to see whether I'd like the alteration by safety-pinning one leg in an approximation of the altered effect. It was a go!

 

Then I opened up a hole in the side seam at the bottom hem, threaded in a strip of elastic about the circumference of the bottom of my calf, and sewed it all back up! 

 

Instant modernity!

A second perusal of Instagram or Tik Tok quickly reveals that the preferred pairings with this type of sweatpants are either a matching sweatshirt or an ultra-cropped top of almost any sort. I made a valiant effort to follow the trend, wearing my new sweats for the first time with a cute crop top that I've had for almost 2 years and never worn.

The reason for the delay, of course, is that whenever it's cold enough to wear long sleeves, it's too cold to be showing one's midriff! I'll sacrifice my taste in the name of fashion, but never my body heat! I'd originally thought I might be able to wear the top to some event where crowds of humans would render the air warm enough that I'd be able to get away with uncovering my most thermally critical body part. But as crowds are out of the question for at least the remainder of this winter, I finally decided to give up on the impractical top.

After the hurried photo shoot (the brrr explains the blur!), I relegated it to the to-sell pile and traded it in for a less fashionable but more comfortable long-sleeved tee that completely covered me in blessed warmth.

Flashback Friday

 

Every day is casual day when you're working from home, but I'm still trying to give my workday outfits a more professional spin...from the shoulders up! That means collared shirts and nice sweaters when the weather's cold. But I still reserve my more fun outfits for Fridays, and that means this jacket! I don't think I'd wear this jacket to a normal physical office any day—mainly because it's got a casual vibe and it's so festive that I'd want to reserve it for a more special occasion. In fact, I'm almost sure I did wear it for at least three special occasions, but I never got a photo. In fact, I think of it as my bad luck karaoke shirt because two of the occasions involved karaoke that never happened. So by this time, it has diminished in novelty enough that wearing it for work seemed more reasonable...especially when "work" means "home," and the only thing people would see of it was the top 3 inches or so.

I was all set to wear it with a pair of pink sweatpants when I realized the pants would be much improved with a little alteration (stay tuned for a future post on this change and on all things sweatpants-related!). I found a decent pair of backup pants in my closet, and planned to sew the sweatpants during a webinar in the morning, so I'd have the outfit ready to wear through most of the afternoon.

Then I looked at myself in the mirror. In my vintage cargo pants and midriff-baring jacket, I was the spitting image of a turn-of-the-millennium fashionista! It just so happens that 90's bang tendrils have made a resurgence, and it just so happens that my growing-out fringe is the perfect length to pull them off! So I decided to go full-on retro.

A throwback look is probably not as cool if you're old enough to have actually rocked those styles the first time around...and bang tendrils not as cool when you have such wispy hair as mine, but I still had fun with it.

A ponytail and a postponey tale

Sometime last spring, I hatched the idea for this outfit—a (newly re-hemmed!) colorful maxi skirt, a rust-orange top, and finally and most importantly, the sash made from the bottom of the skirt, to be tied around my ponytail!

 

This outfit was so cute that I couldn't bear to wear it to work from home; I had to save it for when it could be seen in person! Thus, it stayed in reserve all spring, got consigned to storage all summer, and finally resurfaced for consideration during a cold snap in September. Its colors make it a much better fall outfit anyway, but there's one problem: I'm still working from home and no one was going to see it in person!

However, I'd already delayed this outfit some 7 months, and as with all clothes I grow impatient of waiting for the right occasion to wear, I finally decided to just go for it! An outfit well done is its own reward, right?

Although it didn't factor into my decision to wear this ensemble yesterday, some contractors were visiting the house to make some adjustments to my solar array, so at least they got to admire my artwork! And a virtual meeting popped up at the last minute, so my beribboned ponytail was on hi-def display for a grand audience of four! Rarely can I say that I am grateful for a last-minute meeting, but I can say that about this one...maybe. Maybe not.

Anyway, for an outfit that I initially thought would go completely unseen, it actually got a sizeable amount of exposure. Whether or not anyone noticed it is another question entirely. But that's why I'm posting it in my blog! Visit counts, here I come!

