 two months ago when I got the really fun idea to make an outfit for St. Patrick's Day. I had so much fun with my dress for Valentine's Day, I figured this would be another interesting challenge for me. And then the whole world changed. But that didn't stop me from throwing on my new green jumpsuit and giving her a spin before heading right back inside to continue my civic duty to isolate. But enough of that heavy depressing talk, let me tell you about this newest make that I truly, truly love, whether it's for a holiday that never happened or not. First of all, can we please address that I made pants? Sort of. Granted, these are loose fitting and the fit is incredibly forgiving in the waist, which is where most of my problems occur. But I did do a lot of work to ensure these fit properly through the crotch and hips. And I'm really thrilled with how they turned out. I'm going to think about a tutorial on how I'm learning how to fit pants. But I want to test it out on my own a few more times before I start trying to tell anyone else how to do it. This adorable pattern is the Burnside Bibs from Sewhouse 7. There are so many great versions of this online, but I was ultimately inspired by Karen of Into Stitches on Instagram. She wore hers to Sew Expo last year and I remember them fondly, but I just didn't feel confident I could get a good fit. When I saw her in them again this year, I knew I had to have them. I was armed with a lot more information about pants fitting thanks to Lorraine Henry's class at Expo and when Michelle's stories on Instagram, both of these ladies have great information on taking measurements that are critical to well-fitting pants, so I decided I could give it a go again. And as you can see, the fit is pretty spot-on. I'm wearing the waistband at the highest point of my waist, so there's still some work to be done there, but overall, no pun intended, I'm very happy with them. The beauty of this pattern is that the straps also act as the waist ties, so you can adjust both the rise and the waist circumference. For those of you like me whose weight fluctuates a lot, these are perfect because you can just let them out or pull them in as you need. There are also two versions of this pattern, one with back darts and one without. I chose to make the one with the darts to give myself a little more shaping through the hip and a little less volume through the waist, but as you can see, I still have to pull them in pretty tight to get a close fit in my waist. I should also point out that in order for them to stay up in the back, you must pull them tight across your waist. There's nothing to hold up the center back of the pants other than the tension on the straps. Also, working on a tip from Karen, I ended up stitching through the centers of each of the belt loops to give myself two channels to feed the straps through. This keeps everything looking nice and tidy in the back, assuming your straps aren't twisted of course, but we aren't going to talk about that, okay? The only other fit issue I can point out is the inseam length. They are long on me, even though I altered the length to shorten them by one inch already. I think I need to take up the hem another half to three quarters of an inch and they'd be good, but as they are, I keep stepping on them with the back of my shoe, which is so annoying. Okay, so now let's talk about this amazing fabric. It's a slub texture linen and rayon blend from Stylemaker fabrics. And you guys, they have this fabric in 22 colors. It's incredible that we have that much to choose from as home sewists. There is a color for every skin tone, every season, every style and every occasion, which is good because you're going to want to wear this fabric everywhere. For my St. Patrick's Day dream outfit, I chose the color called Emerald. And when picking thread to match it, I found myself more in the teal green section than the true, true green. There is a contrast thread warp or weft. I can never remember the difference. That is a teal color. So even though it's definitely a green fabric, it leans a little bit towards blue, which makes it more wearable in my opinion. And if it weren't for this holiday challenge that I gave myself, I would never have picked this color, but I am so glad I did. I'm wearing it here with a simple gray t-shirt, but you can also pair it with solid navy, white, black and burgundy. Or you can even try subtle prints like cream and white stripes or polka dots. The right shade of pink would also be super cute with this color. I would personally stick with knit tees though, since the linen fabric is so casual and the style of the bibs is so relaxed. You really want something equally as casual and fitted to your body so that it's not too voluminous on top and on bottom. It's really hard to explain how this fabric feels when you're wearing it. It's drapey, but also has some weight to it. It's soft, but also has some texture. It's sort of like tensile twill. If you've ever worked with that before, it feels luxurious and is so comfortable to wear. And can we please talk about this adorable clutch that just so happens to match perfectly? Do any of you recognize it? If you were at So Expo last year, you should. It's the Anjuri Designs statement clutch that I made to go on display at Stylemaker Fabric's So Expo booth last year. This exact print is no longer available, but they have a bunch of other options that I've linked in the description box. If you want a perfect match, reach out to Stylemaker Fabrics and tell them what color, slob, linen rayon you want, and they can help you find a matching bag fabric. So although my dreams of having a cute outfit to wear for St. Patrick's Day were squashed by a worldwide pandemic, I still have a new garment that I truly love to wear. I guess I can always pull it out for Earth Day, also known as Go Green Day, which is on April 22nd. Or if all of this is still going on by then, I can wear it to a New York Jets football game, or to see the Boston Celtics play. I'm not a huge fan of either of those teams, but maybe I should be now that I have the perfect outfit to wear to support them. But that's going to do it for me today. Thank you so much for watching. Stay healthy, and stay safe, everyone. I will see you all very soon. Bye!