Stashbusting Sewalong - January - Covering a chair and a neck pillow

I, tigergirl, commit to using a lot of pieces of stash fabric in 2013. I also commit to not buying any new fabric/patterns/notions except for those that I need immediately to finish current projects until August.

This sewalong is being hosted by Cation Designs & Emily aka EmSewCrazy, for more info. see this post.

I told tigerboy about this - he was puzzled as to why I'd do it (helloooooo, you've seen my sewing room) and then he decided he'd join in (but in his case, it's no more wood).

The theme for this month?
"January: Itty Bits! Sew up those remnants left over from another project, use up some of those tiny scraps that you've been saving...as long as it's less than a yard of fabric, it counts!"
So, with that in mind, I used most of the leftovers from the green meanie Burda dress (that I haven't posted) to make a cover for my sewing room chair - something that I've been meaning to do for a couple of years. The piece I actually used is a skirt piece (either front or back - can't remember) that  I cut out and then realised I hadn't added seam allowances - woops.

Yep, I should be able to make it work ......... just.

Round off the corners before overlocking around it.

Turn over, turn over again and stitch down, leaving a a gap to thread elastic through.

Chair seat covered!

The most time consuming part was threading the elastic through the channel. I have to admit that I ran out of motivation by the time I got to the back rest of the chair. There's very little fabric left now and it'll need to be pieced, possibly even augmented with another fabric - I'll let it percolate in my brain and move on to something more interesting to me.


 Recently I bought a neck pillow for when I'm reading in bed - works perfectly but there's one problem, it doesn't have a removable cover. Itty Bitty Stashbusting to the rescue! Initially I thought I'd use some offcuts from tigerboy's pj's but as I was going through the offcuts box I came across the last little piece of a table runner we bought in Ecuador a few years ago that I'd used to make cusion covers (still haven't put the buttons on them).

The cushion covers sans buttons to close.

There's the still intact table runner (we bought two) in action, as it has been for a couple of years.

The neck cushion, all covered.

I did a pillowcase type opening - not a good idea, getting that cushion in was like trying to stuff a sausage through the eye of a needle.

My original thought that this woven fabric would negate the squishyness of the pillow proved correct, so I will make another cover in the knit. I'll also use a zip opening to counteract that sausage through the eye of a needle effect, in fact, I imagine getting this cover off to wash it will peeve me enough that I'll unpick the end and put a zip in this one too. Anyway, it looks better than I expected.


So, this stashbusting sewalong means that my fabric buying for 2013 is done until August when I'll reassess - not such a big deal as I've already acquired a bit this year:

Spotlight had a 30% off sale

I showed this fabric to tigerboy "Oh wow, that's soooo beautiful!"
"If I made you a shirt with it, would you wear it?"
"Yes, it has all my favourite parrots - buy everything they have hone!"
"I'm not buying it all - are you sure you'll wear it?"
bla bla bla
I actually had to write and ask the seller if they had more than they had listed - he was on tenterhooks for a day until we got the answer.

Of course, with the combined shipping and knowing that US postal rates were increasing significantly at the end of January, it seemed only reasonable to make the order up to 10 yards with fabric I wanted, so I got these as well. 

My stashbusting sewalong has even been tested! Last week I happened to walk past a Lincraft - 50% off everything!!! They even had some gorgeous black cotton lace ........ no, tiger, just walk out right now, there will be other sales ...... and that's what I did (ok, I went and bought a coffee and donut instead but that's still progress!)

Wow! I got an award and a petrol discount!

I'm a Craftster Best of 2012 Winner!

Remember the palin bag?? I posted it on Craftster, way back when and it ended up being chosen in the top five for it's category. Surprise! I don't spend much time at craftster these days, more on pattern review, but every now and then, if I've made something and haven't  used a pattern, I'll post it. If you haven't ever checked out craftster.org, you should, there's all kinds of nifty things there.


And this dress:

I was wearing it when I filled the car up with petrol - the attendant loved it so much, he gave me a discount on my fuel! Nice one!

Jungle January dress - self drafted

Over at Pretty Grievances there's a style revolution happening - Jungle January.  Knowing that I had a few animal prints in the stash, I figured it was definately done just for me.

This is just what I came up with in approx. 60 seconds. I know I've also got several snake skin fabrics, assorted birds and who knows what else.

