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Experimenting
After reading several reviews of David Paige Coffin's latest multi media book on Making Pants for Men and Women I decided it was worth adding to my library. I hated his cd book on pants; I like to have a book to hold and read in bed if I want to. The first book just didn't have enough information either. This one is well done with lots of information with both a book and a dvd. There are lots of photos of rtw and custom made pants as well as plenty of technical and construction details and some nice video clips to illuminate the technique. It's a great use of multi media capabilities. My hesitation on buying this book wasn't it's lack of information on linings,as Sigrid mentioned, but his bias for menswear and I only sew pants for women, namely myself. He does cover faced, raised waists, which I will try out.
What I like the best about this book though is his point of view and his attitude towards sewing. He is unabashedly an amateur, as are most of us, and his willingness to experiment is contagious. One of his pants making goals is to make flat, thin edges as is mine. I've had issues with getting the contour waistbands I prefer to lay smoothly and flat. I have curvy upper hips with my weight right below the waist. I'd have an easier time of it if I just used a straight waistband at my waist, but I don't love them. I cut these pants out using several of his ideas. One, I used 1/4" sas at the waist and at the bottom of the band. This is often where I run into problems just sewing the very curvy seam. Using narrow sas make sewing a curve easier and I don't need extra in case sas there. Secondly I made a separate pattern for the interfacing without sas. The third thing I did was to make the facing in a bias shirting (the red facings in the picture) in a wider width to cover the pressed open waistband seam. I'm not sure exactly how I'll construct these yet; Coffin's sample has an extended tab band that I don't want. This is where the experimenting comes into play. We'll see where it leads me.
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Love the review!
ReplyDeleteHi Nancy! I just finished a trouser class with Kenneth King, and for a set on waistband, he suggested using petersham on the inner side of the band, and using your steam iron to stretch out the bottom of the waistband so it creates a contour. Have you ever heard of that method? I just ordered some Petersham and am going to give it a try.
ReplyDeleteI'm still a bit biased on the book, but agree that it gives you inspiration for experimenting. Curious to know what your experiments bring to you.
ReplyDeleteI'll follow your pants making experiments with interest. I am also curvy below the waist. :)
ReplyDeleteWhen you say you have issues with them laying flat, do you mean that they distort in the bias areas towards the sides?
ReplyDeleteIf so, I usually cut the front and back bands as normal with CF/CB to straight grain, but blockfuse with a lightweight knit fusing on the cross grain. This helps to stabilise and reduce distortion.
If your pieces are really curvy you might need to use a woven fusing cut on bias, I just tend to use lightweight knit fusing for everything! This is similar to his method of cutting bias facings, but I think it is better to stabilise the outer bands directly, ie blockfuse.
Also it goes without saying and I'm sure you do this already - CF/CB notches must be accurately aligned, and even place notches in between CF/CF and SS, as bias areas are stretchy.
The outer bands do have interfacing, but I am looking for a very flat seam at the bottom of the band, and this can be achieved by pressing the seam open. , so you need a longer facing to cover it, which is why I am trying the bias facings. I need the bias to fold up without distortion.
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to hearing how you go.
ReplyDeleteI like the book. Very technical. And I agree about DVDs. I need a paper book that I can mark and highlight on, make notes, etc. DVDs are a good accessory to a book. I'm interested in seeing what you do with the techniques in the book.
ReplyDeleteSounds like a book I should have if I actually get around to constructing some pants, instead of just going around the never-ending Pants Muslin Spiral of Doom that I'm on.
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