'Pants Class'

A few months before we left Japan, I signed up on PatternReview for a 'pants class' with Sarah Veblen. Sarah is American, so this is pants as in trousers not pants as in knickers. I read the material and watched the videos, and bought some very cheap fabric to make the muslins, but didn't have time for anything else, as we were starting to get quite busy with things-to-do-before-we-leave-the-country. We moved to the UK in Dec 2013, but the poor sewing machine had hardly any action as we were living a confined sokobox lifestyle at my Dad's house.

By 2015 we wer settled in our new house, and almost all my trousers had holes in. My stretch jeans pattern already fitted well, so another pair of these made the trip to Japan in January possible. A little later on, a pair of pajama bottoms were made. Then in July, spurred on by a lack of unholey trousers for our trip to the USA in September I finally got around to doing the class properly. Luckily the videos are all still online (hurrah for PatternReview!), and I was able to follow it all through. It was a fairly enormous amount of work, making patterns, cutting them out, sewing them together, making changes, making new patterns etc. Eventually one gets pleased enough with the fit (or runs out of muslin fabric) and starts to make things using nicer fabric, that may be wearable.

The 'slacks' style which the class focussed on is too, well, American, but I've arrived at a non-stretch pattern that fits really well, and is super comfortable, and a stretch pattern that almost fits really well (I reckon one more iteration is required - just needs a bit adding to the front crotch and the same taking off the back). But out of all this I have 3 wearable pairs of trousers: 1 pair of orange cottons, 1 pair of black stretchy fuzzy stuff, and 1 pair of blue flowery stretch woven. I also have a pair of tartan trousers that are wearable, but being a bit short in the back, not that comfortable for all day every day. I have also patched up my other trews, and am wearing them out at home...

I'd hoped there would be photos of all these new trews naturally occurring through our trip to the USA, but James hardly took my photo, and when he did, I was wearing shorts (which, incidentally I notice are wearing through at the arse).

I'm not sure that fabric one buys in fabric shops is as durable as it ought to be, but I suppose it is good to wear one's clothes until they fall apart...

....

Addendum: I see my last post was made in February after the trip to Japan, and shows the fabric haul from that trip. The blue flowers shown there became the blue flowery stretch woven trews mentioned above. The green stripes on the right has also been used to make a new pair of 'carpet trousers' for James. So I suppose I have to say that, so far, this year has been completly pants!! ( black stretch jeans, PJ bottoms, carpet trews, tartan trews, black fuzz trews and blue flowery trews.)

Addendum 2: New Year's Eve Photo Shoot!!!

Non-stretch tartan trews. Good in parts. Nice legs, front OK, but not enough back crotch depth thus hard to sit down in.

After some adjustments, non-stretch cotton. Woo hoo. Super comfortable - hope to use this pattern again!

Stretch fuzzy black. Fit quite well. Very comfortable.

Stretch cotton - challenging the same pattern with a tighter fit.

Not too awful perhaps, but in wear, crotch position is clearly too far forward. Need another go! ;-)

jules' jumper in blue

I made Burda 8291 again only this time I made View A. Kind of. It is just the hoodie without the hood and in a less sporty fabric. I used a self-binding for the neckline. I thought perhaps that with the wide neckline it would be good for wearing over shirts. The fabric is a soft medium weight knit made of wool, tencel and lycra (IIRC). It is a bit clingy so not so good for wearing over shirts made from crisp fabric! Also it feels like the sweater is slightly bigger this time even though it is made from the same pattern pieces. Interesting how the choice of fabric can affect this - this fabric is thinner with less stretch recovery. My instructions said to cut 1.5 inches width for the binding but with 5/8" seam allowances this was really too little (2" would have been OK) and I ended up handstitching the backside of the binding. The only interfacing I used was lightweight interfacing on the neckline. This seems to help stop things stretching out of shape.

The only alteration to the pattern pieces was to smooth off the area near the hem a little so that it wouldn't flare out. That worked out as hoped I think. I used stretch thread and a small zigzag stitch for most of the stitching.