I took a quick look at the stash, yep, even more than I thought. In fact, there's so much animal print that I think I also need a Jungle June and a Jungle July as well. Velosewer would probably make very quick work of it though, including the 12 (yes, TWELVE) metres of blue snakeskin mesh - I think it was 50c a metre for the rest of the roll, ok?

But what about the fabric I've had for ~4 years and finally started to work out (seriously this time) how to make something out of  ....... I didn't want to choke on it again, this time I was ready to bite the bullet and jump in ........................... Oh tiger, stupido, stupido, it'll fit right in.


So here's the fabric.

Jungle January dress fabric

It's a cotton/lycra knit with a very fine rib. The coloured part is just over 150cm wide. One of the reasons I've pulled it out, draped it, pulled it this way and that, then finally returned it to the stash about 100 times is because I just wasn't quite sure how to make something from it. The length of the print is too short for me to get a knee length dress out of and I don't wear dresses shorter than that unless I'm wearing tights which restricts me to colder weather - we don't have a lot of that here in Brisbane. I thought it would look better if the urn was centred on the front and back but then it would really be cutting it fine on the hips where the prints ended. With this print, I didn't want seams messing things up but what about the sway back - how could I deal with that? I didn't want the print finishing across the middle of my bust - that always reminds me of an empire line gone wrong but I also didn't want that tigerlily making me look like Eve in the Garden of Eden using a tigerlily instead of a leaf either. Add to that, the bottom of the urn isn't even perpendicular with the grain, it's at an angle. Well, lots of things that just added up to "too hard basket". Finally I decided that as I had two lengths of it, I'd just do the best I could and still have some left over if I got a better idea at a later date.

I marked out two panels that were perpendicular to the bottom of the urns, sewed straight up the sides and got to work. Due to the angles of the urns and one panel being on the edge of the fabric, one panel had to be wider than the other - it's a design feature. Too hard to work with without shoulders, so I found some black knit that was used years ago to make a few skirts, chopped off some offcut looking bits and sewed them to the top. Unfortunately, the back piece was a bit narrow as you can see below.

At this stage, I had the hem pinned and marked and it was perfect. A lot of time was spent pinning, marking, sewing, cutting (repeat ad infinitum) to get the sides right. More time working out the shoulders (which involved stretching the back up to get rid of the sway back puddle). Now, I could have removed that too narrow back piece and put a wider one on - that would have been the smart thing to do, instead, I added a little panel on each side of the back piece (I'm all about the design features).

My intention was to overlock the whole thing but because I was flying by the seat of my pants the whole time, I started with the sewing machine - with white thread (easier to see and unpick and no loss of fabric). As that seemed to be going ok and my new overlocker which isn't thrilling me was threaded in white, I decided to switch the sewing machine to black thread and carry on winging it. The armholes and hem were twin needled but the necklines have a deep (6 cm) seam allowance that is currently just hanging down inside the neckline - I'll probably tack it down.

Of course, by this stage all but two of the hem pins had fallen out and the chalk marks were long gone. I had to redo the hem marking but things were looking a bit weird, in the end, I decided "it'll do" because I wanted to wear it out that night. I'm sure the hem's not perfect but I don't think there is anything too noticably wonky going on.

I'm glad I finally made something in this fabric, as soon as I saw it in the store I had to have it. My favourite thing is the smoking lion, it appeals to my sense of the absurd and socially not kosher.

Now I'm thinking I might just make a shorter one with sleeves to wear with tights for winter .......... oooh and knee high boots.

And just to prove that I don't mind big cats:

That's me at the Canberra Zoo - 2007

Static cling remedies

The last dress I posted suffered from static cling of monumental proportions - and that would be why it's only been worn twice. A bit of googling came up with some remedies that may or may not be useful.

Not useful for that dress:

• choose a natural fibre (too late she cried)
• don't put it in the drier (I don't even have one, so I've done that)
• shake it when it comes out of the drier (see above)

What might be useful:

• adding vinegar or borax to the wash/rinse cycle (I have my doubts this'll work on that particular garment)
• the metal hanger trick (is this something I'd have to redo whilst wearing it every so often? If so, it's hardly convenient.) 
• helpful hint from ReadyThreadSew ->  "wash with a bit more fabric conditioner than you might usually use" (In my case that would mean actually buying some because I've never used it but if all else fails I'll give it a go.)
• rub a dryer sheet over it (not having a dryer, I'm not familiar with these but it's more convenient than carrying a metal hanger around with me)

What I will try first:

• wearing a slip (remains to be seen whether I'd then have two layers of cling)
• rubbing body lotion on over your tights (this is the first one I'll be trying because part of me is wondering if the tights are a major player here) UPDATE: THIS WORKS REALLY WELL!

