Quest for Pants

Lately I have been on a quest for pants. Not as important as say, a quest for fire, but very nearly so! I am just trying to make a pair of pants that fit. I have had a lot of "meh" and a couple that I would really consider successful. Not necessarily perfect, but still successful. They certainly look AS good as any of the RTW pants that are in my closet.

I am still trying to come to terms with what the steroids I had to take along with my surgery have done to my weight. Seriously, how can you put on twenty pounds in two weeks? Clearly, the ability to gain weight is my super-power. I'd rather be invisible or have wolverine claws, though. I don't really see my super-power as being all that impressive.

But, like I said before, I can't just wait until I lose weight to sew anything. I'll just try to be frugal and sew with fabrics that aren't too dear. Plus, my body larger is still pretty much the same SHAPE as it is when it is smaller. I'm still pretty much an hourglass, just more of an hour-and-a-half. I still have a waist 12 inches smaller than my hips. So, working out the fit issues on these pants won't be for naught, because I can just grade the pattern down if I manage to lose the weight.

I have decided to leave Vogue 2907 alone for a while, and work with a pair that does not have such a low waist. I started with McCall 5592, a wide-legged jean.


I thought that this pant would be a little bit more "forgiving" than some of the other patterns available. I did end up making some pretty significant changes, though. First, I added 1 1/2 inches of height to the rear end, to cover the "junk in my trunk" (you can see the line drawn on the pattern tissue below) I also cut the rear seam in by about 1 inch, so it would curve over my bottom correctly, and continued this through the yoke as well. I also added a bit of tissue at the outer hip:


The second black line on the yoke shows the extent of the alterations:


I also added a significant amount of tissue to the pocket bags, because they were TINY. I also curved the outer edge in over the hip. For this pattern, I started with a 20, but graded down to an 18 in some places, and even as small as a 16 in some areas, like the waist. Here is the finished product:



I know that I still have some work to do on the back, but hey, I can't see that!! So I'm cool, right? Coming of the high of a near-success, I decided to embark on a pair with narrower legs. I used an OOP Michael Kors pattern, Vogue 2873. This pattern is a straight-leg pant with rear darts and a flat front.


I did make a few changes to the pattern. I did lengthen the crotch curve at the front and back to give a little more room in the thighs. I also made this pair from a gray stretch twill from FFC. It was REALLY stretchy, and because of that I decided not to line it. Because I did not line the pants, I did flat-felled seams and also just cut two waist band pieces from fashion fabric, not one from lining. I also left off the belt carriers, so I flipped the waist band extension so that it buttoned on the inside of the waistband, and not the outside:


Other than that, I made very few changes. I cut essentially a straight 18, making a few small changes to the crotch curve using the previous pair's pattern for a template. These pants do not have pockets, but one of the things that I am happiest about is that I have achieved a good enough fit that the side seam is pretty much vertical, rather than pulling to the rear:


Overall, I am very happy with the fit of the second pair. I think some minor "tweaks" and I will have a very well-fitted pair of pants:



My next goal is to fix that puckering in the back, but like I said...I don't see it, so it's not really there!!

My First BWOF and McCall 5592

Today I was home sick with the WORST spring cold that I have ever had. By about 11 a.m., I was completely bored with lying in bed watching the 45th hour of the Today Show, so I got up and decided to work on some projects that were in progress.

First up, I completed BWOF 04-2009-117, a cropped, 3/4 sleeve, yoked jacket. I made mine without the pockets and flaps, because I picked a pretty busy pattern, a poly suiting from Hancock Fabric on sale for about $4.50 a yard:


It sewed just fine, although it stretched a bit in the crosswise direction, meaning that the hem and the neckline gave me a little trouble. Other than that it sewed up just fine. I also replaced their recommended snaps with three buttons. It also gave me a chance to use my button hole attachment for the Singer 401, that makes perfect little buttonholes:


It's a noisy little thing!! But all you have to do is attach it to the machine and hit the pedal. It does all the work for you, even moving the fabric in an oval around the template. There are templates for both standard buttonholes and keyhole buttonholes. This little gadget is my nephew's favorite thing in the sewing room. If I let him, he'd sit at the machine and make a 100 buttonholes on scrap fabric. When he helps, his shirts that normally have 4 buttons end up with 7.


