It seems like I often find myself with a closet full of shirts and blouses for which I have no matching pants. I’ve been in that situation for quite some time now, especially with the warm weather blouses, so I finally bought three pieces of stretch twill to make new pants.

Remember when we thought stretch pants were so horrible? Well, I never really thought that but I have heard a lot of derogatory remarks about stretch pants, the general consensus among the “fashionable” people being that only old, fat redneck women wear stretch pants and of course only garments worn by young, thin urban women are deserving of any respect. Everything else must be ridiculed. But anyway… The neat thing about this stretch twill is that it doesn’t look like a stretch fabric. Pants that don’t stretch are extremely uncomfortable and even though I like to think I don’t care anything about fashion I have to admit that the “stretch pants = old, fat redneck woman” connection bothers me a bit. So stretch fabric that doesn’t look like stretch fabric is a miracle.

The fabric came from Denver Fabrics. (which is actually located in St. Louis, not Denver) I was going to say I love/hate Denver Fabrics but honestly I don’t hate them; I’m just a bit wary of ordering from them because their fabric descriptions are minimal and some are inaccurate. I’ve actually only been disappointed once but you know the old saying – “Once bitten, twice shy.” I ordered some fabric that was listed as “shirting”, which I assumed to mean that it was suitable for making a man’s shirt but it was actually way too thin. Otherwise I’ve always been pleased with the fabric I’ve ordered from them.

They have lots of hard-to-find fabric, like this stretch twill. They have it in literally dozens of colors. My order this time turned out to be exactly what I wanted and the quality of the fabric is excellent. It’s 97% cotton, 3% lycra and I wasn’t sure how much stretch it would have. I was afraid it might be like the denim in so-called stretch jeans which actually only have barely enough give so that the manufacturer can legally get away with calling them “stretch jeans” but unlike that this twill is nicely stretchy. It’s a bit heavier weight than I had expected. Denver Fabrics’ description says “suitable for dresses and slacks” but it’s heavier than anything I would consider using for a dress. That’s both good and bad. Good because it is perfectly suitable for pants but bad because they might be a bit heavy for hot summer wear.

My fabric colors are pink, light green, and dark royal. I took a picture that I was going post instead of linking but the colors in it turned out all wrong; the green looked yellow and the pink looked orange. I finished the blue ones yesterday. Strangely, it’s been years since I’ve had any blue pants other than jeans, which I only rarely wear.

I think I’m going to make the pink ones next. I have a pair of bright pink pants but they’re too short and sort of baggy and I don’t like the way they look. They’re made of regular non-stretch cotton. Surprisingly, making pants looser does not make them comfortable enough. They have to stretch, darn it.

DF did have a kelly green stretch twill that I really wanted but I procrastinated too long and they sold out. This nice spring green will go well with several of my tops though. (hmmm… maybe I’ll make the green ones next.)

I suppose some of my color choices say, “old woman”. I used to joke that when I get old people will refer to me as “that crazy old woman out there with all them cats,” but, though I love cats, I find that two at a time is about all I can stand. (which is why I have three) So instead of being the Crazy Cat Lady I’m going to be the Crazy Colors Lady – the one about whom they say you need to put on sunglasses whenever she passes by.