Where you, the reader, take over! (Send anything about anything to peter.b.abrahams@gmail.com.) And now over to Mary L, for her superb post on the sage of Hawaiian pants – which will ring a bell for all readers of the Chet and Bernie series. The pants and shirt have been shipped home. I’ll model the full Currently I’m on tour for Mrs. Plansky Goes Rogue, which is not a C&B but it’s still the same writer! (2PM ET today at Barnes and Noble, Lake Sumter Market Square, FL, tomorrow 2PM FoxTale Book Shoppe, Woodstock, GA.)

The Serendipitous Inspiration of Fairbanks’ Hawaiian pants.

With luck, we have all seen Peter’s book talk from The Poisoned Pen in Scottsdale on Tuesday, July 15. And perhaps noticed the Mrs Plansky themed fashion featuring an alligator-adorned Hawaiian shirt and perhaps even some infamous Bernie Little Hawaiian pants. Did everyone spot Fairbanks?

Let me explain the mental route from a vintage knitted bolero sweater to a book-inspired set of Hawaiian print shirt and shorts.

I was looking for a way to convert a vintage knitting pattern not only for modern needle sizes and yarns but also to convert it to my size from the original much too small size. In my wanderings I came across a blog that also informed me of the sad news of the demise of paper patterns from the four big pattern companies I grew up with. Over the years Simplicity, Butterick, McCalls and Vogue have consolidated until all four were owned by one company and now that company has been sold and the patterns will likely cease to exist. I guess I missed the memo that patterns have now gone digital and independent designers are selling direct. You buy a PDF file and print them off and tape them together. Uh, no thanks. The website also mentioned that some of the fabric companies were also going under. No mention of why but I do know that “Spoonflower” prints fabric by the yard digitally on demand so I suspect the same thing is happening to fabric that has happened to the big four pattern companies. Alexander Henry was mentioned as being discontinued.

Oh, NO! Not Alexander Henry. I love their prints and have bought them over the years for quilting and to sew clothes. I still have some uncut yardage in my stash.

So I did a search and went on the Alexander Henry website to see what there was. And that’s when I saw it. Grins and Roses. (They had the cutest names). I immediately thought of Mrs Plansky. A grinning alligator in the midst of roses. There were several colorways. A black background which I thought was too intense. Two different blues, a cobalt and a dark teal, (I would have chosen the cobalt) and a gray. Then I went looking for yardage online. Much was sold out or very little left but I did find one company with the gray background in stock and the more I looked at it the more I felt it was just perfect…for Peter’s book tour. I also thought he would like the sophisticated gray more than the more blatant colors that I couldn’t get anyway. How fun to make him a Hawaiian shirt with alligators in celebration of Fairbanks and Mrs Plansky. So I ordered 2 yards. Later it hit me that I should have ordered enough for Hawaiian pants in recognition of Bernie Little’s entrepreneurial failure. So I ordered three more yards, figuring it would be enough.

The fabric arrived and it was glorious. Even better than the image online. The selvage says 2019 which may be why it was sold out everywhere except for the gray. I ordered some beautiful gray mother of pearl buttons and a pattern (a paper one, McCalls) for a mens shirt and shorts. I figured I could just make the shorts longer into pants. I was ready but it was still a few months before the release of the book so I had plenty of time left and other more pressing things to get done. Like repairing the North gate of the fence which had rotted off the hinges and was just propped in place, unbeknownst to the dogs.

I contacted Wose to make sure she would be willing to mail the finished outfit to Peter. Then I contacted WTAFP for some guidance on men’s sizes. Namely how tall was Peter, what is his build to try to determine which shirt size and then the delicate problem of the inseam. I knew he had met Peter in person and it had been too long since I attended one of his book tours for me to recall anything about size.

