I’ve broken my self-imposed ban on sewing fleece. I blame the 90s for making me think it’s the most unfashionable fabric on earth, only worn in big, boxy cuts by soccer moms and awkward preteens.
But the heating on our boat still isn’t sorted yet, and I’m sick of seeing my breath while I eat dinner every night, and sewing with quite literally numb fingers (my metal shears are so cold they hurt to touch them!). So I got the boyfriend drunk and convinced him to order 5 metres of navy blue fleece to make us some warm lounging clothes to only wear around the boat.
I started out making the yoga trousers from the Nov 2007 Burda WOF magazine for myself, with the plan being to have James try mine on and I’d alter his pair accordingly. I made a straight 42 for me, with the only change being to take in the waistband by about 2-3 inches to make it fit nicer once they’re on, and still have plenty of stretch to get them past my hips. Funnily enough, they actually fit James really well, too, so for his I only had to halve the waistband width (though to be fair, I prefer the narrower waistband on his, too) and take the bootcut flare from the trouser legs.
So I had two trousers down and a free afternoon, so I made myself a comfy fleece sweatshirt using this pattern from last November’s Burda WOF. You may remember this from my red velour shirt last year about this time, and I wear that one SO MUCH that I really wanted another. So now I’ve got two super comfortable, super easy-to-wear, warm sweatshirts.
So as I was feeling a bit cold, I decided to wear the shirt out to our local on Saturday night with a bunch of friends (celebrating James’s 30th!), and my neighbour just fell over herself with love for my shirt. So I let her try it on, and next thing you know she’d convinced me (in my rather pliant state) to make her one the next day. So in amongst my cake baking, I made her an identical shirt, using up the last of the 5 metres of fleece, barring a few scraps that might turn into a hat.
So, to sum up:
2 days, 5 metres fleece, 100+m navy thread = 2 trousers, two sweatshirts, one angel food cake
Not too shabby.
PS: Yes, the title is a Voxtrot reference. I’m revisiting them while I compile my Best of 2007 lists…