Rompers and Roses

 

Social distancing has certainly put a damper on dressing up. A birthday grocery run is about the biggest occasion I've had to show my face in public since the pandemic began.

That is, until last Friday, when I took the opportunity to meet a friend for an afternoon of wining and dining in the great outdoor venues of downtown Silver Spring. And that meant I had to have an outfit that would compensate – in one blowout of a day – for all the months I've been putzing around in a frumpy parade of house clothes.

Now I am admittedly a pretty aspirational shopper, tending to buy clothes first and look for an occasion to wear them later, but I've shown remarkable restraint during the pandemic and haven't purchased a single impractical item...which meant that when my day to shine finally arrived, I had nothing new to wear!

Nothing new except shoes, which I always have in steady supply. I stockpiled a fair amount of dressy sandals last fall, never imagining that my feet wouldn't see anything fancier all summer than a pair of Tevas. Although I had a much more colorful selection to choose from, I had to go with the fairly uninteresting pair of white low-heeled sandals.

Simple shoes were a necessity because my choice of clothing was gaudy as can be—a romper covered in multicolor roses! I'd tricked this particular garment out with removable straps two years ago, wore it once, and then let it rest for a season. It was now ripe for one last hurrah before being sold.

Of course, in this day and age, it's no hurrah until there's a coordinating face mask to go with it, so I very quickly customized a plain cream mask with a glued-on embroidery flower—actually the same flower that once graced my now-retired velvet slip dress.

After my afternoon of romping, I removed the flower from the mask. Maybe in another 2 months, a new social occasion will present itself, and both the mask and the appliqué will be ready for decoration!

Gloom and Zoom

 

Shortly after my shipment of sleeveless printed tops arrived, I realized my folly: on video calls, not only is your lower half invisible, but most of your upper half is, too! When I'm in a call, the only thing people could see of my outfit is, maybe, the top inch of my shoulders. Sometimes even only my face! So a lot of the shirts that I thought would be interesting on camera actually were just...not.

So I was feeling pretty low about my prospects for ever getting a compliment on my fashion sense again. Was there any point in getting dressed at all? Was there even any point in living? Call me vain, but the only thing that keeps me from retreating entirely from the world and adopting 17 cats is the occasional favorable unsolicited opinion on my outfit, and with out that boost, my strength to go on is severely depleted.

Fortunately, one of the shirts I ordered – just one – was able to lift me out of my funk, having all of its most interesting details at its highest point. Just check out the lacy yellow yoke (in my current favorite clothing color!), and...are those...stars on the collar? Yes, they are! The fun details continue just out of webcam range with more metallic accents and a pleasingly hued series of vertical stripes. It is a loose stretchy knit in a tailored fit, perfect for work-from-home comfort! Of all the shirts in my shipment, this is the one I was most excited about receiving, and it definitely stood up to expectations.

Even if just a smidgen of this shirt shows up on camera, it should give viewers an eyeful! Surely in this shirt, I would receive at least one unsolicited compliment!

I wore it to my weekly staff meeting last Friday and...nothing happened. Alas. At least I enjoyed wearing the shirt. At least I can blog about it. Who needs external validation, anyway?

A belated birthday blog

If there's ever a day of the year for dressing to impress, it's on your birthday. But this year, with gatherings verboten, and my birthday falling on the most ordinary of work-from-home Wednesdays (without even a Zoom call!), getting gussied up sounded like exactly the sort of thing only an Unfashionista would do.

On the momentous anniversary of my birth, I wore not one, but three special outfits: a cheeky first for errands, an artsy second for work, and a sophisticated third for stay-at-home date night with the boyfriend. And then what did I do? I forgot to take a picture of the last (and best, of course!) outfit! I was so upset with myself that I nixed the whole idea of blogging my outfits for that day, and resigned myself to letting my 37th birthday suits disappear into the sands of time. But the thing about time? It heals all wounds, and now that I've had 2 weeks to get over it, I am able to admit that two out of three ain't bad!

So here they are—the first and second fashionable ensembles of the most boring birthday ever!

