Yippi-kai-yay!

I have always wanted cowboy pajamas. Don't ask me why. But I can't wear button up pajama shirts because I always feel like I am being choked. Again, don't ask me why. But I found this wonderfully tacky red fabric with cowboy heads on them a while back and made myself some pants (aka Loungewear). They are so deliciously cowboy too! They have their names next to each cowboy (Slim, Tex, Leroy, Luke, etc.)! My 5 year old niece is going through a MAJOR horse phase and she just LOVES these pants! Every time I am with her and wearing them, she will point to the different cowboys and ask, "What is HIS name? What is HIS name?" And I am STILL kicking myself because a few weeks ago I found some PINK fabric from the same designer with cowGIRLS on it (Josie, Mary Jo, Ellen, Liz, etc.) and I DIDN'T (can you BELIEVE it?!?) buy any. That is why it is always best to be an impulse buyer when it comes to fabric. I FIRMLY believe this! I will see fabric and have a small stroke in the store and snap up a LOT of it (lately I've been limiting myself to 1/2 yards for the stash and I think that is very healthy, but I also believe in buying YARDAGE because I won't know IN THE STORE what I'm going to do with it but I know some day I will have an idea and will use it and it will be FABULOUS in whatever I do with it--I often will sit up in the middle of the night out of a dead sleep with the "inspiration" and make some notes--it's also useful to keep a pad and pencil next to your bed for this purpose. I'm sick. I know. And I'm also done with this parenthesis rant!) So anyways, I was loitering in Hobby Lobby with the gift certificate that my late grandpa Maynerd gave me for Christmas burning a hole in my pocket and I happened across this HORSE fabric from the same designer and bought 1 yard of it. In a way I'm glad I passed on the cowgirl fabric because my niece loved this EVEN more! And thank goodness for little girls because they are short and you can make a pair of pants for them in under 1 yard! I bought a pattern and made them about 4 sizes too big in the waist and just cinched them up with elastic and hemmed them up by at least 5 inches because I have a feeling that she will wear them for a long time! She was so excited as I was cutting them out and it was a lovely opportunity to show her how to lay the fabric out, how to read a pattern and the cutting diagram, etc. She will be a sewer. I have a child's sewing machine that I bought when she was 3 months old with a real needle and everything and I'm just biting my fist for the day I can give it to her when I'm assured she won't majorly injure herself! And now she has her own pants and she is able to recognize letters and words and now I'm going to make HER tell ME what the horses' names on her pants are! And it felt so good to sew again! It had been awhile and it was a JOY to sew on my mother's Elna machine because it corners like it's on RAILS!