Thursday, January 28, 2010

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.

8 comments:

  1. That's a nice exchange with you and Sigrid! I got the email this morning about B-M-V patterns on sale for $3.99 so I think I'll shop online rather than go out in this snow we're getting.

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  2. Another great pair of pants. You matched the pattern perfectly.

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  3. ooh how is the Feb Knip? I saw in the preview they're doing Michelle Obama knockoffs, are they any good? From the line drawings the trench coats and the long sleeved cowl top look promising...

    We're hopefully heading over to Friesland in a month or so, so I didn't want to jump the gun and buy this online in case it's still on the newsstands there.

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  4. Yay for my suit jacket!!!!!!!!!!!! It would look SO GOOD with a bunch of stuff I got for teaching wear in the past year. Not to mention it would match the SKIRT you made to match it for formal teacherly occasions. BTW do we get a picture of you wearing those pants? They look bad ass. I love wool pants in the winter, so warm. I still have those brown tweed wool pants that you got me from the Saks outlet one year...

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  5. I'm finding your pants posts super inspirational! You make me believe that it's possible to figure them out. I think it'll be like some kind of badge of honor when I finally have a tnt pants pattern. I'll keep all the resources you've mentioned in mind too.

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  6. Beautiful fabric for the pants. And I'm glad too I found that method for reducing bulk in the waistband.
    Get the jacke for Alex done quickly: she will be happy and then you can start some (Knip?) projects for yourself soon.

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  7. Great pants!! I can't believe how perfectly you matched the pattern. Great advice regarding pants fitting, I am going to start being better about pin fitting...or at the very least basting first.

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