Every time I slip on a pair of leggings, I can hear the voice of Peggy Hill in my head.

It’s the episode in King of the Hill where Peggy enters a beauty pageant, confident that the judges will prefer her brains over the typical big-haired beauty that you’d normally find in a Texas show.

She is, of course, wrong.

As the episode goes on, we see Peggy’s normally unshakeable self-confidence slowly begin to erode. In one scene we watch her toss and turn, fretting about her frumpy appearance, until she finally she sits up to talk to her husband.

Peggy:  Hank, do you think I’ll turn into of those women you see at the Mega Lo Mart who wears white stretch pants and doesn’t tuck in her shirt anymore?”

Hank: Not for many, many years.

Peggy: Oh, so you’ve thought about this.

That’s it – that’s the part I hear every time I pull a pair of leggings off the floor out from my dresser drawer, and each day as I get dressed, I wonder if I’m wearing the hip, new style of today’s youth or if in fact I’ve been tricked into embracing today’s version of the old-lady stretch pant that Peggy so despises.

I guess it could really be either one.

But who cares, right? I say that leggings are a gift to us postpartum mothers. Leggings don’t care that you change shape on a daily basis. Leggings don’t care if you ever go back to your pre-pregnancy size. The pair I wore yesterday? That one pair fits size 2-10. That’s one forgiving pair of pants.

And right now I need that level of forgiveness because none of my other pants are giving me much help. My pre-pregnancy pants are just a little bit too tight – you know, when your pants have crossed over that fine line between stylish and overstuffed sausage? And my maternity pants are just a little bit too loose – they seem fine until I find myself running after The Pixie with one hand gripping the baby and the other hand desperately grasping at the enormous maternity waistband to stop the pants from falling down and flashing the world my ugly pre-pregnancy underwear (and, to be clear, that’s pre-first-pregnancy).

Leggings, though? Leggings stay up. Leggings stay on. And so I happily have five pairs now: black, black, grey, way-too-purple and ultra-luxurious-velour-reindeer.

And no shirts to go with any of them.

Ok, so that was an oversight on my part. You see, you need long shirts with leggings so that you don’t accidentally cross into that dangerous “leggings as pants” territory. And guess what – none of my nursing shirts are anywhere near long enough. Of course.

Rather than dragging my kids to the mall and then returning home in a huff to blog about about raising hooligans/the low quality of workmanship/the lack of natural fabrics/all of the above, I decided we’d all be better off if I just sewed something myself. Something that would be comfortable, work with leggings, and allow me to nurse the baby easily.

Sounds like a Wiksten Tova to me.

I love Tovas, and I especially like the cozy flannel ones that people have made, like this one here. Or this one here. This one here might be my favourite.

Once I decided on flannel,  I did what any sane person would do and I immediately drove to Fabricland to buy not one but three different flannel prints because it was all 50% off and I couldn’t make up my mind. Clearly flannel dresses are going to be part of my mom-uniform for the rest of the winter.

Sigh. I love fabric. If I didn’t hoard yarn, I’d hoard fabric instead.

I’ve only had the chance to sew up one so far, but I love how it turned out and I’ve worn it far too many times already.

This shirt is SOOOO soft. I like how the fabric is diagonal on the inset. Also, you can’t tell from the photo but the pattern on the left and the right side of the inset lines up perfectly – it took me a few attempts to get that right. And I like the length – it’s long enough to make me feel decently covered at all times but not so long that it resembles a grandmother’s night gown. I like the patch pockets too, which I added on a whim at 1:00 am when I was still nervous that the shirt resembled sleepwear. Pockets are the solution to any and all problems – at least, that’s apparently what I believe in the middle of the night.

I’m excited to sew another shirt. I’d like to try it in a linen too, but I’m not confident enough in my sewing to spend a lot of money on fabric yet.

But that’s okay – for now, we’ll stick with plaid. Lots of plaid. Which could be kind of country-western, when you think about it. Kind of “Texas” or “cowboy” inspired. Maybe even a bit King of the Hill, right? Maybe Peggy Hill would approve of my outfit after all.