My Pants - fabric and cutting

Well, back to garment sewing. Remember the pants muslin I took to Simplicity so Deborah Kreiling could fit me?

First I had to find fabric. And  I have to say that finding the right fabric can be the hardest part of the job. When I'm not in the market for fabric for a specific project, I seem to run across stuff I like all the time, but come time I actually want to make something I just can't seem to find what I like.

I am hoping once I get the fit of this pants pattern right, it will become a kind of sloper that I can use when making pants in the future, so this first pair is a test and I don't want to get really expensive fabric.  But, if I go to the trouble of sewing something for myself I want to get a fabric that is a little distinctive.  I don't want it to look like something I could buy at the store. So I found this wool/poly blend at Fabric.com, but didn't realize the pattern was so large.  I liked it on line when I thought it was a tiny plaid., but the large size of this plaid will look dumb, I think.  It might make a nice skirt or jacket someday.

But, then I noticed I had a 25% off coupon for Joann's.  And that's 25% off the sale price of things.  Off to Joann's and I found two fabrics with interesting black on black designs.  The upper one was flocked and said it couldn't be ironed, so I thought that might not be a good choice. So, I got the lower one, a corduroy with a bit of a stretch, nice for pants.  And with my coupon, I got the price from $16.99 a yard down to $11.89.  Still a lot, but I liked it.

Back home and to work.  First I had to incorporate all the things I learned at my fitting.  My measurements are a size 14, but since I didn't want as much ease in the hips as the pattern I'm using has, Deborah suggested I use the size 12 for the hips but keep the size 14 for the waist. They were so nice and printed out a special pattern, just for me, with these corrections on sturdy white paper. But at home, to be sure of what I had, I drew in the stitching lines on this pattern and measured everything again.  When I want to really know the measurements of a pattern, I always measure in 5/8" from the cutting line and draw my stitching line right on the pattern so I can accurately measure the size of the finished garment.  When I was learning to sew, all patterns had the stitching lines marked, but then all patterns only came one size to an envelope.

I also measured a pair of pants I own and like how they fit to compare the measurements to the pattern I'm about to use.  A good suggestion from Deborah.

This is the pattern I'm using.  I liked that it had no front pleat and that the waist sits just 1/2" below the natural waist.  But, I didn't notice that there are no pockets.  So, I adapted pockets from another pattern.  An old "Threads" pattern (#4366) that is no longer being sold, but one Deborah said she always liked.  It is fairly similar to this pattern, so I didn't have to change much.

Again, I was lucky.  They printed out a copy of this pattern for me from their computer system.

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One of the pocket pieces from the Threads pattern.

The pocket pieces I created for the pattern I'm using.

I recommend though, if you want pockets, just get a pattern that has them already.
MUCH EASIER ...

Since it's corduroy, I needed to figure out which way the nap is going.  For short pile fabrics, I like the nap to go up.  It makes the fabric look darker and richer, in my opinion.

Here are the main pieces laid out ready to cut. Looks like I might have more than I need!

This is my cabinet of solid color cottons. In here I found a nice black cotton gaberdine for the inside of the waistband. Even though the pattern says to use the same fabric as the outside, I prefer to have smooth fabric against my body instead of corduroy. It's less bulky, too.

And ... yup ... I have extra fabric. I keep telling myself I should do a trial layout at home before buying fabric. I could have easily bought 1/2 yard less ... grrrr.

On a lighter note ... look at all the funny translations for the word "fly".


I like Gulp, but what does Braguette or Bragueta mean???


Is this how we feel about our fly??


Well, I start sewing tomorrow.

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