 

First thing in the morning of the 5th, I scuttled into my clothes and hightailed it to the supermarket. These days, I try to do my shopping before work, when the store is less crowded. That day, with a tropical storm just behind us, it was fairly chilly out at 7 AM, so that meant pants and a shirt with sleeves. The shirt I chose was an over-the-top graphic print with rainbows and unicorns. This kind of shirt was already passé when I bought it at the thrift store sometime last year, but it cost next to nothing, so I decided to get it anyway. It was the perfect tee for a birthday grocery run—festive but not fancy. I wore it with rainbow platform sandals and pink pants, to take it from just a silly shirt, to a whole look.

Once the shopping was done, it was time to get down to business—from the home office. I've been wearing shorts at work so much this summer that they've ceased to be a novelty, so to add the interest factor worthy of a birthday, I wore shorts with sequins! A sleeveless sweater with a blinged-out neckline rounded out the look. I haven't been wearing shoes at home since June started, but as it was still kind of cool in the house and I wanted to go the extra mile for my birthday, I also wore my furry black sandals. The mullet-outfit (business on top, party on the bottom) would have been work-appropriate in case of a last-minute video call, but none occurred, so the only person to notice my sparkling style was my roommate. At least she liked it.

After work, the aforementioned forgotten fancy outfit made its appearance. It consisted of a slinky tropical dress and matching green heeled sandals. I really pulled out all the stops, having to dig the shoes out of storage since I haven't been wearing heels during the pandemic, but if there aren't photographs, did it really even happen? I guess only my boyfriend and I will ever know for sure!

Some day my prints will come

It's been almost two months since I wrote last, but I'm still working from home, and still trying to keep a semblance of sartorial standards. By that, I mean at least I try not to scandalize my coworkers on the days I have a video call, but still my daily attire certainly has reached new heights of casual.

The temperature routinely rises to 84 degrees in my house by the end of the workday, so I'm committed to wearing the minimal amount of clothing possible. I've completely given up on shoes, and have been sticking to simple jewelry if I wear it at all. Wearing shorts to work has gone from a novelty to an everyday occurrence, but most importantly, I've been shunning anything with sleeves.

Although I've made an effort over the last few years to get more short-sleeved graphic tops, sleeveless tops haven't been subjected to the same type of push. That wasn't much of a problem last summer, when I had my whole body to be my canvas, but now that I'm dressing down daily and the only part of my outfit that people can see is the shoulders, I pretty quickly ran out of video-worthy clothes that excite me. It was becoming clear: I needed a new collection of cute "Zoom tops." Yes, that's apparently what they're calling the work-appropriate shirts you'd wear to wow your colleagues during video chats, and I only have one.

As soon as I realized this was a problem, I set about solving it with some diligent online shopping—before realizing everything I needed was already right under my nose. With boxes upon bins of clothes I'd been planning to donate or sell, this was a prime opportunity to give new life to some of the old stuff I'd given up on. Before long, I had dug up two animal-printed gems—a T-shirt with grey elephants, and the already-much-refashioned bird dress.

I had retired the elephant shirt because I'd recently gotten another elephant-themed tee in a similar color, and I don't need an infinite selection of T-shirts with elephants! I didn't like this one much, because I didn't find its rounded hem, loose fit, or saggy-baggy breast pocket to be a good look on me. To freshen it up, I removed the pocket and shaved the pills off the fabric to the best of my ability. I cut off the sleeves and hemmed the openings, leaving just a little raw-edged cap at the top. Normally I don't do cap sleeves, but removing the sleeves entirely would have left me with something resembling a muscle tee, which I don't think is work-appropriate, even with my new lower standards. The problem of the rounded hem was easily solved by tucking the shirt in. I personally think tucked-in shirts make me look dumpy, but I'm trying to expand my horizons. A roomier fit on top is probably a good foil to the skimpy short-shorts I favor.

But I only have so much room in my heart for roominess; the other shirt to come out of this mission is my usual close-fitting standard! This one, the parrot dress, suffered from static cling even on the most humid July day, and I was never fond of the sack-like fit or the dangerously short length. But the bird print was A-one, and I was super-excited to revive it in shirt form! I simply cut off and hemmed the bottom, added princess seaming in the back, and attached the sash (now in 2 pieces!) at the waistline, so it could be tied in the back for a fitted shape.