In the end it was all moot. I had the wrong date on my calendar and when Peter posted his tour dates and locations on Wednesday, July 9 I panicked. YIKES! It was next Tuesday. I hadn’t even started. I wouldn’t have enough time to mail it to Wose so I would have to mail it directly to The Poisoned Pen and I had to start yesterday. So instead of going to my watercolor class I got everything out and started to pin and cut fabric. Took me until around 4pm. Then I started sewing and finished the shirt around 3am. In for a penny, I decided to start the pants. I lasted about another hour and then quit and went to bed.

I had to get up to unlock the front gate for USPS so I set the alarm, woke up, did so, fed the dogs, then retreated to sew some more. I finished the pants and then finished sewing the last button on at 7:50pm. A marathon. With luck I could get it to the post office Friday morning before noon and mailing it priority mail it would get to The Poisoned Pen by Monday, Tuesday at the latest.

I did contact The Poisoned Pen via e-mail to warn them of the package’s arrival. On Sunday I also e-mailed Peter with the tracking number letting him know about a package for him and to be sure to ask The Poisoned Pen about the package and please open it before the book talk. Kinda spoiling the surprise but not letting him know what was in it.

Before I packed it up I decided to add a gag letter to complete the Chet and Bernie connection.

It reads:

To: Spencer Quinn
From: C & B Enterprises
Thursday, July 10, 2025
re: promotional merchandise

Dear Mr Quinn,

C & B Enterprises is delighted to present you with our exclusive designed Hawaiian pants to wear for your promotional tour of what we are sure will be a best selling book, Mrs Plansky Goes Rogue. You will notice that our exclusive designed Hawaiian pants print ties in very nicely with your book. We are hoping that by modeling our pants on your tour, the public will find them simply “grab-able” and we won’t be able to keep them in our warehouse.

As a courtesy and tie-in to your book tour, we have also included a matching Hawaiian shirt to complete your ensemble. They can be worn separately or together.

We hope you will find them comfortable enough to wear on your upcoming promotional book tour.

Please don’t forget to mention that we have a veritable warehouse full of Hawaiian pants. We are sure with your influence, our warehouse will soon be empty and the public will be clamoring for more Hawaiian pants.

No need to thank us. We have plenty of Slim Jims to go around.

Sincerely,

Diana pawPrints, CEO, C & B Enterprises
Freyja Grey, Product Development and Promotions
Wookie, Teddy, Franklin and Associates, Legal Department

Friday I dropped it off at the post office before noon and tracked it every day. It arrived on Monday. Plenty of time.

Those that watched the book talk on Facebook or YouTube on Tuesday night saw the results. If you missed it it was a good one and is on The Poisoned Pen YouTube channel.

The shirt seemed too big but I figured Peter could always wear it unbuttoned over another shirt, casual like. That’s what happens when you sew long distance with only a photo for reference. As for the pants, turns out I didn’t have enough fabric to make long pants so in the end the inseam worries I discussed with WTAFP went for naught. I was six inches short on each leg. So I cut them a bit shorter and they ended up as long shorts, like for skateboarding or surfing. (Or playing tennis.) Probably just as well given the heat in Arizona, Texas, Florida and Georgia just to name a few of the hottest book tour locations in the hottest months of the year. I was worried the pants would be too small but after seeing Peter model the shirt Tuesday night I think the pants will be fine. I can just see Peter playing tennis or riding his bike in those Hawaiian pants. Not that I expect he will wear them. I don’t think he is used to such colorful clothes, despite Bernie having a propensity for Hawaiian shirts. I guess for a toe in the water sartorial experience, a gray background was the best choice. It does look good on him. Perhaps Mrs Abrahams will pack the shirt or the pants or both for a Caribbean Cruise should they go ona tropical vacation where no one he knows will see him.

It was a fun project. I haven’t sewn apparel in a few years and it was nice to get back to doing it again. I might sew something for myself next. I will miss Alexander Henry but will always keep the memory of Fairbanks’ Grins and Roses project. Plus I have photos.

The End