Tops that are both really hard and really easy

Fishnet.
Fishnet is a strange material because it requires you to sew empty space. Sewing machines tend to be confused by this. You can't pin it. It's also very forgiving because of how stretchy it is, and it doesn't fray.

I made several of these fishnet crop tops. This pink and yellow netting is super awesome. It makes me think of cells.

The tops can either be on the shoulder or off the shoulder. This last one is sleeveless because my machine kept eating the fabric and the sleeves became too narrow.

I sewed the seams once with a zigzag, then again to keep them flat on the inside.

These are super quick to make (as evident from how many I've done) even though the fabric is a bit of a bitch to work with.

You can get your own here, in my Etsy shop.

"They're like shorts, with a skirt over them." "You mean a skort?"

Oh, yea, I guess I do.

I saw these photos a few weeks ago and felt inspired to make some wide leg shorts. I toyed with the idea for a while without doing anything, but then got an email from fabric.com with this free pattern for "tap pants." How convenient!

I made mine out of a stretchy knit fabric for comfort. While I was at the fabric store, I decided to do a chiffon overlay (because they had knit and chiffon fabric with the same prints). I wish the chiffon was a little more translucent, but it's not a big deal.

I did a wide elastic waistband because the fabric wasn't quite stretchy enough on it's own.

Probably the most significant part of this project is that I finally convinced myself to do a chiffon hem the proper way. Usually I don't care and just do a narrow machine hem because it seems like too much effort to do the super narrow rolled hem, but this seemed like a good time to learn. I used this tutorial (the "by machine without a rolled hem foot" part). It's so easy! I'm kind of disappointed in myself for not doing this earlier. Though, I assume it's harder on curved edges or with super long hems like on circle skirts. I do have a rolled hem foot for my machine, but it's always a lot of hassle to get working right. This gave a very neat result.

You can't really tell these are shorts just looking at them, but the point is that they don't fly up in the wind like a skirt would. Sweet.

How little can pants wrap to still be wrap pants?

I made one more pair of wrap pants after the last time, trying to see how little fabric I could use. This is pretty much the limit here - these barely overlap on the sides. I could have done a little better (the hems are double folded and relatively wide). The fabric I used is also less stretchy than the previous ones.

I added drawstring to the bottom for a different look, and to keep them from constantly flying off and tangling when it's windy or I'm moving a lot.

This pair is available in my Etsy shop.