A Sewing Accomplishment, and a Question....

Over the weekend I conquered a sewing fear of mine.
Let's all ignore the horrible lighting and the wrinkles. It gets dark in the afternoon here people! :)

The dreaded zipper fly. I always thought they seemed too hard. Sure I can insert a zipper in a dress, do a buttonhole, but a zipper fly? Other people could do them, but not me. But, I started thinking about it. Why not me? I'm reasonably intelligent. So I gave it a go. And, it worked on the first try and was actually fairly simple!

If you've ever wanted to attempt a zip fly too, this is a great video tutorial, that helped me bunches.
My sewing resolution this year was to try some things I've never tried before, and thought were too difficult. I'm glad I did, because now I won't ever look at a pattern of zip fly pants again, wish I could make them, but decide they were beyond me and go on to another pattern.

 And because I'm pretty proud of myself I will subject you to a zipper shot. My button is a little out of place, but I had to make the pants a smidge tighter on my skinny minny even though they do have buttonhole elastic

If anyone is interested, these are the Tulip Pants from the fall 2009 issue of Ottobre (they're #12). I've wanted to make them since I received this issue. They have sweet little gathered front pockets.

Angled back flap pockets with cute little pintucks. This is the first project I've done in awhile that I've sewn purely and completely for fun. And, even though I'm generally an instant gratification sewer, these were fun.

Like almost all of the Ottobre patterns I've sewn, the fit is awesome on my little girl. If you have a thin kiddo, I'd go down a size though. My daughter could have easily fit into the next size down with some added length. We have the buttonhole elastic pretty tight.

Now, for the question.
As much as I loved making these pants and love the design of them, when they were all said and done I'm not sure I'm sold on them.
Is this cord a bit too wild for them? Cute with a little red babydoll top, or don't bother?
I can't decide if they're cool, or really not cool in this print.
I do plan to make another pair in a really thin lightwash denim. I think those will be really cute and vintagey. Especially with cute back buttons.

Do you have any sewing resolutions this year?