Calvin Klein PJs

Bright red with fun jungle animals

This is fabric well aged, and used for exactly the intended target.  It's just a decade (or maybe 15 years) late in the arrival.  Now there's a bit more room in the stash containers.

Aside from the fact that the fabric was purchased in Europe (Grenoble, France, at Toto Soldes, which was lots of fun), the most interesting thing about these PJs is that I made the top from this Vogue Calvin Klein pattern (ca. 1979).

Obviously I took liberties with the sleeve length in the interests of night-time warmth, but more fundamentally with the attitude (suave, sophisticated) of this pattern.  Silk charmeuse?  Heavens no.  The Sewing Lawyer's Calvin Klein PJs are made of luscious 100% cotton jersey.  Printed with fun jungle animals (many upside-down) to boot.

In other news, the curling season has started.  Which means three occupied evenings per week, so maybe even less sewing than before.  Curling is lots of fun for young and old, and involves moderate exercise which is countered by immediate post-game consumption of the drink of your choice and snacks.  It also involves periods of intense activity (trotting alongside rocks and sweeping like mad) but more time standing around in a fridge-like atmosphere.  This will be my third season as a curler.

Why am I telling you this?  Because I need to make myself some new curling clothes.  The pants I have been wearing for this activity ... I can hardly find the words to describe them.  It may be enough to say that they are RTW and handed down from my son when suddenly he got much larger.  He wore them long enough to wreck one of the snaps at the waist, which has not stopped his mother from wearing them for two long curling seasons.  And for cross-country skiing.  They are functional.

Famous Norwegian men's curling team pants from
the 2010 Winter Olympics

I am determined this year to kick things up a notch.  If not my game (my skip can count on me to be inconsistent), then my curling wardrobe.

The 2010 Canadian women's team,
skipped by Cheryl Bernard

#116 from November, 2009

There is one older woman in my ladies' league who always wears a deeply pleated kilt with black wool tights.  It moves wonderfully when she delivers the rock.  Everyone else (well, except the Norwegians) wears black pants.  My old ones are ripstop nylon, lined with some kind of synthetic knit.  It would be nice to have pants with more give to them.  Since they don't need to be windproof, I'm tending towards some thick and stretchy ponte-like knit in my stash, which is probably a rayon-poly-lycra blend.  I made my bike shorts from it and they are standing up very well.

After leafing through my Burda Magazines, I found a few pattern possibilities.  So far my favorite is #116 from December, 2009. It has some neat seaming. The back is also interesting - the curved seam turns into a back yoke, and there are vertical seams down the centre of each leg.  However, I think I'd do some major pocket modification.  Perhaps modest zipped side pockets instead of the "Look! Hips!" flaps.

If I had spiffy new pants, I might have to make a new jacket too.