ANOTHER PAIR OF PANTS

Look what the mail brought me!  The January and February  Knipmode magazines are courtesy of Sigrid.   I'm heading over to Joann's today for the Vogue sale to get her some patterns in exchange.  There are some interesting pieces that will be making my sewing list.  The other is the new spring summer Burda Plus.  When the sizes start at a 44 I can easily grade them down for the upper body.  There are a couple of things in here as well that I may be sewing.   I need to grade down and lengthen because the ones I like are petite sizes.  I haven't done this before, but I don't envision that it will be hard.  Of course there is never enough time to sew everything I want to.

 

The latest weather report has the temperature dropping into the low 20's by Saturday. Just in time I've finished my wool pants.  Black and white in a bold twill weave.  This is the first pair of lined pants that I've made in years and I am happy with them.  I think that I need to add a touch more length on my ride side.  I still have a bit of a diagonal wrinkle on that side.  Which also means I'll have to remove the same amount on the left side. Not the end of the world certainly, but perfection is nice occasionally and seemingly within reach.   Recently Sigrid wrote a post about her offsetting the end seams of the waistband to give a really flat, bulk free finish to the ends of  a waistband.  I didn't get it quite right last pair, but these are perfection and it will be my regular method from now on.  Judy Burlap has published several articles in Threads on reducing bulk by offsetting seams in different ways.  I've used her miter method for sleeve vents and it is a thing of beauty.  If you've bought that Threads DVD her methods are yours to try.  The current issue of Threads has another of her articles on tailoring, lapels  and collars in particular and she makes it easy to get a really professional finish.   I'll post a picture of me in my pants later.  


The Selfish Seamstress left a comment on my last pants post.  She has a tnt pants pattern but each pair she sews still fits a bit differently, sometimes fitting perfectly, sometimes pinching.  Every fabric has a different fit unfortunately  I get around this by pin fitting every pair of pants.  I also like to have cut my crotch depth a bit on the short side and I sew it lower  to fit, 1/4" at a time during sewing.  Think of this process as  trying on countless pairs of rtw pants in a store.  Not all pairs of pants even in the same brand, will fit you the same way.   If your fabric has  lycra  you'll want to  fit them really close, tight even, other wise by the end of the day they'll be falling off!


Have you been wondering what happened to my Tory Burch knockoff with nailheads?  A disaster.   I couldn't get the nailheads to stay on the sweater and in the process of falling off they left holes behind.  I have enough fabric left to cut another front and my dh was kind enough to take it apart at the shoulders for me.  I need to cut another front and I think that I'll just make a wide neckband on a wide scoop neck.  I also promised my dd that I'd finish her jacket.  It's hanging on the outside of my fabric closet staring me in the face when I walk by it ont he way to my machines and my studio every day. 

  It's cute, it fits her and she'll stop complaining that  I haven't finished it..  I'm really bad at sewing for others.  My dh keeps making noises too. He'd like a sport coat.  The only sewing I've done for him in 37 years of marriage is hemming pants and assorted repairs.  My excuse is that I can never find a pattern that I like.   I found one.  The peaked lapel sport coat  in the January issue of Knipmode is perfect.   Back burner for now, but he really deserves it.  Maybe a Chanukah present.  That certainly gives me plenty of time.