The thing with that dress is that the static cling doesn't build up over the course of wearing it - it's there as soon as the dress goes on! Maybe we could see about hooking it up to some electrical appliances to save on the electricity bill?

I'll update with my findings because, you know, I'm highly scientific.

For more info on these remedies:
End Static Cling Six Ways
How do you deal with static cling?


And, just because it's my blog and I'll post whatever pics grab my fancy:

Actually - this is a bit sewing related. This tunic top was not the best look on me - straight from bust to hips, nothing in the way of waist definition. It's a lovely fine cotton, great for hot, hot weather but a belt in 45 degree plus is just one more layer so the waist got shirred.   See the paisley?

Size 22 Dress Refashion and PAISLEY

Tigerboy and I went back to my home town for Easter. Going back there is something that I avoid at all costs - I couldn't wait to leave and didn't ever plan to return, so going back is only done under extreme duress. In this case, that duress was the stress tigerboy was putting me through over his angst regarding where to go to "get out of the city" because he seems to think it's mandatory if we've got a long weekend. In the end I was so over it I suggested going home to stay with Mum for a few days - I really didn't think he'd go for it - that seed sprouted into a Californian redwood within about 3 seconds and there was no way I could stop that speeding train short of fatal injury which although I did consider it for a bit (his of course), even I thought would be over reacting and possibly messy - I hate housework!

It pains me to admit it but we actually had a good time, not the least of which was due to me going through Mum's stash (which is approaching pitiful thanks to my pilfering campaign) and I even scored from her wardrobe.

As I was reclining on Mum's bed lamenting the fact that she hadn't had a 'thing' for silk over the years, I spied some dark paisley fabric peeking out from between her clothes. This was weird because Mum and I have very different tastes, she favours pastels (primarily mint and baby blue) whereas I like the darker colours, she likes pretty little florals, I like bold prints, solids and my holy grail is paisley. As far as I'm concerned, paisley is like garlic, there can never be too much and honestly? I'd wear paisley in any colour, just because it's paisley.

I've had this love of paisley since the 80's (probably the 70's but I was too young to realise it then) and it's something that Mum has never understood. Some time in late high school I was going through her stash (it's been a long, sustained campaign) and found two pieces of corduroy, paisley fabric, a green and an orange - I was in love. Mum was horrified that anything that ugly had ever made it into her stash and after I'd convinced her that I wasn't joking and really did like it, she said I could use it. Back then, it was really hard to get Mum to let me use any of her fabric because she was still in the (30 year) phase where she thought that at some point she would start sewing like there was no tomorrow, so her eventual capitulation really demonstrated her loathing of those pieces of fabric.

I made some slim fitting capri pants from the green paisley and I remember that they were my favourite pants for years. Of course Mum was not only stunned that I'd made something wearable from it but also slightly horrified that I wore it out in public - a lot! Whenever she saw those pants she'd try to tell me that they "had seen their day" and should be tossed - I wasn't buying it. In the end I think they got ripped and she refused to mend them for me. I wonder what happened to the orange piece? I don't remember ever making anything from it.

Back to the point of the story (yes, there is one), as soon as I spied that paisley in Mum's wardrobe, I was off the bed like a rocket to check it out.
"Why is this in here?"
"Oh, that, I don't know why I bought it."
"You bought it? It's got paisley!"
"I think I thought I'd wear it in winter but it doesn't fit right and it's really just not me."
"No, it's not - it's me!"
There was nothing to do at this point except to throw it on over what I was wearing.
"Do you think you can do something with it? You can have it if you want."
And so, I ended up with some more paisley but as you can see, it was a bit on the big side and a lot on the "why don't you check out my cleavage and bra" side (I've actually got it pinned closed in this pic).

There are a few rows of shirring just under the bodice. It's actually bigger than you can see here but I needed one hand for the camera.

I thought a quick zip up the sides with the overlocker and another quick zip to secure the front neckline would do the job but it turned out to be slightly more challenging.