With these two old-to-new shirts in my arsenal, I am feeling much more optimistic about my tops options. Of course, that wasn't enough to stop my shopping spree entirely—I've got 9 new blouses en route to me as I write this! Here's hoping that'll be enough to tide me over through the summer, until I discover another sartorial need to fill for the fall!

A work-from-home exclusive

There aren't many outfits that I'd wear to work from home that I wouldn't also wear to work from the office, or lounge around the home, or go out in.

This, however, is one.

The long pink T-shirt is a cherished part of my wardrobe. I've worn it to the office on plenty of occasions, but never worn it around the house or out and about. I think of it exclusively as a "work shirt."

Conversely, the leggings are something I'd never ever wear at the office. Even though I occasionally go to work with leggings under a tunic, or as a substitute for tights with a dress, the capri length really limits their usability. The proportions would be awkward if I paired them with a dress of any appreciable length (remember that one time I tried that back in 2012?), but a barely-long-enough top and skin-tight leggings are an office no-no.

Fortunately the home office has a looser dress code, so I combined the top and the leggings, added a matching pair of ivory ballet flats, and wore the whole getup with pride!

Honestly, capri leggings are far from the height of fashion these days (another reason I'd never wear this outfit anywhere but at home), but I must say that to my own eyes, it's a great look overall.

Week 8: A Farewell to Arm Coverage

I haven't been posting my work-from-home outfits as the novelty factor wore off and they basically became variations on a tired theme, but this week I'm back! There are exciting developments afoot! This week, as the weather finally, hesitantly, approached something resembling warm, I got to wear short sleeves!

On Wednesday, it was a pink and red floral number, topped off with my still-new-and-exciting dusty pink duster! The color coordination came as a pleasant surprise even to me, the person who put it together!

On Thursday, my gold cardigan made its second appearance, over an off-white T-shirt and my still-new-and-exciting refashioned gold pants for another day of monochromatic dressing.

Both those days, the afternoon got warm enough that I was able to discard the cardigans for a few hours and enjoy freely flailing my limbs! But Friday was truly special. The forecast predicted 86 degrees, and I marked the occasion with my first dress since the first week of April! I didn't even need a cardigan in the morning!

Usually, by this time of year, I've already had my spring wardrobe out for several weeks and sometimes (as in 2018) even already begun wearing my summer clothes.

This year has been the cold and miserable exception. My usual cutoff for the Spring Switch, seven consecutive days of high temps above 59, has still not actually occurred—meaning that if I were following the rules, I'd still be decked out in my winter wardrobe of cable knits and furs.

But I haven't been following the rules. I went ahead and unpacked my spring clothes sometime in mid-April, as we'd had enough days in the high 60's and low 70's that I'd started re-wearing T-shirts. I'd also run out of interesting outfits for any weather condition, since wearing nothing but house clothes has effectively reduced my wardrobe to less than a third its usual size. So out came the transitional clothing, even though plenty of chilly days awaited!

There's no reason I shouldn't be able to fashionably enjoy whatever warm weather we have, whenever we have it! Following a set of arbitrary rules is needlessly restrictive and prevents me from living my life to the fullest! Rules are for the repressed! Plus, it's pretty clear that climate change is the new normal and I can no longer count on consistent weather patterns to guide me in my clothing selections.

So I think I've given up on the rules entirely. I revise them and make exceptions so often; I may as well just abolish them. From now on, I'll use my own good judgment as to when it's appropriate to rotate my collection. Rules? They're more like guidelines.

Facemask, but make it fashion

Never in my wildest dreams did I think a surgical-inspired facemask would become part of my daily attire, but here we are. In the state of Maryland, it is now required by law (or is it executive order? Facemask, Fahcemask, I guess) to wear a face covering any time you will be interacting with people in public, and it looks like that's going to be the norm for quite some time.

So, since I'll probably be wearing facemasks pretty regularly for the foreseeable future, and since all my usual avenues for creative sartorial expression have been cut off, it should surprise no one that "Make fancy facemask" became a must-do project for me.

