Pants and arrest photos

I have some hurried shots here of my Wild Ginger pants. Unfortunately as the photographer was cooking and in a hurry these are kind of weird and not too explicit. Also my back views look like someone has said "Up against the wall lady, move it."

My attempt at one seam really wide linen pants with a clear view of my major fitting issue

Rear view, shows an approaching crotch fit despite The Fitting Issue

A slimmer version oh my god elastic waist version and a reason why now I have a crotch that sorta works that I need to find a good pants pattern with a bit of style to work with

And of course as I am moving out of my basic black stage these "muslins" are in black and the front view shows next to nothing.


Oh well, at least it is pant fitting evidence and I am ready and eager to move onto to real pants making asap.


Have you noticed though that there are really very few fashionable, as in the looser shapes I am seeing all over the spring collections, pants patterns in the books. Simplicity is the best but right now the store at the bottom of the street, the only fabric store in town, is selling Simplicity at $14.95 or something. I also went down there in a rush to try to find some more pant weight or even some pant weight with a little bit of stretch and there was nada, nothing, no anything. It was ridiculous. If I had wanted to make a polyester dress with tiny flowers I would have been set.


Now I know there are a lot of issues with Joann's (see Erica B's DIY for a good discussion at the moment) and I totally agree, but to those of you who can still shop at Joann's I have to say they do a good job with basics. If it was a Joann's I had at the bottom of the street I would have some new pants.


On the subject of other bloggers I want to say a big thank you to Carolyn and Sharon for posting about their Fabric Mart foray. Their postings prompted me to look up Fabric Mart on the map and I have pointed out to DH it is exactly on our way to Florida next week if we take a detour and go in a different direction totally for a while. The motorcycle purchase has put me in a honeymoon negotiating position so of course that is exactly what we are now going to do.


I laugh as I write this. You know for a long time I was a political media relations operative and that really is the swimming with the sharks business that you might think it is, probably worse actually. It's kind of nice to be off that particular hook, even if I am now writing more about DH. In a former life the rules were no other life.


That's changed.

The pants all five of them

Well here, finally are my pictures of the P&S pants. A light and dark grey pair, a black and grey mini houndstooth, a navy and black pair, all from the same pattern.

 I realize now that I have been at this a while, a few months at least since I started this and 40 years (!) if you count back to my first pair of awful pants. I am pretty happy with these, not perfect, but if you scroll down to the versions that got me here, much improved. I also feel that I learned enough about my body and this method that I could apply this to other pants patterns. A more casual pair in twill with narrower legs, maybe bootcut would be another one I would like to try, and also something more trendy. Katherine has made some good pattern suggestions and I think I will follow up on that, next Vogue pattern sale.

So what have I learned:

1. Let go of your assumptions about your body. I realize that my grandmother who was also tall, 5' 9" was very tall in her day, told me when I was a teenager that I had "a long pelvis" like she did. So since then I have dutifully added and added to my crotch seams just like I added to my skirt lengths and bodices, being 5'9" myself. One thing I have found out by measuring myself and comparing those measurement to the pattern that in fact I don't have anything at all like a long crotch length, and am shorter in the front crotch than even the standard draft. Glad I cleared that up. Wonder how much money I have wasted on wadders over my lifetime of sewing. Sometimes you live by your own family myths.

2. And speaking of money rather than spending a fortune, as I have, in search of the elusive "good pattern" it makes sense to just deal with a basic pattern and compare your own measurements to the flat pattern and learn where the differences are. The Simplicity pattern I used for this experiment was nothing fancy or really stylish but it was an uncomplicated place to start applying this method.

3. One step at a time. Pants fitting I have decided is a lot like learning to how the tension on your serger works. I have seen sewers who had tension issues and just gave each tension dial a little twist to see if that helped. It doesn't. Much better to make a fine tune to each dial at a time, because one adjustment affects another.

3. There may in fact be something to this buying a pattern two sizes smaller thing. These were fairly wide legged pants to start with but I added, mainly to the hips and waist and only slightly to the upper thigh to a size 12 pattern. If you look at the pictures and imagine if I worked from a size 16, and working from the pattern envelope measurements I would probably have cut out a multi-sized pattern somewhere between the 16 and 18 imagine how these same pants would look. I am looking forward to trying this method again on some really different pants to see how it goes.

4. Sometimes it pays to just focus. I haven't let myself work on anything but pants for at least two months now and I really have learned at lot. My previous approach would have been to make one terrible wadder, give up, then buy another pattern eight months later and repeat that same process. It feels great to finally have something that fits, I almost feel as if I have the basis for jumping into a SWAP.

