Seamwork Joss Pants and Purl Soho City Gym Shorts: These are a Few of My Favorite Things!

The world has turned, hasn't it? To make myself perfectly clear, before I jump into the sewing: I believe that Black Lives Matter, and I am committed to doing the daily anti-racist work that I believe will move our society forward to greater freedom for all. I am incredibly humbled by the public, consistent dialogue and action that the last few weeks have brought, and I am committed to being involved.

Sewing and knitting and crafting doesn't happen in a vacuum. Outside events trigger changes within our internal worlds, and that effects how we express our selves. Crafting can be an activism all by itself, depending on your intentions and the mindful way you attack it. It can also be a way to center yourself and calm your anxiety, and that's ok, too. 

So here I am in a pair of shorts made from an old sheet. I've been spending much more time at home since March. Like, entire days in my apartment. Really unbelievable when you consider that my life used to take place almost entirely outside of my apartment. But come March 2020, I went behind closed doors to snuggle with my cat and work from home and flatten ye olde curve, as they say. 

I didn't have much to wear. I had one pair of comfy sweat pants and some pajamas but I didn't have a ton of options to putter around in. A few house dresses - I think this summer is really going to see the resurgence of the house dress!

But I did have time to deep clean my closets. That was when I discovered this pair of City Gym Shorts that I had cut out of an old sheet about two years ago. They were just missing a waistband and bias tape edging. I still had the sheet (which I found when I ruthlessly cleaned out my fabric stash), so cut out the missing pieces and I vowed to put together these shorts ASAP. Because I needed to wear them, like, now. 

This is actually my second pair of these shorts but I cut a smaller size for the first pair and they are tragically too small. I recently cut those tiny shorts apart and made them into a pair of face masks. But it's a delightfully easy little pattern, once you get past the inconvenience of making your own bias tape, and there are a million inspiring versions on Instagram, so this might not be the last pair of these shorts you see. 

It's certainly not the last garment made from an old sheet you'll see. Seamwork is clearly run by a coven of witches, because they released the Joss pants pattern just as we went into lockdown. Spooooky how they knew I would need a very comfy pair of pants for my days at home. This is a pattern intended for a woven fabric, and that would probably be awesome, but once again - I made them out of an old (jersey) sheet. 

I had this fitted sheet in the linen closet, which is also the fabric closet, and it just yelled at me that it wanted to be a pair of pants. And I have no regrets - I have worn these a minimum three times a week since I finished them in March. I used the pocket hack Seamwork lays out here, and they are truly a size too big. Which is totally fine in terms of lounge-y comfort, but because they are a knit cotton jersey, the fabric is heavy and I couldn't walk without them falling down.

So I added a waist tie! I actually really dig the look of the tie and I think it would be cute on a regular, not-made-of-an-old-sheet, pair of Joss pants, too. 

So there we have it: two old sheets, two new garments. And no fabric item in my house is safe from the sewing machine. I'm eyeing the curtains. 

PS: My cat, Pickle, LOVES crashing photo shoots, so please enjoy the two Pickle Bombs in this post, and if you need more of that, I made him his own IG hashtag.