In the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, back when it felt like the sky was falling and there was a shortage of everything, I learned that some home sewists were starting to make fabric facemasks to help out people on the front lines. I jumped on the opportunity to join them and soon found a local group that was sewing and collecting masks for distribution in the area. So I've been sewing masks for months now and have actually learned to do it tolerably well (much different from my usual haphazard DIYs!). I am by no means fast (I usually manage about 6 finished masks per week!) but I now feel quite confident in my ability to sew a face mask from scratch!

I kept several of my early prototypes and "mistakes", so I have a decent-sized collection, but they don't make me feel good when I wear them. And in these depressing days, you have to do whatever you can to feel good. If that means wearing a festive facemask to the grocery store, then so be it! I debated long and hard about how I wanted to make my own personal facemask fun—rhinestones? glitter? graphics? trims? The answer came to me in the form of a ruined pillow.

Back when my dog had fleas last fall, I packed up most of the soft objects in my house and put them in the shed so I wouldn't have to flea-spray them every week. My shed doesn't leak, so I'm not quite sure how it happened, but when I finally brought them back inside last month, I found that several items had mold and water damage—including a pretty cool quilt that folds into a pillow. The stains didn't wash out, but fortunately, only the exterior pocket (the piece that helps it become a pillow) was ruined. I was able to remove that and salvage the quilt.

The fabric is lots of fun, featuring line-drawn forest creatures peeking out from an array of graphic flowers. It's just the kind of whimsical thing that I want on my face! Here's a picture of the front of the pillow pocket after I'd already taken it apart and cannibalized some of the fabric. The larger piece was just big enough to make a double-layer facemask!

This isn't a mask-sewing tutorial (there are plenty out there now!) so I won't be going into the details of how I constructed my mask, but it was based on the "Type A - Normal Face Mask" pattern from Craft Passion. I've tried several face mask patterns, but this one is my favorite based on fit and ease of sewing (especially if you don't bother with making casing for the elastic and just attach it directly!). It also has variations, so you can find one that best suits your sewing and wearing style. My one warning for this mask pattern, is it does seem to run small. I'm a woman with a fairly small head, and I wear the "man"-sized mask. For larger adults, this pattern might not actually be big enough, but I'm sure the front curve could just be extended if necessary.

With my newly salvaged fabric, I was able to make a mask with one side prominently featuring an owl, and the other side featuring a rabbit! It was reversible! [Pro Tip: Don't reverse your medical facemask without washing it first!]

But there was a problem—it was also prominently featuring the same stains that had marred it when it was a pillow. Embellishments to the rescue! Not only would they be able to hide the ugly parts, they'd also do that little something extra to make the mask a work of art!

From the remaining scraps, I cut out a few of the printed flowers. I didn't want them to fray, so I put permanent fabric glue around their outside edges on the back. You can just barely see it as a glossy sheen in the photo.

I wanted the flowers to really pop, so I hand-stitched around their centers and gathered the thread, causing the cloth to pucker.

Then, I opened up the bottom seam of the mask (if I'd been thinking in advance, I wouldn't have sewn the bottom to begin with, but we improvise here!) and sewed the flowers to the owl layer directly on top of the worst stains. I put more flowers on the rabbit layer in different positions, purely for show.

Then I repaired the bottom seam and was good to go!

Owl Side                              Rabbit Side

On the first day I wore the new "fashion" mask in public, I really pulled out all the stops! I put on eye makeup for the occasion and boots with actual heels! I don't think I've worn anything but flats since March, so it was indeed a thrill! I rocked the mask at Home Depot and the Post Office, but sadly did not get any comments. People are so much less friendly when we're all wearing masks. Oh well...maybe I'll try again the next time I venture out of my house in another 2 weeks!

Velvet leggings

Feast your eyes on another work-from-home outfit I'd never consider wearing to work-from-the-office....Because it features leggings as pants!

These blue velvet leggings are gloriously glam. As soon as I decided to wear them, I knew I wanted to wear them with black, for the starkest contrast possible with their shiny surface. I tried on every black top I own, but ultimately decided that my cape-like cardigan provided the drama factor I was looking for.