The BWOF pattern instructions did give me some trouble...not unexpected. I was completely on my own in assembling the collar and stand, and the sleeves. Some nice touches were the two-piece sleeves and the full lining...yet another item the instructions were a touch skimpy on. I also initially traced a 44 and added 1 inch to each side seam, because according to the size chart, I was a touch large for the pattern. But, after trying on the shell, I ended up just taking that 1 inch right back out, so the 44 would have been just fine. I also did not do an FBA, Burda generally drafts for a larger cup size, so I thought I would five it a try. I didn't want to make too many changes, since this was my first BWOF.

If I make it again, I will nip the waist in a bit more, add the pocket flaps, and perhaps lengthen the jacket slightly. I may also make it in denim and leave the lining out.

A second project that I finished was another attempt in my "Quest for Pants." I have continued to work on my Vogue 2907, but decided to give a higher waist pant a try. I made McCall 5592, a wide-leg jean. I left off the belt-carriers and the rear pockets to maintain a dressier look, but used a black cotton twill, and did flat-felled seams which still leaves them with a "jeans" look, so they are more versatile.

These pants have a cut-on fly, which was super-easy to assemble (after wrestling with the separate fly on Vogue 2907, I will just draw a fly on mine. My pattern bears no resemblance to the original pattern anymore, anyway). If I make another pair, I will add about 1 1/2 inches in height to the rear to cover the junk in my trunk.

After sewing the crotch seam and the inseams, I basted the rest of the seams together and discovered that I needed to take out about two inches from the rear of the pants. I did this by re-sewing the rear seam and tapering out to the original back seam about an inch below the yoke. This gave enough of a curve to the rear to cure the "gap-osis" that the pants were suffering from. I also added a back seam to the waist band, so that I could contour it more.


Overall, I am pretty happy with how they turned out. I'm not so happy with how chubby I am! But I can't just keep waiting to sew until I lose the weight (so, I'll just wait to sew with the "good" fabric until I lose some weight ;). I think I will also add a bit to the side seams at the hip to see if I can't get rid of those crotch smileys. Of course, they are there after I sit no matter what. Overall, the pants are really comfortable. I am pleased with how they turned out, and with how easy the zipper was to insert with the cut-on fly.

I Have Succumbed....

To the call of Burda World of Fashion....

Today I had to go to Barnes and Noble and took a quick turn through the magazines while I was there and there it was....right there....ready to jump into my hot little hands.

Really, I just couldn't justify the $100.00 subscription cost, but $12.00 for a copy...I could handle that!

And, I am HOOKED! I had to go directly to the fabric store where I found clearance wool suiting for $1.95. Let me say that again slowly....a dollar ninety-five. I took the whole bolt! I also got a black and white cotton pique for a summer blazer.

So here are my plans:


I am going to make this jacket in the black and white pique, with a black lining. I am going to leave off the pockets and the fakey pocket flaps up on top.


I am going to make this skirt in the black wool, and I am going to add a lining so it isn't all scratchy.

And finally:
These pants, also in black wool with a lining.

In the meantime, everything else in the sewing room is shoved to the side while I trace out these patterns. I'm going to HATE adding the seam allowances, though. That does kind of suck.

Bright Pink + Ruffles = Fashion Do?

In sewing clothing for myself, there are a couple of things that I worry about. I worry about ending up in a magazine with a black bar across my eyes. I also worry about looking "Becky Home-ecky" as Michael Kors would say on Project Runway. I also try to avoid anything that could be considered "art-to-wear." I really don't want anyone to mistake anything I have sewn for an item purchased at Chico's (no offense to you Chico's aficionados. It's just not my thing).

So in my most recent project planning...in which I intended to sew a wrap dress with a ruffle neckline out of magenta sateen, I immediately became concerned about the possibility of showing up as a fashion "don't" in some magazine. Not that I think that Glamour or Cosmo photographers are lurking the streets of St. Louis. There are WAY better places to be.

But, whenever making anything that might not be considered a "classic," I always do a little research ahead of time to make sure that there are other items similar to what I want to make available in a RTW form. And available someplace other than Chico's.

