The Pants Project Part 2

Hello Chickadees!

I know y'all are probably pretty tired of hearing about pants. So am I! I promise there are other, more exciting posts coming in the future. Silky things! Sweaters! Unselfish Sewing! Please hang in there, I promise it will be better.

This is my latest adventure in pants fitting. I wrote a whole long post about all of the modifications that I made in Part One of the Pants Project.

So far, these are my favourite pair of pants. They're comfy, and surprisingly versatile. Unfortunately, Mister does not appreciate them as much. He thinks they're "too loud." Psh. Somebody please tell my husband that leopard is totally a neutral.


These pants are made with stretch denim, which makes them super comfy. If you spend any amount of time with me, you know that my preferred method of sitting is what's known in the grade-school world as "Criss Cross Applesauce." These pants make that easy, thank goodness! They also allow me to do silly things like jump in the air and dance, which are surprisingly important in my every day life.

Of course, a pair of pants made by me would not be complete without pockets. It's nice to have a place to store things like tissues or your phone.
Does anybody else have a hard time photographing pockets? I find it difficult to get a good angle without looking too inappropriate or awkward.

Fitting a "larger than average" derriere is a tad on the difficult side, but I think I'm starting to get the hang of it. There are still some small tweaks I'd like to make (darn swayback!), but I think I'm getting there. The next pair of pants will hopefully be in something warm like wool for autumn/winter.

Ok. This is the end of the pants posts. For now...

Love,
Rachael

The Pants Project Part I

Hello Chickadees!

Until recently, sewing pants frightened me. There are so many more fitting issues to worry about!

 As soon as I saw Gertie's pants pattern, Butterick 5895, I fell in love. It was the exact style that I was looking for. High waisted. Fitted. Front pockets. Perfect. So pretty much all of my pants have been versions of this pattern.

My first pair of real pants (not pyjama pants. Nobody cares about fitting issues with pyjama pants) were made using a black ponte knit. I used it as sort of a wearable muslin, although I don't find them that flattering. I made them straight out of the envelope using a size 12.

The next pair were a pair of jeans. I made a couple alterations to the leg length and height at the waist, but otherwise didn't attempt any real fitting issues, because I had no idea how to tackle them at the time.

Then there were 2 unfortunate pairs of fitting disasters. They were so bad that I didn't even get a photo of them. I was kind of just hacking away at them without a clue of what actually needed to be fixed.

Now I've had a chance to sit down and actually do some reading about how pants work and fit.

Here are some of the changes I've made
-Graded from a 12 to a 10 at the waist
-Added width to the hips
-Reduced the crotch depth
-Increased the crotch length
-Added width to the thighs
-Lengthened to ankle length

Whoo. That is a lot of pattern adjustments. Let's see if this actually works out!

Do you have any projects or garment types that you consider "scary sewing"?

Rachael