5. I am pretty impressed with the old Pivot and Slide. I should have read this book when I first bought it 20 years ago.

Now time to settle down and plan my Christmas sewing.

Back to sewing

It has been a busy week and most of my sewing until last night has been in my head. A trial yoga class one night (it's been over 25 years since I took yoga and turning 55 has put taking care of myself back on the agenda - my husband, ever alert for an opportunity to bring more equipment into this house helpfully bought me a Nintendo Wii fit on ebay which is also fun, although my stomach muscles took a really beating trying to break my 9 year old niece's record on the hula hoop), dinner with a 35ish former assistant who is now a friend, we do a nice restaurant once a month and gossip, my evening class to teach, and of course the US election.

Like the rest of Canada I was elated by Obama's election - he impresses me so much as an intelligent, measured and thoughtful man but of course it was a nerve wracking night at the beginning. At one point my nerves couldn't take it over Virginia and I had to go into the other room and have my spouse shout out the news. We all need a trustworthy leader in America. My 80 year old mother reported that she and her church guild were booked to make their annual mince meat fundraiser, but when the ladies, all around her age, realized that it was the US election night, and such an important one, they rushed the job, threw together 125 containers down at the church kitchen in less than half and hour, and rushed home to watch the TV. My mom even got out of bed again at 4:00 a.m. to catch late results. And she is an elderly Canadian woman on the Prairies, imagine how it must have felt like in so many parts of the US.

So that was another non sewing night.

However my mind was racing all week with sewing thoughts and with a long weekend ahead of me, I will try to get some of them down.

And I will be sewing. I did yesterday what I always try to do with what I think might be a successful pattern and wore my new P&S pants to work yesterday to see how they held up over a whole day. I have found that wearing and comfort are the real tests of any garment, not just your first impression in the mirror, and that this is the best way to identify the tweaks.

These pants passed all tests and so last night after supper I cut out another four pairs which I intend to sew and photograph, decently this time in the daylight, over the next day or two.

Any more thoughts later.

Pants research

With all that is going on in this house at the moment any sane person would not be thinking about sewing.

But I am, maybe that is keeping me sane; I just thought about that. The way I see it if you can't sew with your hands you can still sew in your mind, and housecleaning leaves a lot of mental space for thinking.

So I have been planning and researching the pants project. 

One decision I have had to make is what patterns I am going to use for the pivot and slide and Joyce Murphy techniques. I have been pondering the Burda crotch as so many great sewers swear by it and decided to email Joyce to see what she thought. Here is part of that exchange, reproduced with her permission:

Start with my JSM Pant 1 pattern or a Burda. The crotch curve in my JSM Pant 1 pattern and a Burda pattern are almost identical. They have the long back crotch shelf and the short front crotch fork which puts the back inseam from knee to crotch on the bias and leaves the front inseam closer to the straight of grain. I use this bias if I need to lower the entire back crotch shelf straight down to give more room low in the seat. This shortens the back inseam making it necessary to stretch the back inseam to meet the front in sewing. The JSM Pant 1 pattern is deigned with the back inseam slightly shorter than the front out of the envelope.

Interesting. Since a baggy front crotch is one of my pant fitting challenges, I will definitely be testing one of the Burda patterns. I have looked at the JSM pant but because is missing some of the design features I like and has some I don't (tapered leg, fly front and slant pockets) I think that adjusting all that might get in the way of fitting. So I think what I will do is use the Murphy method on a Burda pant and Pivot and Slide on a pattern from the Big 4.

At least that is today's plan. Looking forward to October 1 and getting this project launched.

More on pants

I have emailed and heard back from both Karen at Wild Ginger and Joyce Murphy. It seemed to be fair to me to let them know I was going to do an Ordinary-Woman's test of their pants patterns and also to see if they would be willing to comment. I highly expect that there will be some operator error in my execution of this project, and if I don't get the instructions right it won't be the first time, and that really isn't the pattern's fault, so publishing their feedback to me seems both fair and useful.

That said I am going to be absolutely honest in my assessment of the different methods. I have about 40 years of pant sewing failures behind me and getting this right is important.

I have also decided that I will make up each pattern initially as per pattern, without me mixing in any of my own ideas as to what alterations I need to be doing before hand - in other words no flat pattern alternations except as suggested by the method as appropriate pre-construction steps. I am thinking of Pivot and Slide here.