Here are my plans...I intend to use a length of magenta sateen that has been aging in my stash:


The dress I intend to make is Butterick 5320:


Given the combination of incredibly bright color, and huge neck ruffle...I definitely wanted to check ahead of time and make sure that I was not setting myself up for a giant fashion faux pas.

First, I started looking for dresses with ruffles...any ruffles...just to make sure that it was an actual trend and not a figment of my imagination:

Shoshanna, $318.00 at Nordstrom

Ann Taylor, $139.00

Eliza J, $168.00 at Nordstrom

Then I looked for bright pink:

Tadashi, $305.00

Rickie Freeman, $330.00 at Nieman Marcus

DVF, $365.00 at Nieman Marcus

Then I started looking for pink WITH ruffles:

Banana Republic, $89.00

Old Navy, $29.50

Kay Unger, $350.00 at Nordstrom

Ali Ro, $220.00

And then I hit the jackpot, at JCrew...pink...wrap dress...ruffled neckline!

JCrew, $268.00

The verdict? I will sew the dress! Now I just have to hurry before the "ruffle trend" passes and there I am in my ruffle-neck dress with a black bar over my eyes in Cosmo.

Edited to answer Dana's question:

To go find equivalents to what I want to sew, I generally have a few "old standbys" that I go to. When I DO shop for clothes, I tend to buy them at Ann Taylor, Banana Republic, JCrew, and Nordstrom. I usually don't actually buy clothes at Nieman Marcus, although will shop there for jewelry (my wedding rings came from Nieman's ) and will often lurk the DVF displays and see how things are put together, what kinds of silhouettes they are using, etc.

So, since those are my "go-to" places to buy clothes, I like the styles, and always find something I like, those tend to be where I do my "snoop shopping" when I am looking for something that will be a style I KNOW that I will wear, and will also fit in with the types of clothes that the people around me wear.

There are places like Net-a-Porter.com where you can see some amazing designer frocks, but I typically do not snoop there because if I made knock-offs of the clothing available there, it would be so different from what the people that I associate with wear, I would stick out like a sore thumb. For example, as striking as this Roland Mouret jacket is:


I don't know anyone who wears $2295.00 blazers. Nor do I know anyone who owns anything by Roland Mouret. Let's just say that that isn't the crowd that I run with. So, if I were to make a knock-off of this jacket, I would just end up feeling weird and silly because I don't hang with Victoria Beckham. No one else I know would be wearing anything similar. That is the reason that I tend to limit the sources where I will look for comparative material.

I hope that this answers your question!

Endless Bias Tutorial

Since folks requested it in the comments in my previous blog, here is a tutorial outlining how I make the "endless bias" for hong kong finishes and other seam binding. I don't purport to have invented this, I totally stole it from another tutorial online, but now I can't find it!!! So I can't link it here. It was on a quilting website somewhere, and no matter what I google I can't relocate the site. Who knows if the way I do it is even the "right" way? But, it works for me.

I start with a length of fabric, generally a fat quarter because they have some cute prints. I always prewash, because you never want your binding to shrink up and wrinkle your garment. After washing, press your fat quarter flat:


Fold one side over to make a right triangle, kind of like if you are going to make a folded paper hat or boat:


Trim away the excess so that you have a perfect square. While it is folded like this, press in the diagonal crease:


Open up the square and cut along the crease you just made:


Lay one of the resulting triangle right-side up, and place the other one on top, as shown:


Sew the two triangles together, using a very narrow seam allowance:


Press open the seam:


You will end up with a parallelogram with a seam running diagonally through the center:


Now, grab your chalk. On the top left "corner," mark in from the edge one inch (for a one inch wide bias strip):


Using a ruler, make marks down the fabric at intervals of one inch (or however wide you want the bias strip to be):


I like to do the same thing at a second spot on the fabric as well:


At your very first mark...in the upper left corner...cut the fabric for a short distance along the one inch marks, leaving the strip hanging:


Taking the edge of the parallelogram, bring the two short sides together. You will line up one edge with the spot where you have just cut away the strip. It will look all wadded up and screwy, but that is ok:


Sew again, using the same narrow seam allowance as before. You will end up with a one inch overhang, because remember, you lined up the edge of the fabric with the spot where you cut the strip away:


Press open your seam again, and you will see that now instead of a parallelogram you have a tube. You can see at the bottom left where the bias strip is started, and the overhang on the upper right:


Now, continue cutting where you have started. You will use the marks you made to keep your strip width regular, cutting around and around the tube in a spiral:


If all goes well, your end will finish where you have the overhang:


And here you have your finished bias tape:


I wrap it up on a piece of scrap cardboard and secure it with a pin:


And there you have it! How to get over 20 feet of bias strip from a single fat quarter!

