Last Week's Sewing

Last week I made myself two pairs of capris; one pair is denim and the other is black twill. I'm sure I cut the same size for both, but the denim pair seems to be bigger. Nonetheless, they are comfortable and I think look good on me. The pattern is an older Simplicity one (meaning, it's been in the catalog for several years). It's number 7655.



I also made a huge discovery recently: I've been smocking since Sarah, my oldest, was very young. (She's going to be 21 at the end of the year . . .) All these years, I've been putting my fabric through the pleater incorrectly! The portion of the fabric that will not be pleated is supposed to hang out the LEFT side of the pleater, not be run through the remaining rollers! I'm not at liberty to say what I'm working on right now, but suffice it to say that pleating the fabric the correct way makes a HUGE difference in the quality of the pleating (such as, no split pleats.) I should have read the directions more carefully all those years ago.