Finished Item: Butterick 5908 (Plus Sewing FAILS!)

If you saw my last post, you know that I went on a muslin'ing adventure last week. Part because I have this lovely suiting fabric in a black "denim" look and I wanted to make up trousers with red facings, zipper and bias tape. I had a very clear picture in my mind but wanted it to be perfect.

Yowza!

After working up muslins 3 or 4 times (I didn't show them all) I decided I was happy with what my sheet was doing :) I rationalized that the fashion fabric would behave a little differently (of course) and would skim the body better than the cotton sheet did.

I am VERY pleased with the result. I am going to make a couple more tweaks to this pattern - adding  a little more front thigh room, and adding just a smidge to the leg opening - and then I'll be making a couple pairs with this pattern.

My husband asked, "Now that those fit, can't you just use it for all of your pants?" (-aka- a TNT pattern). He's so smart! But, we know that I will still make myself fight with another pattern because well...that's how I am! :)

The most important part! :) We all strive for that great backside fit! I am happy. My left side (shoulder/hip) sits a bit lower than my right...I am not going to try to remove these few wrinkles!

 

The front - The leg opening could be a little wider and I need a bit more space for my crazy pronounced quads

 

I'm doing the chicken dance? I have decided I hate these types of pockets...I might cut the pocket front/yoke part as one with the front pant leg on my red/black pair.

But pockets ARE awesome! :)

 

 

I had to make several fitting adjustments, but none too crazy IMO, and not enough to make me think this is a bad pattern. Front and back adjustments (and I tapered down to the knee, removing about 1/2" in front and 1" in back at the knee).

 

Back pattern piece

Front pattern piece (the lower line is where I initially took the tuck...then I realized my zipper would be way down in my crotch if I did that!)

 

 

The prettiness!

 

The front tab is crazy hard to turn out successfully. Sheesh. And I have to keep working on getting a nice, flat fly-front. But hey, LOOK at how those plaids line up! Booyah!!! The hook and eye closures I had on hand aren't for pants I don't think...they seem more like the type I've seen on skirts/dresses. I'm going to have to pick up a pack of more heavy-duty versions.

 

I didn't use pretty facings but thought I could use some color inside, and had matching royal blue zipper and bias tape. It's like a punch of happiness in my pants! Wait - is that inappropriate?? :-)

All the interior seams are serged pretty, the pocket lining is a dark grey poly lining material.

 

I'm wearing them today and they're pretty dang comfortable.

 

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That was the good. The bad?

I was so excited to make S1696 in a coral (STRETCH) bottomweight material.

 

They were going to be super fitted and super cute. And then...I did the unthinkable...I didn't check the direction of the stretch and had cut out all the accompanying pieces AND the front in the wrong direction of stretch. I almost cried. And I shut down the sewing room.

But my husband talked me into starting a different project and I cut S1806 in an amazingly bright jade-green cotton voile. Voile was a suggested material!! Voile has far too much body for this pattern...it needs something light and with drape. Ah. The color is ridiculously fussy and the facings are stupid. I hate that my seams show and that they aren't true princess seams, they're fairly straight. That's stupid too. And it makes you look pregnant.

 

The sleeves and back are awesome though...I want to try to salvage it. I will revisit at some point later on.

 

 

Sorry my bathroom mirror is spotty - he was cleaning up!!

Cute sleeve. Stupid collar. Pregnant. Visible seams.

 

Pleat - adorable.

 

More finished goodies to come! And, my success with trousers has me more confident for the Mini-Wardrobe challenge contest next month! :)

 

 

 



More Pants Fitting - Butterick 5908

Pants are crazy!!!

I guess when you consider taking flat, two-dimensional fabric pieces and getting them to shape and contour to a very three-dimensional body, things are bound to go awry.

I don't necessarily have a hard time buying RTW pants, but the pants that look half decent on me are expensive, e.g. Ann Taylor, Banana Republic. When I was slimmer I lived in Gap pants. Now? They aren't meant for me. I do still love Old Navy jeans. I have to buy a size larger and get the waist taken in, but for the money, it's so worth it.

When I made my Simplicity 2700 pants, they came out okay, after lots of work. I wore the finished pants to work and realized:

1. The pants were slightly too big
2. The flared leg was NOT for me
3. They need to be shortened

I love (LOVE!) the wide waistband on those. They remind me of a decent fitting pair of slacks that I own already. But, I wanted a style that was slightly more sleek and fit like my absolute favorite pair of RTW pants (black Worthington slacks from JC Penney in a 10 Curvy). I tried to buy more of these but none of the other pants fit quite like these...even other "10 curvy" pants. But now, I can sew! Yay me!

I fell for the RTW styling in Butterick 5908 - kinda because they're red (EVERYONE should have red pants) but I really liked the clean line.

My observations:

1. she has excess width through the leg
2. the leg opening is slightly narrower than I'd like (slightly)
3. the pants are not contoured through the thigh/knee/calf. They're straight
4. she has a little front crotch bagginess

Because these are similar in styling to my RTW pants, I took all the crotch/waist/thigh measurements from my black pants and automatically transferred them to the pattern. I am also sold on picking up old sheets (queen or king are best!) to use as muslin!!!

I initially thought I needed a larger size after making this muslin:

So I made some changes based on suggestions from PR and got this:

Well THAT isn't attractive!!

Then I made a tuck to get rid of the back wrinkles:

Ok, 'now we're cooking with fire' as Papa would say! It's a little tight (diagonal wrinkles radiating from the butt) but it's getting there. Then I transferred the tuck (and added an inch to the waist)

Ut-oh. That's not good. After reading a TON of blogs, posts, etc, I realized that I took too much out of the tuck. It made the problem WORSE. So I slept on it and read more and researched more and decided on these changes to the original pattern:

1. add 1/2" to the back crotch point
2. add 1/2" to back by slashing and adding 1/4"
3. added back 1/2" (originally took 1/2") of tuck from CF seam
4. took a 3/4" tuck under the butt, steam pressing this length back into the inseam
5. tapered from thigh to knee and knee back out (to calf??) to shape the leg

That sounds like a lot but it really isn't. I'm done. There are a few wrinkles but the pants look pretty dang good. I could use a tad more back length - like seriously 3/8" - to get rid of the wrinkles at high hip. And I took back that 1/2" from CF, it's a little baggy.

I'm happy. I'm going to sew the pants up tonight in my fashion fabric!!!