Fiber Monday - Remaking an old friend

In my pattern drafting class, we finished drafting the trouser foundation which meant that we turn could move on to drafting patterns for actual garments that we wanted to wear. I ended up with a very long list of patterns I would like to have. It was kind of hard to choose what to start with. In January, when it was so cold, all I could think about was making a pair of barn pants out of boiled wool. If the weather has stayed brutally cold, I'm sure that is what I would be working on. Thankfully it is now trending warmer and my motivation for creating a pair of very warm pants and buying the expensive fabric to make them out of has plummeted. I decided to pick something else. 

Here is what I decided on.

I loved this skirt and literally wore it to death. I loved it so much that instead of throwing it out, I tucked it away hoping I could make a copy of it. I even moved it in its present ratty state. I'm very excited to have a pattern for it. 

First, since I've owned it for decades, I created the pattern from my skirt foundation instead of doing a direct copy. I've also decided to change the pockets a bit. The silly little welt pockets in the front were never useful, so I'm going to make regular side pockets that I can actually put things in. I'm also going to enlarge the back pockets. I didn't carry a cell phone when I was wearing this, but when I checked, my phone won't fit in the back pockets, so I'm making them a little larger. Because I can. 

I have drafted the skirt front and back and have it cut out of the fabric I'm using for a muslin. Tomorrow I'll baste it together so we can check the fit in class. Then I'll work on things such as pockets and fly opening and such. The tricky thing I'm finding is knowing what parts you need to create and figuring out the order of construction because self-drafted patterns don't come with a nice sheet of instructions.

I took a picture of my work table. There you can see the cut out muslin pieces and one of the pattern pieces.

On the left is leftover fabric from the muslin. I'll be saving that in case we need to change anything on the pattern and to cut the rest of the pieces out of.

I haven't actually done very much else. I finished my first Melt the ICE hat, gave it to J., and started a second. I was going to start on a sweater based on instructions by Elizabeth Zimmerman. It's not so much a pattern as it is a primer on how to create a sweater on your own based on your yarn, your needle size, and your gauge. Before I went any farther, I needed to knit a swatch in the round. Elizabeth Zimmerman suggested just knitting a hat because then you'd end up with something useful out of it. So, here I am knitting another Melt the ICE hat. It means I'll have one as well, plus a gauge swatch in order to make the sweater. (Yes, I definitely have enough yarn to do both things.)