First Attempt at a Fitted Jacket

I just completed Butterick 5331, a fitted short sleeve or sleeveless jacket with shoulder princess seams. I have never really attempted a fitted jacket, so selected this one as a place to start because it was unlined, and that seemed a bit simpler.

I did a little "snoop shopping" before deciding what I wanted to make, and found a number of short-sleeved jackets available in stores for summer. Many of them were in vibrant colors, like this Nanette Lepore, I found at Nordstrom:


Unfortunately, I don't have the money to spend $425.00 on a jacket that will be in style for one season, so I wanted to make a quick version, from some fabric that was not too expensive. I chose a 100% cotton tone-on-tone brocade in fuchsia.

Overall, the pattern was not difficult, but I made a couple of changes and small alterations, and I found a significant mistake in the instructions.

First, the mistake. I bought the 1 3/4 yard recommended for 45 inch width fabrics for view D. No matter what kinds of contortions I performed, how I laid out the pattern pieces, there was just no way to get the second set of the front center pieces cut (you have to cut 4, since the second set serves as a facing). I ended up having to go pack to the fabric store to get more fabric, praying that they still had some available, otherwise my simple, unlined jacket was going to become a not-so-simple lined one. Fortunately, they had some left and I picked up another yard. Since I now had fabric to spare, I decided to change from the small cap sleeves of view D, to the puff sleeves on view B.

Now, to the changes that I made...the instructions directed you topstitch the princess seams. I decided to do the princess seams as flat-fell seams, because that would give a similar "look" as topstitching, but would also serve a purpose, and hide the unfinished edges of the seams.


For the remainder of the seams, I used a hong kong finish, and bound the edges with binding strips made from a fat quarter I picked up on my last trip to the fabric store. Rather than cutting it into strips, I made "endless bias" and was able to get a long enough bias strip out of it to complete the binding on the jacket using only one fat quarter. If I remember to take pictures, I'll make a tutorial, but it is pretty simple...you basically just turn the fabric into a tube and cut the bias strips off of it like a spiral. Using that method, you can get over 20 feet of 1 inch bias strip from one fat quarter. I also added the hong kong binding to the edge of the front facing before stitching it down, and also the hem...rather than using hem tape.


The only fitting issue that I ran into was the width of the jacket. I did flat pattern measurements, comparing to an Ann Taylor jacket that I liked the fit of. Apparently, I had an attack of the stupids, because what I thought was "just like" the Ann Taylor jacket really didn't fit at all. It fit at the waist and hips, but was huge across the back and under the arms. Interestingly, the issue was not with the center back or the center front...the princess seams were all in the right place...but the side back and side front widened significantly.

I fixed it by putting the jacket on inside out, pinning out the extra, and re-sewing the side seam, tapering back out to the original seam near the waist. Then I re-cut the armscyes, so that they wouldn't be too small given my alterations.

It was not a case of simply cutting the wrong size, because I ended up cutting a full two inches out from underneath each arm. Comparing that with the pattern means that I cut something like a 14 across the back, tapering out to my standard 18 at the waist and hips. Normally I don't have to do this, but Butterick has always given me trouble with the width of their bodices. I made a truly spectacular disaster of a wadder from Butterick 5030, because the bodice pieces, while they fit at the waist, grew to such incredible size that the front of the dress gaped open like a bathrobe. And that was AFTER removing a good six inches under the arms. Seriously, who is Butterick designing these patterns for? Female body builders? Drag queens?

In the end, however, I was able to salvage the jacket and I think that it looks just fine. It will be a nice way to brighten up my wardrobe for work this summer. Plus, it gets so hot here in St. Louis, it will be nice to be able to look office-appropriate and not be busy melting inside a wool or synthetic suit jacket. I think it will look nice with either a black or white cami and coordinating pants.