Ordinarily I only wear leggings with fully crotch-covering tops, but for these, I had to make an exception. The high waist and zipper closure was just begging to be noticed, and they didn't have the problems with excessive clinginess that makes most leggings too revealing. So I tucked my tank top inside and strutted my high-fashion stuff. The pom-poms on the shoes definitely added to the effect.

Now that I don't have any showplace for my outfits, I get inordinately excited whenever anyone sees them—anyone at all. Yesterday, I just about brimmed over with delight when my roommate complimented my leggings...in front of her mom, who happened to be visiting. An adoring audience of two! That's what Unfashionistas live for!

Bring me a higher waist

I came of age around the turn of the millennium—in other words, the era of ultra-low-rise pants. At the time, I was new to fashion and embraced the trend with all the enthusiasm of someone who had never known anything else. But I never really understood it. I was frustrated by the fit of low-rise pants, trying valiantly to keep mine on the up and up with a succession of well-used belts (I only owned one belt at time in those pre-Unfashionista days) and always choosing oversized shirts to shrink the gap caused by an very low waistband.

When the tops of bottoms finally started to ascend after a decade, I embraced that trend with all the enthusiasm of someone who had never realized it was an option. Now, with several years of increasingly higher waists behind us, I've reached the point where I absolutely refuse to wear anything that doesn't rest solidly above my pelvis and stay there without a belt. Too low of a rise has become one of my top reasons for returning pants I buy online; but this particular pair was low-rise and not returnable, so I had to do something drastic.

When I was finally brave enough to risk ruining the pants forever (nearly 5 months after their purchase in October), I took them apart so I could reassemble them into a style more to my liking.

First, I picked apart the waistband with my seam ripper. The belt loops were removed, the button snipped out (I tried to take it apart to damage the fabric less, but nothing doing), the buttonholes unstitched—in order to get the inner layer separated from the outer layer, everything else had to go!

Once the waistband was completely removed, I put it all back together in a single layer twice as high.

I used zigazg stitching for maximum stretch, which unfortunately was too loose and can be easily seen from the outside when the material is taut—I'm not sure what else I could have done except maybe a stretch straight stitch, which my machine does, but which takes forever.

What I did was go over my original stitching with another layer in less visible yellow thread. I also tried to better position the seam to hide the original serging, which had been peeking out in places after my first run.

 

The pants were stretchy enough that a button and zipper closure were not really necessary, so I decided not to replace either of those. Instead, I cut out the zipper, sewed the placket shut, and finished the waistband for pull-on ease!

Without the original double layers to give it support, the waistband was now very flimsy and unstructured. I decided to buttress it with a backing of elastic, which I had salvaged from some other pair of pants sometime in the past.

The elastic served to cover up a lot of the raw edges, but there were still several seams left exposed. I tried to mitigate those with a combination of pinking and zigzag overlocking.

 

Where the button and buttonhole used to be, I was left with several unsightly holes. I stitched over them in a haphazard way to close them, but I also had to cover their scars.

 

Since I knew I was never going to wear these stretchy jeggings with a belt, I set three of the old belt loops in a row on the front, to hide the holes and add a little bit of pizzazz to the waistband. They're slightly off-center, but in spite of that, they're my favorite feature of the new pants!

I ended up completely covering up the belt-loop trim in the pants' inaugural outfit, but I'm just lucky I got to wear them at all! The weather is warming up here in Maryland, so soon pants season will be over. Fortunately for these pants, winter hasn't given up the ghost yet. On a cold and rainy Thursday, I put on the pants for a pick-me-up—sunny colors for a sunless day!

Stay-at-home mom jeans

It had to happen sometime. After a month and a half of working from home, I finally ventured into denim territory.

I've been very firm in my adherence to soft clothes during the extent of my quarantine—I've basically lived in stretch leggings, flowy wide-leg trousers, and the occasional skirt. But not only am I bored sick of those options (side note: this fall, I was just beginning a love affair with leggings and tunics, never imagining that they'd be my uniform for the entirety of April. The affair was probably the most short-lived of all my fashion fixations. Now if I never have to wear another tunic, I think I'll do a jig), but they're also very limited in their pairing potential.