I did at least realise that the shirring should be secured before I used the overlocker so that when the overlocker cut the elastic thread it didn't all shrink back and not get caught in the seam.

After some confusion, I realised that those squares on the skirt weren't centred at the back of the dress - bummer. There was also something strange going on under the arms that meant lots of finessing rather than just zipping up with the overlocker before it looked decent.You can see that the hem doesn't follow the border of the squares either - I at least fixed that in the final version

Anyway, here's the finished product which although is fine enough for day-to-day, seems to have a major static cling problem - you can see it around the hem where it's sticking to my legs. I wore it as a jumper with a black turtleneck one day but I wasn't sure about that look. Oddly, although it seems as though this was an empire line, the shirred waist is now somewhere between that and above my natural waist which feels a bit odd. I also thought it would be shorter the whole time I was making it - must have been an optical illusion when it was wider.

I took about 10 photos and had a choice between head cut off or feet cut off - something needs to be done about my photography!

Quick and dirty moneybelt

Yesterday I put tigerboy on a plane (with his Palin bag) to take him to the opposite side of the world. (It was actually a planned trip, not a banishment.) The day before that there was much searching for one of the four moneybelts that we have but rarely use. I found one with several safety pins holding it together and a strap from another one .......... fabulous.
"Do you want me to quickly make you one?"
"Do you think you can? Will it have a zip?" (At this point I'm thinking "Oh no, don't tell me this is going to turn into a Palin bag saga.)
"I'll give it a bash." (I disappeared quicker than a glass of wine after a day of work at that point - I was not sticking around for his endless list of improvements.)

I went through a bag of clothes my sister had given me years ago and pulled out a white knit top, pulled out the bag of white zippers my Mum had reclaimed from various garments and other sewn things ever since Jesus was a baby (seriously, there are some with my baby sister's name written on them along with her primary school - she's nearly 40!) and I winged it, totally, completely, winged it, zero forethought, zero measuring.

Ok, there was some forethought - I decided to use a cotton knit so that it was soft and not as sweaty as some moneybelts (like some we've owned). There was a long skinny strip of knit left from my hacking, at the last minute I decided to make it the beginning of the strap.

So, here it is. NB: This is a very quick and dirty project - one look at the stitching (not to mention that antique zipper pull) is enough to support that claim - but really, I'm not going to agonise over making a money belt look good.

• I cut the back out of the shirt to give me a big rectangle
• folded the rectangle in half, attached each end to the zipper (the hem of the shirt is actually attached to the top of the zipper)
• opened the zip a bit, turned it inside out
• inserted the straps inside
• sewed up the sides
• turned it right side out again
• then I sewed up the front of the money belt from the bottom to just under the zip so that it has two compartment - one that holds notes and one that's smaller (credit cards, notes folded in half etc.)
• I used a piece of elastic between the two knit strips
• for fastening I used those flat hooks you get in pants - I wanted something nice and flat (I also hate that most money belts leave you with a mile of extra strap hanging around)
• I put two bars in for the hook because I don't trust the cheap shoddy elastic not to stretch out - this was a quick and dirty prototype remember?

Tigerboy's take on it? "Oh, it's so comfy! I don't even know that I'm wearing it. Oh, honey, that's not good - I wouldn't realise if it fell off!"
"You can't have everything baby."

Making an A-line skirt pattern from a straight skirt pattern

This is the pattern I used for the skirt in the cling wrap bodice dress and both of the Vogue 8728 dresses. I started out with the skirt pattern from my Vogue 8555 Hibiscus dress. I'd spent ages mucking around to get the darts right and lowering the waist for my sway back, so I knew it fitted (as well as I could get it to, anyway). I remembered seeing this tip somewhere and from what I could remember it made sense that it would work, so I had a search through some of my books. There it was in Enid Gilchrist's 70's Styles.

Basically, you just slash from the hem up to the bottom of each dart, close the darts and viola! Perfectly fitting A-line.

I didn't add the suggested extensions to the sides, which means that mine are kind of slim fitting through the hips but that was what I wanted.

