Friday, October 26, 2007

Sew You're Ready For a New Challenge?

I really liked Rhonda Jean's post on living small. Its definitely worth a read.

A few weeks back Ruthie posted about making her first and second pair of yoga pants. I was inspired by her post. Lately, I've got a lot of "well if she can do it, I should be able to do it too" in my personality. I even went so far as to follow the link to the Simplicity pattern 7229 that Ruthie used. That's pretty much where my research and ambition ended.

The pattern cost $7.75 and I knew I really didn't have time for it right now, especially with my multitude of knitting class projects currently underway. I mentally filed my desire to make yoga pants in the someday category. Then fate intervened.

My gym used to be located in a small strip mall that included a Joann Fabric. I frequented Joann's when I needed something for a knitting class, not because I loved the store or thought the prices were so amazing but simply because I could walk to it from work. As I mentioned before they also send out 40% off coupons with amazing regularity.

When I was in buying my stitch gauge/needle sizer they were giving out coupons for an upcoming 50% off sale. I stuffed the single page flier in my purse and didn't give it much thought.

While the car salesman went bantering back and forth with his manager the other day, I decided to explore my purse and I came upom the flier again. Imagine my surprise when I discovered all Simplicity patterns were on sale for 99 cents! Of course there were a few exceptions, but the pattern I wanted didn't seem to be one of them.

I headed over after work yesterday, tentatively pulled open the enormous file cabinet of patterns and began the search for pattern 7229. My heart sank when I came upon a cardboard divider with that pattern number on it. I thought for sure it was out of stock. As I pulled the carboard forward, there was the actual pattern!

I did my mental happy dance all the way to the register, where once again the cashier looked at me like I was nuts. My bill came to under $2.50 and that included a large ball of cotton yarn which I used my 50% off coupon on. I guess no one spends that little anymore.

I must confess, I still don't think I'll get to making the yoga pants before the holidays but I'm so excited that I have the pattern already. I think I even have stretchy fabric in my giant box of fabric. Some snowy day I'll dig through and find out. Thanks Ruthie for letting us know about the pattern. I promise to use my tape measure before I cut and sew! (Just for the record, I haven't used an acual sewing pattern since I made the skirt I wore to my high school graduation 19 years ago. I'm scared!)

I've been blogging a lot lately about knitting. Interestingly, today's Ideal Bite Tip is on eco-friendly knitting. It must be the cooler weather inspiring us all to knit.

3 comments:

Ruthie said...

Good luck, Katie! I think the yoga pants project should only take a couple hours if you're not as much as a dingbat as me. Can you believe I sewed the two front pieces together the first time around? Sigh. :)

Katie said...

I strongly suspect I might actually be as much of a dingbat as you are. At the very least, I'm frequently distracted by the antics of my kids which makes for some really intriguing knitting errors!

Rachael said...

ooh, I wish I had noticed that pattern sale! We just moved and I actually have room to set up the sewing machine and I really need to get into clothes making this winter.