I tried to do some work yesterday, but just couldn’t bring myself to. I guess the idea that summer is meant for lolling around is too deeply ingrained in my psyche.
So loll I did, sewing up those pants while watching old movies on Netflix. The grasshopper at left joined me at one point, possibly intending to make a point about the ant and the grasshopper. Fiona, the dog whose nose you can see at the edge of the picture, made short work of the grasshopper.

Chastened by this example, I got up really early this morning and at least got my Aussies written for.

I finished those trousers yesterday. It wasn’t difficult at all. I think the reason is that they have no pockets. After all, the legs of pants are no great effort, being just plain old tubes of fabric. The waistband of pants is no more complex than the waistband of a skirt. I’ve gotten quite good at darts in the course of the STP. The fly-front zipper is a bit of a challenge, but I did much of it by hand, so that was okay.

So I think it’s the pockets that are my Waterloo when it comes to sewing trousers. These pants, from the pattern Butterick   5470, have no pockets, so I didn’t have the opportunity to put them in upside down or whatever it is that usually makes my pants sewing such a failure.

I’m wearing these trousers, the first in my item-a-week travel wardrobe, today for church, and they’re comfortable and really nice. My next step ought to be to make these trousers in all the suitable fabrics in my stash.

However — they have no pockets. Are pants really useful if they have no pockets? For church, sure, or for sitting at a computer typing, but for real life?

Where will I put my keys? My phone? My change? My hands when I’m listening to somebody? Pockets are an important part of pants, aren’t they? One might almost say that pants are just a pocket delivery vehicle.

I can’t make a pair of ordinary trousers (or as ordinary as they can be with no pockets) in coffee brown polyester of the kind usually called “bottomweight” in fabric stores look interesting in a photograph. That requires skills I don’t possess.

I am therefore showing them to you with my green embroidered satin top. It is embroidered in brown, so this should be a perfect combination. Also both are polyester, so they should travel well.

I don’t usually use polyester at all. The brown fabric was given to me, and the green I bought online without paying proper attention to the content. Artificial fibers are supposed to travel well, though.

I did grocery shopping and laundry yesterday, went to Jo Anne’s Fabrics for brown thread and roamed around the store a bit, and went to the bookstore as well and checked out current knitting magazines. I was determined to make it a non-working day, and I think I succeeded. I even made pastry, which you can see below and to the right.

Today, #1 daughter is coming over to make some bubble bath and shower gel and stuff. This is slightly easier than coloring, so it’s a good project to take on when you mostly plan to talk.

I intend to make Tandoori Chicken, couscous with carrots, and Pineapple Upside Down Cake.

#1 daughter is a good cook, but she tends not to bother. I think it will be good for her to have some Real Food.

First, though, I have the second round of church. In the early service this morning, the Children’s Minister said, into the microphone during the Children’s Message, “I don’t want to show everyone everything I’ve got.” This may be the first occasion on which those words have been uttered during a Children’s Message. She was sitting down on the steps at the time, so I guess it was just a case of stream of consciousness speaking, but it still caught my attention.

The message was about enthusiastic prayer, and the children entered right into the spirit of the thing. It has been in the 100s for some time, and they have a lot of pent up energy from being kept indoors, probably. Can’t blame them.

I don’t seem to have any energy to speak of, pent up or otherwise. After the family lunch and crafting session, I plan to loll around some more, reading detective novels and probably not even sewing.