The Palin bag is FINISHED (at last)

This project has been in the works for a long time. Tigerboy and I are complete doco nerds intellectually well rounded and he has a penchant for Michael Palin, Ray Meers and Jeremy Wade doco's in particular. At some point in time he will decide that he needs x (insert anything a person would be likely to use or wear), just like y (insert documentary star's name) has in the show. Late last year he decided that he needed a travel bag, just like Michael Palin. Just in case you aren't familiar with his travel bag (I've watched the doco's but I wasn't), here are some pics.

I did some research online, surprisingly there are quite a few people with the same feelings that tigerboy has about the bag, odd sycophants intellectually well rounded people. There are several ongoing discussions on which bag it actually is - everyone's an expert on this subject it seems (except me, obviously) - some of the (rather firm) suggestions didn't look anything like it. Here were the top contenders from those discussions:

Barbour Cotton Canvas Tarras Bag GBP 99.95 http://www.barbourbymail.co.uk/Barbour-Cotton-Canvas-Tarras.html

Hadley Large Khaki GBP 137.50 http://www.billingham.co.uk/acatalog/Hadleys.html

Billingham Classic GBP 466.77 - http://www.billingham.co.uk/acatalog/The_Classic_550_Camera_Bag.html

Brady Bag - Large Ariel Trout with liner from Brady Gelderburn GBP 155.00 http://www.bradybags.co.uk/product-details.asp?pid=17

Whitehouse Cox - Gamekeepers Bag GBP 466.67 http://www.whitehousecox.co.uk/index2.html

Most of those aren't what you'd call budget friendly - I could just see him continually fretting about his bag getting dirty, wet etc. Then he tells me that he wants it made out of denim jeans with all kinds of changes. I got him to do a sketch of what he wanted (he now considers himself a designer - move over Louis Vuitton) then I added some features for him and generally got it to make sense. I reiterated that this will not be a 'good' bag, for one, it's made out of denim, secondly, it will always look like a bag made from a pair of jeans!

 You might wonder where he got the idea - I made myself a big bag out of jeans years ago (over there on the left) and it gets a lot of use (roomy with lots of handy pockets) and quite a few comments, for some reason he's really proud of that bag (that I made and I use). (Subconciously, I think he wants something that generates comments - maybe he'd already delved into the online discussions on Michael Palin's bag and thought he could get a twofer? Who knows, there's a Y chromosome at work here.)

I finally realised that not only did he have a bag (that he uses everyday) that fit his criteria, he actually had two, ok, they weren't made from jeans but they had most of the other things that he had assured me were features severely lacking in bags that he'd looked at to buy.  According to him, one was too businessy, the other too casual (because denim jeans made into a bag just screams dressy?). I showed him some great messenger bags on Etsy, at really good prices I might add. No, no, no tigergirl, he wants it to be individual and made out of jeans, by you (there you go, now we've finally gotten to the crux of the matter). The final result?

I know what you're thinking - "Oh, look at that, it's an exact replica." You can see that it's a dead ringer for the one in the pic with Michael Palin can't you? Yes, so can I, if I squeeze my eyes shut and hold my breath until I pass out while watching a doco.

 On to the the features:

 Personally, I think the flap is a bit long but c'est la vie, tigerboy doesn't.

 Under the flap is a gusseted mobile phone carrier (closes with velcro, which unexpectedly didn't give me problems to sew on) , pen pocket and of course the straps that are extendable for when he wants to shove a jacket through there. I used jeans hems to keep the straps up - I detest hanging straps. The original jeans pockets and zipper still work, so basically that zipper is the entrance to the secret compartment between the lining and the outer shell (so very Get Smart). I took the black snap attachments off an old backpack of mine that had a disintegrating lining - my packrat tendencies actually paid off.

The back has of course the original pockets but it is also a full depth, full width pocket itself (apparently there is a need for a compartment that can hold A4 documents - when you're backpacking?). I added a gusseted zipper pocket to the strap for mp3 player, loose change etc. I also made the padded bit (no idea what it is called) from that same old back pack's straps. The strap is actually luggage webbing covered in denim and goes right down the sides between the lining and the outer, into the bottom of the bag where it is also secured - the rest of the bag will come apart before that strap gives way.

Snap securing the document pocket - he had a choice of fastenings, this was what he wanted. There's some dodgy stitching there, you would not believe the nightmare I had putting in the 'lid' of the bag. Initially the plan was to only have the lid attached to the lining but I was concerned that it wouldn't be strong enough. I'll have a rant later about some of the obstacles in the making of this bag. The back document pocket also has a zipper compartment in it. I'd never done this type of zipper before and used these instructions at ikat bag.

