Before & After

Remember these experimental pants? Well, I'm still experimenting with them. The primary reason I refused to wear them was the awkward length. They reminded me too much of the high waters I wouldn't be caught dead wearing when I was a child. I was able to shorten them to a length I feel comfortable wearing. The day after I put these pants in the Black Hole Closet of No Return in the Sewing Room, I wore a pair of RTW capris that had a flat fell seam around the circumference of the leg above the knee. I said to myself, "Hey, I could do that!"



Here's what I did:

I measured up from the hem and marked two lines on the pant legs two inches apart.















I sewed the lines together to form a tuck on the right side.
















I cut the tuck along the fold to make a conventional seam allowance and trimmed one of the seam allowances to about 1/4 inch.















3. Then I folded and pressed to make a flat fell seam. I know, I know - it's not the neatest, best looking flat fell seam, but a flat fell seam, nonetheless.
















Voila! New Capris!




I've moved them from the Black Hole Closet of No Return in the Sewing Room to my bedroom closet and I even found a t-shirt to wear with them! The t-shirt virtually covers my beautiful welt pocket so the pants don't look quite so bipolar.






I have messed with these pants so much! The only thing left to do is add rick-rack and eyelet lace. (I'm kidding!) I wouldn't feel conspicuous wearing these to run errands in the neighborhood. (Well, maybe not in my neighborhood. Someone I know may see me!) I read somewhere that if a mistake is not visible at 3 feet it's nothing to worry about. I certainly hope that's true!

Next: BWOF 05/2006 132B blouse &134 pants

My next project is this outfit from BWOF 05/2006. I'm using navy linen purchased from Fabric.com. I ordered some white Juliette Knit from Nancy's Notions to use for a t-shirt. Or maybe I'll stick with the linen theme and order some white linen for a tank top. I could even go to JoAnn for something as simple as white linen. I'm considering embellishing the shirt with some navy blue fabric paint and stamps or stencils. I have Creative Surface Design for inspiration and it has lots of ideas and tips for stamping and stenciling . I've stamped and stenciled on wovens, but not on knits. I guess I'm feeling experimental these days. I'm afraid I won't stop until I ruin something!

Burda 8101: Name These Pants.

Quilt makers produce beautiful works of art and give their creations evocative names like Winter Window or Grandma’s Wistful Smile. Summerset Banks made a beautiful, prize winning ensemble she called American Beauty. Maybe I should start naming my creations. I’m going to start with these pants.

They started out as Old Maid Project for reasons given in a previous post. But as I worked on them, spending hours perfecting the welt pocket, I thought, "I should call these The Welt Pants". The right half of the pants have the welt pocket and are styled like chinos. The left half has a large patch pocket on the leg like cargo pants. So I thought about calling them Chin-gos or Car-nos. The pants have two vastly different personalities, and the design has no basis in fashion reality, so I thought
Elaray Off Her Meds might be appropriate. The pants have no focus and no direction -- how about just calling them Ball of Confusion? Whatever I decide to call them, they were fun to sew! (Hey -- how about Fun 2 Sew!) Knowing that they wouldn't be seen in public was liberating. I had the freedom to experiment. And who knows, I might just wear them in public.



And if irrational design changes weren't enough, I did further experimentation on these pants by I doing a new pattern adjustment. I used Sandra Betzina's adjustment for a full belly. The blue line represents that adjustment. The red line represents the adjustment I made because I wanted to raise the waistline. I know low rise pants are fashionable these days, but I refuse to wear them (I don't care what the women on What Not To Wear say). I like the way these pants fit around the midsection.





N.B. This post is intended to be tongue-in-cheek, but seriously folks, Summerset's American Beauty outfit is truly amazing!

Me v. Welt Pockets

After seeing the beautifully sewn welt pockets on Erica's Simplicity 4135 white linen pants (see her June 11 post), I decided to try welt pockets on my "Old Maid Capris". Coincidentally, Nancy W. and Debbie Cook were also working on welt pockets. These women inspired me in my battle to conquer my fear of welt pockets. I have several books that cover welt pockets. I made samples using Peggy Bendel's Sewing for Style from the Singer Sewing Library series, Sew Any Set-In Pocket by Claire Shaeffer, and Palmer & Alto's Pants for Real People.


Bendel's Patch Method
This sample was not good, but I don't blame Peggy Bendel. I had the wrong attitude when working on this sample. This was only the second or third time I've attempted welt pockets in my life. I kept wishing the process didn't take so long. This pocket is just sloppy! The corners had folds that I could not press out. The welts are not the same size. What a mess!








