Slow and Steady Wins The Race

After much thought, which was the only resource I could devote to sewing this week, I decided to make a black muslin of the pink knit workout shirt I'm making with Vogue 8151. The pink shirt is to go with the brown yoga pants I have not yet made. Sigh.

Today I made the pattern adjustments and cut out the black knit.

I'm using size G, but I tapered to J in the hips. That sounds so easy, but deciding how to taper under the bust dart was hard. It seems to be a sharp angle. We'll see if it works. I lengthened it six inches, because I like long shirts with pants. I also lowered the front neck edge one inch and shortened the sleeve cap one inch based on various reviews on Pattern Review. That's all I was able to get done this weekend.

I've been busy teaching and learning. I'm teaching a new course this semester, so I have new materials to constantly read. I'm also taking a Web Design course, which is very fun, but time consuming. For instance, I just got distracted reading my "Edit Html" screen. I often get extra breaks between paragraphs in blogger, and I haven't yet figured out exactly why or how. I'm getting close to knowing enough to go in there and really edit. Cool, huh? Well, it is to me because I'm not technologically astute. Only one more week of various parent's nights and other beginning of school time-suckers, so hopefully I can get more obligatory tasks done during the week and more sewing in on weekends.

First week of school and still got something done!

I've finished my big-legged pants. My husband and 13-year-old son say they are weird, but my 17-year-old son says they are fashionable. Since he's the one checking out girls, he's the one whose fashion judgment I'll trust. Mine are a bit big in the thighs compared to today's wide-leg pants, but that's a problem with my body. My hips are large while my thighs are very skinny. If you cut me horizontally right through the waist, the part that's left below would look just like a mushroom. It's hard to fit something on my hips and thighs at the same time. If the fabric fits, I still look weird.

In the end, I like them. They are comfortable. The fit in the butt better than any pants I've ever made. I finally got the crotch curve lowered right to I don't have wrinkles pointing to my butt.

The fabric was very loosely woven. I interfaced the seams along the hip area, where I would expect stress. I also zig-zagged along the seam allowance, catching the serging threads and extending the anchoring closer to the straight stitch. Without the zig-zag, I think the serging would have unraveled after a few washings. The hem needed something to stop the unraveling, so I interfaced the hem allowance and serged the edge of both fabric and interfacing, then folded up right along the other edge of the interfacing. I'm intrigued by Laura's comment about interfacing past the hem allowance, so I'll try that soon.

There are loose thread all over my sewing room. I was trying to get to a deep cleaning before school started, but I didn't make it. I'm glad, since I would have had to vacuum up all those threads anyway. Now I really need to get in there and vacuum!

It's a Hybrid

I tried a new method of attaching my waistband. I don't like it. I usually use the method on page 116 of Pants for Real People (PFRP). It's a combination of a regular waistband and an elastic waistband.

In real elastic waistband, the fabric would measure the same circumference around the hips and waist, with only the elastic bringing in the fabric to the waist measurement. In a real waistband, the fabric measures more around the hips and is brought in with darts and curves at the waist. The waist is fitted and the zipper opens the smaller waist circumference to go over the larger hips.

The combo method combines the darts, curves, and zipper to allow less fabric gathered at the wast, while it also uses elastic to cinch in the bit of extra waist ease. I have many pants where I've used the PFRP page 116 method. It gives me the best of both worlds. I often think of the elastic as the interfacing of the waistband. It gives it a rigidness that is firm, but flexible.

I saw something somewhere that may have been this exact new method, but I didn't read it and don't remember it enough to be sure. It got my mind thinking that this would be a good new method to try. I was wrong.

I started by serging one raw edge of my waistband and attaching the other raw edge to the pants.
Then I attached the ends of the elastic to the seam allowance of the pants, lining up one edge with the edge of the zipper and letting the other edge hang over for the under flap. I did not stretch the elastic in these spots. I could not decide if it mattered which side I attached the elastic to -- the inside or the outside. I attached it inside, but it would have been better attached to the outside. I'll tell you why when we get to it.
Next I stretched the elastic as I sewed it to the seam allowance. This turned out to be the fatal flaw. The elastic did not shrink back to its original size.

Then I sewed the ends neatly by hand. This is where I discovered that had I put the elastic on the outside of the pants, the seam allowance would have folded over it and covered it. I had to hand sew carefully to cover the elastic. It worked fine, but the elastic on the other side would have been a tiny bit easier.

Then I stitched in the ditch. As I imagined, this step was much easier than the PFRP technique. It was the desire to avoid the anxiety of accidentally stitching through my elastic on this step that prompted trying this new method.

The final waistband looks fantastic, but it left the pants too big in the waist. In PFRP, the elastic casing is sewn with the elastic in there, attached only at one end. Then the loose elastic which is hanging out is pulled to fit your waist while you wear them. It's fool proof on final fit.

In the end, this method was easier, but not worth the loss of fit. I'll go back to page 116 and just get through the anxiety. Funny thing is, I've never sewn through the elastic accidentally!

Happy Day

That's better! My knit fabric from Sew Baby arrived. The pink goes so nicely with the brown. It's not a jersey like a t-shirt. It's a very thin interlock, but it is thin like a t-shirt. It's not thin as in cheesy. It's quite luxurious and of high quality. I've already washed the black and it washed beautifully.

I also received my Burda World of Fashion, quickly joined by a copy of Stitches, which I picked up when I went out to buy that pesky zipper I was missing. Stitches appears to be a very good magazine. It has detailed articles about garment sewing with many diagrams and photographs. I've only had time to flip through it so far, but I'm impressed.

I finally got some time to actually sew, and I put in my first lapped zipper. It was easy and the results are very professional looking. I did my first one right on my actual project. That caused some stress, but no real problems. I used these directions, but also discovered some directions inside the zipper package. The two sets of directions were the same except for the direction from which you viewed your work.

I started by reinforcing my seam allowance because the fabric is very loosely woven. My center back seam on my pants is curved because it has a built in dart. I curve A LOT in my butt. I refer to this as my "Butt Shelf." I swear you could set a drink on it. I was worried about the zipper application with such a curve, but it worked fine.

As you can see, the final result is wonderful. I love it. You can see the chevron that's made by the darting that sits on my "Butt Shelf."

I've finished the side seams and the inseams, as well as all the crotch seams. I need to fit my darts, attach the waist band, then hem them. I've already pressed the seams and tried them on. They look great! I altered these to fit better so I've made a lot of changes, as well as a style change. I've made the legs very wide. I like them!