This is the shoulder strap padding from that same old back pack's straps - cut it to the right size and shape, sandwiched it between three pieces of denim (an extra piece so that it slides along the strap and is adjustable) and then bound the edges with more denim.

I added an extra bottom to the bag. The butt on these jeans had had some wear and it didn't seem like a good idea to start off with a worn out bottom. I left one side open to be closed with velcro and donated an old flexible chopping board to be the removable insert for the bottom (it was nearly 10 years old - time for the kitchen to get some new ones and retire the old ones anyway).

Inside the bag:
Since this picture was taken I have tacked down the lining in all of the seams, here it was still all loose which is why it's flopping all over the place. On the left edge of the pic you can just barely see a D-ring - it's attached to a tab sewn in to the top between the lining and the outer. I put in some elasticised water bottle carriers on the left of the pic too. More pockets! This is basically a big pocket that's nearly the height of the bag and is the full width, divided into two - the larger one is secured with a snap. On the outside of that is the pocket with the zipper, the other side has a pocket that contains yet another little pocket the D-ring on the tab from above sits in. Below are pics that might explain that mess better.

The only things I had to buy for this project were the lining fabric and the luggage strap - everything else was on hand. Tigerboy is nutty about birds, parrots in particular which is why I bought this fabric when I saw it (one of his main goals in Ecuador was to see macaws in the wild, thankfully, it happened). When I saw this parrot fabric I hadn't worked out how much lining I'd need, just that it was perfect for him. At $16.95 pm I didn't want to get more than I needed (I rarely pay that much for the outer fabric of something I'll wear, let alone a lining for a bag), so I just got 1/2 a metre - I ended up with a couple of slivers of fabric where I'd cut off the ripped edge to make it square and a 5cm x 3cm piece left, that was it. All of the other lining fabric for secret pockets and under the flap came from leftovers. There's some of the lining of my girlfriend's dress lining the lid, left overs from making a summer bathrobe for an ex-boyfriend line one of the secret zippered pockets and other random scraps used here and there. I used at least three pairs of jeans for this project, I'm pretty sure it was more but I'm not sure. With all of that denim, webbing and metal, this bag is heavy - I think it was nearly 1kg! And that's before anything is put in it. Another reason for doing away with any batting, aside from weight, is that this is for travelling, so it needs to be as 'compactable' as possible.

The problems:

• Lots of layers of denim = thickness - nearly all of my pins are bent. Normally, I throw away bent pins, early on in the project I realised that I would end up in the poor house due to buying pins if I continued with that practice while making this bag - they just got reused. I ended up using bull dog clips and old fashioned nappy pins in some places.
• Next time just go and get more of the lining fabric instead of spending so much time figuring how best to make use of not enough (eg. actually have some of the parrots show instead of random backs and tails) - the time saved will easily offset the cost you cheapskate!
• Dealing with jeans in this instance is such a pain - nothing is square. When I made my bag it was easy because all I was doing was making a rough lining and a strap, I didn't have to deal with all of the other things like extra pockets and lids etc.
• Well worn stretch denim will do what it wants, not what you want it to do. There will be some parts that have lost their stretch and others that haven't, it's potluck. Thank your lucky stars when things actually line up the way you intended.

Regardless of the fact that the only thing this bag and Michael Palin's bag have in common is that they're both bags with straps, this is tigerboy's "Palin bag" and he spent the rest of the afternoon and evening proudly wearing it around the house declaring that he now has a better bag than that Michael Palin, all the while planning on the trips that he and THE Palin bag will take together. (Since it's inception, whenever we went somewhere I'd have to hear "Next time we come here, I can bring my Palin bag." or "Normally I'll be able to use my Palin bag for this kind of thing.", until I countered with "There won't be one if I have to hear that one more time.")  Oh, just in case you're wondering, no tigerboy is not my child and he has lived for more than four decades, yes, four. Of course, being him, he couldn't help but comment on the lengthy wait - I told him that, if I were him, I would most definately take it up with the maker and punish them by never, ever allowing them to make me something again because they clearly don't deserve the honour. Unfortunately he thought that was going a bit far, probably due to the fact that he now has a pair of linen pants on order.

Now that that nightmare is over, I'll continue with the other ones in the line up.