Shaeffer's Strip Method
Shaeffer's book details several different methods for welt pockets - I tried the "strip method" and had much better results. Rather than a single patch, welts are formed with two thin strips of fabric. By this time, I realized there are no shortcuts when making welt pockets. Every one of my books gave at least 12 steps in the welt pocket process and it's best to follow every single one of them. I set my machine speed for slow so that I could control where the stitches were going. The resulting welts were much neater.




Next, I wanted to make a sample using the actual fabric .


Palmer & Alto's Patch Method
Pants for Real People is much more than a book on pants fitting. It contains directions for welt pockets and several other design details. Basically, this method is identical to the Bendel method. I took more care and the results were better. I also included a button loop and, since the pants had darts in the back, I included a dart in my sample. By this time, my attitude had changed and the resulting welt pocket is one I am proud of.





Conclusions:

1. Welt pockets require careful marking and sewing. I even used hand basting to mark placement lines in the Shaeffer Strip Method.
2. Slow is the way to go. I set my machine speed for 'slow' so I could sew carefully and stop precisely.
3. It's best to follow the directions (all 12 to 15 of them!) to the letter. Maybe a more experienced seamstress knows and uses secret welt pocket shortcuts, but I'm not there yet.
   

I learned a lot during this little Welt Pocket Clinic and I'm ready to make the pockets on the real pants, now. Well, maybe I'll practice one more pocket.

Is Size Only a Number?

Ninety-five percent of the patterns I sew are Burda - either the envelope patterns or the WOF magazine patterns. I’ve convinced myself I get a better fit with Burda than with other pattern companies because I can make a garment with minimal, if any pattern adjustments. As I was skimming through “Fit for Real People” (Palmer & Alto, 2005) and I noticed Chapter 26: Pattern Company Basic Bodice Comparison. Palmer & Alto say, “We have heard may sewing authorities talk about how one company fits better than all of the others.” That is the way I feel about Burda, but Palmer & Alto disagree. They say, "The only way this could be is if all bodies were the same. Only then could you analyze patterns to find the best fitting brand." (p 249) Palmer & Alto compared the basic bodice patterns of Vogue, Butterick, McCalls, Simplicity and Burda. They used Vogue as the control and compared all other brands to it by placing the bodice pieces on top of each other and comparing the differences. For all intents and purposes, the bodice pieces were the same. Burda patterns differed from Vogue on more points than the others. The differences, however, were in the depth of the darts. When the darts were sewn, those differences disappear. To further defend their assertion, Palmer and Alto show the bodices sewn in the same fabric, using the same size pattern on one model on the same day (p. 21). The fit is more similar than different.

So, why do I remain so committed to Burda? The difference must be in the design ease. According to Palmer & Alto, “The need for alterations depends on the pattern design. Fitted patterns require more alterations than fuller designs” (Well, duh!) Maybe Burda’s design ease matches my body more closely than the Big Four. More likely, I’ve been playing a numbers game with myself. Burda’s European numbering system is less meaningful to me and doesn’t carry the same emotional charge. Burda’s size 38 is more random than the American size 12. (Of course, if I wore size 12, I wouldn’t have to play this numbers game with myself, now would I?) What I need to do is get over my size issues, compare my measurements to an American pattern company and select the size. Then I could objectively compare Burda’s fit with the other pattern company’s fit and probably find an American size that requires the same minimal pattern adjustments as Burda. And then, the pattern pool from which I could choose would be four times larger!

Old Maid Project

Several months ago, I bought a piece of turquoise poplin to use for test pants. The plan was to completely sew a pair of pants without making any pattern adjustments, then use the finished pants to assess where adjustments were needed. I'd done the same thing with a blouse. Before I had a chance to use the poplin for test pants, I started making muslins with muslin and I was able to work out most of my fitting issues. So, I was left with a piece of turquoise poplin (a color I'm not really crazy about) without an associated pattern or coordinating fabric for a top. I call this my "Old Maid" fabric.

I've matched the Old Maid with this Burda Pattern - view C - the capris. It won't matter that I don't like the color or don't have a coordinating top because I can wear the pants when I don't plan to leave the house. Although I'm not using the fabric to workout major fitting issues, I can try out some design changes. This is a good opportunity to practice a welt pocket. My inspiration comes from Erica's fantastic welt pockets on her June 11 post "White Linen Pants". Or, I could include the pouch pocket somewhere on the leg of the capris. And, I want to try an adjustment for my "prominent abdomen". Looks like this Old Maid is going to get quite a workout! I hope the old girl is up to the challenge.