Ducky Duck Ducks

Have you seen all of these two-piece-set-actular outfits popping up in the blogsphere lately? Yeah, it's a thing. Two piece, matching sets of top + bottom like this one and this one and this one. Well, I made one too, but... it's less classy. Here's my two-piece-set-actular in.... duck fabric. Also, it's definitely PJs, and not something fancy that I can wear out and about. I work from home. It's best to be realistic.

There is a method to my madness, I swear. I've been wanting to make some simple, woven tank tops for everyday wear for a while now, but haven't gotten around to it. Then I found the free (free!) Sorbetto tank top pattern from Collete Patterns, and I thought, that'll do, pig. I decided to be a grown up and actually make a muslin, and thank god I did because this would not have fit well as-is, and probably needs another muslin, just to be sure. I took out the front pleat because I'm not a pleat girl. I added two inches to each pattern piece before I cut it out, and I probably could have added a little more. This tank is short! I'm 5'8", which is decently tall, but I'm no giant. The original would have been a crop top on me. I also lowered the neckline by at least an inch, because I hate high necklines. Probably could have dropped that a little more, as well. I think it needs a sway-back adjustment. The armholes are a little tight, and I'm pretty sure the bust darts are too high, but will you look at that fabric? It's duck print. Yep. Ducks. 

I may have mentioned before my husband's deep, deep love of ducks. Ahem. He's now the Wildlife Ecology professor at LSU, so he's fulfilled his life's dream of all ducks, all the time. I had this fabric on hand because back in like 2008 or something I made his parents a quilt entirely out of duck-printed fabric (they also live and breath ducks) and somehow ended up with over a yard of this print leftover. Fast forward to today, and now it's my wearable muslin, aka my new PJs because after I made my Collete muslin, and I thought, you know what this needs? A matching pair of shorts. 

So I made a pair of City Gym Shorts, a free pattern from the Purl Bee, to go along with the top. Didn't quite have enough duck fabric for the shorts, so I used some green twill for the back and waistband. This was an easy pattern. You sew bias binding all around the bottoms before the front and back are sewn together, then overlap the two pieces and sew them together from the right side. So easy. I do prefer my shorts (and especially my lounging/jammie jam shorts) to be quite a bit shorter than this, so that's just something I'll have to do for the next pair. Wanna see a close up of the ducks? Of course you do. 

Ducks!