Crazy blog title, I know. Mother’s day is the common thread with both of these things so you know… flea market and tap pants. heh
I went to the flea market for the first time this year with my mom, for Mother’s day. I’m really not ashamed to say that I love my mom and besides my great hubby, Felix she’s my next favorite person. She’s instilled in me a love of table linens, McCoy pottery, and many other things. So it’s no surprise that what she loves to do, I also love to do…. namely flea market shopping. :)
I woke up at 5:30 am (yes! It’s soo crazy early for me) and got on the road with Felix by 6am, in order to get to the flea market by opening time: 7am. I can’t even imagine what time the flea market vendors have to wake up in order to set up a booth at the flea.
Anyhow… We had fun shopping around. It was the first time this year that either of us had gone to the flea. Felix snapped some photos of what he saw around the flea, and then we met up at 8:45am to head out to breakfast. We just went to a local diner and also joined up with my step-dad Bob, who wanted to sleep in, instead of going to the flea.
One of my great finds was a guy who had tons of fabric. I mean boxes & bags full! I picked out two pieces of wool (or what I think is wool), and no moth holes to boot! The red is a coating weight and is 3 yards length which may eek out a cute coat. And I bought a bright blue piece of bemberg lining, and the navy wool piece I thought was a full length, is mainly 1/2 a yard with some longer/narrower strips. But still… it was a steal for $4.
I got two great steel boxes with small drawers for $10 and two black glass beaded necklaces for $5. The one long jets (black glass) necklace was made in Austria, too.
Moving on to silk tap pants…
I’ve long been meaning to make some silk charmeuse tap pants for myself, but also for my mom. What I was thinking would be a great Christmas gift, is now a Mother’s day gift. I drafted a tap pants pattern for my mom using Sew Vera Venus’s tutorial and worked up a muslin for my mom to try on. (There was no way I was going to work up a final pair without her trying them on for fit first!)
I bought this silk charmeuse online in coral for my mom and when it arrived it was really thin and (kinda bad quality) hot orange. I had no intention of making my mom a hot orange pj set so I ultimately decided it was perfect for a muslin. I could fit it using nearly the same fabric and it would give me some extra practice working with the material before the real deal.
She loved the idea and tried them on… and there were minimal alterations! Wooot! I only have to tighten the elastic waistband and take out a tiny bit of width at the lower hem.
The hard part is going to be making a matching camisole for her. She’s quite busty (39″ bust) but has a lower bust measurement of 35″ and an upper bust measurement of 37.5″. I’ll be working up a muslin for my mom using Colette’s Cinnamon pattern.
This is really the first time I’m making something for someone other than myself. I know what alterations to make for myself (for the most part) and it’s going to be a whole ‘nother ball game making a garment for my mom (and her much more generous *ladies*). An FBA may have to be factored in… but I’m going to start off making a size 18 for the bodice cups, and grading to different sizes as needed for the rest of the camisole.
Wish me luck!
In: Sewing
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