There is a distinct possibility (see 40 years of failure above) that one of the problems I have had is that I don't know what I am doing, so I will let the patterns as they are have the first say.

I do have an opinion as to the style of pant I am looking for though and I think it is fair to impose that on the project. What I want to make is based on what I can't find in the stores and this means:

• No weird extra bulk added by novelty waistbands, loops and pockets on my rear end. No explanation needed.
• A side zipper. Fly fronts are a man's tailoring detail and necessary if you are a man. Why would a woman add all those extra layers, not to mention something with plastic teeth and twill tape involved, to the one area of her body where she already has her own extra? Am I ever going to look like a man in pants? No. So why the fly?
• No side pockets. See above. If I have pockets in pants what am I going to put in them? A cell phone, car keys, lipstick and and a bank card. Add all that in and what do I have? More bulk.I put pockets in jackets that are looser and less attaching of objects and bulk to my body.
• Pleats. Mine always pouf out when I sit down. I don't need that either, they may be back in style, but I believe this to be temporary.

Now what do I want apart from a side zipper? Fashionable leg shape but fitted through the hips and not too baggy at all in the thighs (so many pants I have made look like PJ pants) and a thin waistband at my waistline. Lowered waistlines are on their way out and I couldn't be happier.

This stomach did not need to be bisected.

Oh and darts front and back, one or maybe two each side.

Did I miss anything out?

Pants, it's time

A few days ago when I was engaged  in my trying-everything-I-own on mania I was struck, for the 500th time, by how great it would be to have a wonderful, reliable, well-fitting pants pattern.

Not that I haven't tried.

I have made many pants in my time, some were OK but none were great. In my sewing life my inability to perfect a pants pattern has been one of the great pieces of unfinished business in my life.

Time to finish those pieces of unfinished business.

So this is what I have decided to do, as of October 1st, post wedding:

To systematically work my way through different approaches to pant pattern fitting. One method at a time, using this blog as a way to record my honest progress or lack of progress. As an ordinary middle-aged woman with an ordinary middle-aged body and some sewing skills.

Right now the methods I will use will be:

1. Pivot and slide. This is interesting as it argues for patterns purchased two sizes smaller. I have the original Sew Fit Manual (the one with the very, very beautiful young Nancy Zeiman in it) to work from.

2. Copying an existing pair. I am going to use the duct tape method described in the last issue of Threads. I have a decent but worn pair of pants and lots of duct tape. Also this method is crazy enough that I figure it might work. We will see.

3. Joyce Murphy's approach, as described in the current and previous editions of Threads. There are an awful lot of steps to Joyce's method but her after pictures are impressive.

4. Wild Ginger. I have version 3 and will upgrade to version 4 for this project. I have made a number of pants with this software but they have all suffered from front crotch baggyness. Karen at WG has been very helpful and in our last email exchange said that it looked like my crotch was about 3-4 inches lower than it should be. Charming. Obviously lots of room (literally) for improvement there.

I figure it will take me until the beginning of October to get this all organized. In the meantime if anyone has another pants fitting method they would like to test I would love to hear from them. I am committed to doing this and finding out as much as I can about pant fitting.

And tracking down my own wonderful pants pattern. Any one else want to jump in?

Weddings and life

I can just tell, two weeks before the wedding, that this is all going to cut seriously into my sewing time. Not that I mind, I am very excited about acquiring the world's best son-in-law, about my daughter being so happy, and about the weekend long family reunion, now extended to another family that I really enjoy, that this event has been designed to be.

We are of course also having our challenges. The 50 potted plants that the bride decided to nurture all summer and put on the tables for centre pieces have done what plants sensibly decide to do this time of year in Nova Scotia, and shut down. They have all been moved in for restorative work but we might have to implement plan B as soon as we determine what plan B is.

And the hair stylist who was booked to come and stay and do hair has suddenly decided to "leave the industry." So two weeks before the wedding no hairdresser. I have spent the morning on the phone to rural hair salons trying to line up a replacement. When they stopped laughing and being sympathetic they told me everyone was booked.

I was able, finally, to find a fellow though who is free, will do a trial run next weekend, and will travel to the lodge on the day to do the hair.

Mom saves the day again.

Of course I haven't told her yet that his regular job is on a military base ...

Now when the going gets tough, the tough start sewing in their minds. Which is what I have been doing.

I have decided to work on pant fitting until I get a decent pattern. I will be framing up the details of that project while I bake today.

Later.