jules' jeans

Vogue: 7481 (misses pants)


















The pattern says, "Close-fitting, below-waist pants have front button waistband, shaped back yokes and fly zipper closing. A: above-ankle, stitched hems. B: narrow hem. A,B: boot-legged, carriers and pockets. C: floor length."

I think I am not as advanced as many who have sewn this pattern. I picked View C because it was the simplest design so I could concentrate on making it fit. On the other hand, getting a below waist pair of trousers without belt loops to fit and not fall down seems to me to be no mean feat. I took quite a long time trying to get a reasonable fit. I wish Vogue patterns had more sizes on them! After all my trial and error I think I need a 10 front and 12 back but I have a 12-16 pattern.

I think the back fit is quite a bit better than the front fit!

...but maybe it is the fault of my knees which like to bend the wrong way, thus making trousers look crumpled at the front belowe the knees and tighter at the back. I've seen adjustments for "sway back" mentioned but that seems to be something to do with waists and hips rather than knees...?

I used distressed(?) lightweight stretch denim. It is full of little rips in the crosswise threads that give it the kind of stripey appearance.

I compared and constrasted the pattern with a pair of OKish fitting (but they do need a belt) quite tight slightly stretchy below waist RTW trousers that I own, and decided that a 12 should be OK, although it might require taking in a bit the sides. Possibly I failed to account for the additional stretch in this fabric compared to the RTW, which could have made the trousers come out a bit bigger than anticipated.

After cutting them out, stitching crotch and inside leg seams I basted the sides together and playing about for ages I suddenly realised that what I needed to do was take in the sides of the fronts but not of the backs. I tapered to the normal seam allowance at the hips and then tapered in again below that, but this time the extra half inch or so was taken off both front and back evenly.

The waist band was a weird fit on me. It seemed about the right size at its lower edge but a couple of inches too large at the top edge. I ended up taking in the excess at the back seam and also at the sides by cutting side seams in the waist band.

The fly looked dangerous to me, since it seemed to leave the zipper almost exposed (and probably definitely exposed with my dodgy stitching). Therefore I did the fly from KS 2820, by cutting fly extensions on the front piece. I am not totally sure that after doing the waist band as drafted on the pattern is still the right length, but it seemed to fit OK. Next time I will re-draft the waist band anyway, given the fit problems outlined above.

I took an inch off the pattern length but then took another inch off when sewing the hem.

I had thought the crotch was going to be fine after comparison with my RTW trousers. The front crotch is actually too short on the RTW trousers, leading to the front falling noticibly more below the waist than the back. The pattern was somewhat longer so I thought it would be an improvement. I think it is better but actually it is too long so I probably should have taken about half and inch off the length of the front crotch. I didn't do this partly because I had already sewn the seams around the crotch and also because I think it might be better to start with a size 10 shape of front crotch, which seemed to me to be an alteration that I couldn't make after having cut out a size 12. The other reason I didn't do it was because I already had a better fit than my RTW trousers so decided to stop there.

James thinks the trousers are still a bit loose, but I didn't want to err on the side of too tight and anyway, for summer it feels quite comfortable to have a slightly looser pair of trousers.

I think I will sew it again to try and improve the fit. Perhaps sewing belt loops onto view C would be a good precaution.

These trousers do seem like a very nice pattern, and they do already fit better than RTW, however the impression I have is that making trousers that fit is difficult!

review

Note: Estimated changes for next time, on top of those made for this version, assuming same stretch /weight fabric... take 0.5 inch off each side seam, and 0.5 off front crotch and also off front inside leg. Redraft waistband - make narrower towards waist and also make sure the length is consistent with the altered fly construction! Maybe take extra 0.5 inch off leg length.