Leggings can only be worn with tops that cover my crotch; wide-leg pants can only be worn with short, tight shirts (I mean, unless you want to appear slovenly, which you're certainly entitled to do while sheltering in place, but it's not my first choice of look). If you want to wear a moderately fitted and mid-length top, neither of those options are a great choice. If said top happens to be red-and-white striped, your options are even fewer, because there aren't many colors or patterns that won't clash. The best option by far is blue jeans.

But what about the lack of flexibility? The pinching and constricting and all the other downsides to wearing denim? Was I willing to take on those hazards? Yes, with the greatest compromise ever: mom jeans!

Mom jeans: what are they? Generally high-waisted, roomy pants with plenty of room for child-bearing hips, famous for their popularity among busy mothers who can't be bothered with fashion. To contrast them from "boyfriend jeans," which are straight-legged and baggy all around, mom jeans tend to be tapered toward the bottom to emphasize a more feminine figure. Most importantly, they have a relaxed fit, perfect for retaining the leg mobility I prize so much in my WFH outfits.

This is my first pair of mom jeans, and the first time I've worn them in this blog. I'm a little late to the party (who's surprised?). Mom jeans first took off around 2014, much to my initial dislike. They fast became a favorite among fashion bloggers, but it took several years before they really went mainstream, or before I was willing to invest in a pair. I finally decided to try and bring some into my collection early last year.

These mom jeans are the real thing—purchased at the thrift store at my "I'm not sure if I'll ever wear it, so I'm not paying more than 4 dollars for it" price point, and proudly bearing the Sonoma brand name. No high-street knockoffs for me!

I never found many occasions to wear them. When I did, I always felt frumpy and not at all like the trend-setting fashionista I wanted to be. Eventually I realized it was because the cut was wrong. At the time, above-the-ankle was the only fit worth sporting, and these jeans reached as far as my foot. I tried cuffing them, but they still didn't look right, so eventually I cut a few inches off the bottom, leaving what I hoped was an edgy raw edge. Just in time for hemlines to start creeping downwards, I'll have you know—I'll always be behind the curve!

Though I don't think mom jeans will ever be my first choice of legwear, I do think they work with this outfit. The top is new to me, and I couldn't love it more (it's almost a fair substitute for the much-missed black-and-white top that even its replacement could never quite match); the Chinese slippers are the ideal addition to the outfit, perfectly comfy indoor shoes, and yet another first wear since quarantine times.

After a whole day of wearing the mom jeans, I feel neither confined nor constrained nor uncomfortable (I'm sure the added Spandex helps). Sure, they're not as loungey as leggings, but the freedom of having a whole new silhouette to explore almost makes up for it. I'd consider these again for another day at the home office.

Hood to Hemline - A refashion

I bought this unicorn hoodie last summer from Rainbow, when I was actively building the collection of lounge clothes that's becoming so handy in these stay-at-home days. It was on clearance—3 dollars, I think?

I must have decided it was too cheap to try on, because I didn't notice until I brought it out of storage in the fall that it was missing its waistband! Raw edges are no dealbreaker for me, but this shirt was awkwardly short without a bottom band. Something needed to be done.

Some deliberation later, I had decided to use the hood to extend the hemline. I never wear the hoods on my hoodies anyway, so...Off with her hood!

I turned the raw edges inside and stitched them down (they're still raw for the most part, just out of the way!) but I forgot to take a close-up of that part.

The hood, I picked apart stitch by stitch (I wanted to salvage as much fabric as possible, so no cutting!), finally ending up with these two pieces.

After accounting for the unusable curved edges, I found I had enough fabric to cut four rectangles that would cover the shirt's circumference if they were sewn end to end.

I attached them to the bottom of the shirt...

...Then folded them under for a neat hem.

The inside doesn't look so neat, but that is typical of my work. At least I took the time to zigzag-stitch over the seam to minimize future fraying.

Since the sweatshirt was destined to be a "house shirt," I modeled the finished product lounging on my bed (with my house shoes again)!

However, the day that I wore it, I also made a rare trip to go shopping (for essentials, of course!), which meant I got to wear it with jeans. I never thought of jeans as a treat, but I haven't touched my denim since early March, so I felt pretty excited about wearing them. I even busted out some sparkly earrings for the occasion!