cat lady

Don’t tell my dog, but I’m a total cat lady. It’s not really a secret or anything, but the dog did come first, and she’s the jealous type. For what it’s worth, I’m an absolute dog lover too! (We don’t have to choose between our loves, right?)

Thanks to Erin’s Cat Lady Sewing Challenge, I’m finally throwing up a blog post, and I’m even including three hand-made items. In honor of our cats and all the hours they permit us to spend at our sewing machines, here are my cat themed garments:

Meow!

Maybe you can’t tell, but there is definitely some cat hair on both these garments.

It wasn’t my intention to hide my cat fabric, but that’s what ended up happening. The jeans were next on my sewing list, and after a blouse that turned into a wadder, I swore to never use quilting cotton for garments again (I didn’t really mean it) and lined my jeans with the last of my cat fabric.

While I really wanted to let my cat freak-flag fly and use this fabric on the outside of a garment, it just didn’t pan out. The blouse I made was looking like pajamas and I knew I’d never wear it. I decided to be practical and incorporate the fabric into my jeans instead. I love the results. Every time I go to the bathroom, I admire this charming fabric.

I copied a pair of jeans that fit me well to make this pattern about a year ago. I brought the rise up a little higher and widened the waist band too.

There are double lines of top stitching all over the place, but the navy blue thread conceals those little details. I don’t have anything against gold thread for top stitching, but I do think it adds to the casual look of jeans. So I guess that makes these my fancy pants. I’ll get around to stitching some up with gold thread, maybe when I try out the new Ginger jeans pattern.

There are a few wrinkles in the back, but as the denim relaxes, they become less noticeable. The denim is 2% stretch, and that little bit of stretch goes a long way in forgiving fitting errors.

The shirt is an older make, but it seemed the most appropriate top to wear for this blog post.

I used the Archer shirt pattern and left off the cuffs. The leopard print fabric is featured on the under collar and inside collar stand, as well as the inside of the yoke. This was my attempt to make a black work shirt a little more fun.

I promised a third make, so here’s a little glimpse of what I’ve been spending most of my time on lately:

I’ve been dying and sewing up leather. This piece is a croc print clutch. You can see more photos in my Etsy shop if you are interested.

I look forward to the day I stumble across a light weight cat print fabric. In the meantime, maybe someone wants to host a dog themed sewing challenge? I have a black silk fabric with dogs woven into it that needs to be made into something useful. :)