Stitcher's Guild

Ok Today I bought some very nice cotton with lycra deep dark olive pant fabric. I will be making Butterick 4662 (picture of pattern on my blog http://www.susinok.com). I have not made pants other than SCA harem type, so this is going to be a new adventure for me. On top of that, I'll have to adjust them about 5 different ways. Short waist, big butt, high hip, heavy thigh, protruding abdomen... the laundry list of adjustments is daunting.

The pattern is very simple. No waistband, no pockets, just waist darts and facing. Center Back zipper (I prefer that to side zip). I'll be using the old Plalmer Plesch Pants to Fit Every Body, and my Nancy Zieman fitting books to help me. I think it's very doable, and I'm excited to get started!

I'll need lots of moral support! Pants are the hardest thing for me to buy ready to wear. If I can get to where I can reliably make my own, I'll probably never buy commerical pants again! Heh.

I'll keep ya posted.

Good luck with the endeavour!  I have only made pants once (well in recent history) and they were a disaster!  I am concentrating on tops at the moment and hope to get to pants eventually ;D ;D.  So I am sending you lots of encouragement!  You can do it.

I hope you do well.  I too am working on fitting pants.  I've started with the Burda "One Seams" 3216 (fastest pants in the world) as several pairs of pjs.  ;D  Now am moving to Louise Cuttings One Seam pants to learn to do pockets and a ton of fabulous variations.  Some day I'll move up to fitted with zippers, but I've got to get the right crotch curve before I waste too much more fabric.  I can do many things (shirts, tops, tents, bags, kids clothes, camping gears) but am currently working on fitting myself for pants.  That's a new thing for me.

Best of luck to you.  I'll be right here too!

Jen

Susan,

Best of luck to you in finding your perfect fit in pants. :)

Helen Enox, I miss that store.  Wonderful fabrics to be found there.  I remember the first time I entered the store it was like a fabric overload.  I wanted some of all of it.

Hope that you had fun at the arts festival.

I'm in the home stretch! I have to understitch the facing (had to look that one up in my reference books), re-inforce the crotch seam, pink the inside seam allowances and press, and then hem, and I'm done! They fit well. I did NOT overestimate the size of my butt. I cut the back crotch out in size 22 (using a size 16 pattern). I had to take the front crotch seam in a bit, and lowered the front waistband by 1 inch, and that fixed some baggieness I had going on.

I may never go pants shopping ever again! Pants shopping is only slightly less painful than bra shopping!

More later. Onward! I'm so excited! :::happy dance:::

Congratulations!!!  A great pair of pants you made yourself is a wonderful thing!

My preliminary front and behind shots are on my blog. http://www.susinok.com

The pictures were taken before they were hemmed. They are not completely finished and in the wash. They're covered with sewing lint and cat hair. I'll press in the creases after they come out of the wash and then take another picture with them completely ready to wear to work DONE.

What's next? Hmmm. Got some gorgeous skirt fabric at Joanns the other day... Then there's my several different top patterns staring me in the face. Though I have LOTS of shirts to go with the new pants, it seems to me they deserve a custom shirt made just for them, don'tcha think? There's a reason I bought 5 yards of that one olive green batik.. hmm..

Congratulations!  The pants look so cute on you, and you did get a great fit in the back!  I can't wait to see them all done. 

On your blog you asked how people hem pants alone.  Well, I put them on and stand in front of the mirror with the correct shoes on, and note a spot, reach down and put a pin there.  Then stand up and see if it's in the right place.  Repeat until you get it where you want it.  Take them off and turn up and put in a pin front and back and maybe at the seams.  Try on again.  If it looks right, then pin all the way around.  At this time, pin the second leg up to match the first.  Try on again, and now you're making sure you like the hem length, and making sure the legs match.  Usually you hem the back 1/2" longer than the front, tapering up on the sides. Trying them on as many times as necessary until they look right is key.  It doesn't matter whether your tape measure says they match, if your eye says they don't.  They must look like they match.   

HTH!  You're probably on to the matching shirt by now, as you seem to be a real speed demon! :)

I'm fast if I can stay focused. If I get sidetracked it might be another year or two, LOL.

They ARE done! Picture on my blog, with the correct shoes. Not sure yet but I might be fixing the hem. I was holding them up in front to step outside and I didn't brush out the wrinkles when Michael took my picture. Oh well. They are finished, and they fit fairly well. I have some belly adjusting to do. http://www.susinok.com I'll figure out how the hyperlink feature works eventually!

This was Butterick 4662. Wide legged verion "E". Next time I'll do view "C" which are a bit narrower. I will transfer the pattern ajustments I made on these over to the version "C". The fabric was a cotton lycra blend, mostly cotton in almost a light denim weight. I think the pants would work slightly better in a fabric with a bit more of a drape.

With this pattern I learned:

Soapstone markers are great!

That though my waist might be a size larger, my hips are not. Just adjust the waist.

Stich Witchery is wierd stuff. Would rather hand baste my zipper.

Zippers are not rocket science! This is my third in less than two weeks!

I should just automatically remove 1" to 1 1/2" off the center front of any bottom garment. My waist is lower in front. This has not changed in years.

Now I can try a pant or skirt with a waistband. Actually my straight skirt, unfinished, needs a waistband and hemming to be done. I will cut it down to my new size (I've lost 82 lbs since I made that skirt!) and then continue on. I have enough of the wine garbardine to make a jacket as well. I have not made a lined jacket to completion yet either. Yesterday at Hancocks I found a remnant of a silky polyester print which is a perfect match for the wine gabardine. It's in my stash, waiting on a top that's fitted to me and only uses 1 3/4 yrds of 45" fabric, heh. In other words I'll make a "muslin" before sacrificing this yardage to the scissors.

Yay, Susinok!  Your pants look great, and I can't believe how nicely they fit in back, for your first attempt.  That pattern may be sidling up to TNT status once you get the tweaks you mentioned worked out in the next pair.  Congratulations!  The shoes and top look wonderful with it--I can just imagine you at work tomorrow, casually crossing your legs so the pant hem hikes up a bit and everyone can get a glimpse of those hot shoes  ;D.

Wow Susinok!  That was quick!  I am impressed with how you decide you are going to do something and then before I blink it is done!  Oh, and they look great!and I just love those shoes ;D

Yes my Carlos babies are my hottest pair of shoes, though I have some other nice ones too. Can't reveal all at the same time! Heh. For some reason, every male in the building at work notices and remarks on those orange shoes when I wear them! Can't imagine why...
::)

Now I want a pair of turquoise pants. I have a pair of RTW but they shrunk in the lengh so that I have to wear flats. Ugh. I prefer a bit of a heel. Hancocks has their spring fake linens on sale. I may get some. I'll try to stay away from the lime green, but... I love lime green. Like no one's business.

I'm also thinking ahead to our summer Sales Banquet at work. I may make a fancy dress for that. Actually a very simple dress in fancy fabric.

On another note, I fell in LOVE with some angora boucle at Emmaonesock. It's $45 a yard! I'd only needt two yards for the jacket I have in mind... I'm crazy! I'm weak where it comes to quality fabric. Weak I tell you. However, I'm not rich so that fabric will have to wait a bit.

Susie, the pants are fabulous and the fit in the back is absolutely perfect.  Brava! Brava! 

Love the heels too!  There is nothing quite so fabulous as a great pair of shoes! :)

Ok today I will cut out my second pair of pants. This is a different pattern. It's part of a Butterick Wardrobe series # 4467 pictured here:
http://www.susinok.com/?p=174

The pants are straight legged with a waistband and once more a back zipper. Next pants will have a front zipper, mock fly. Then front zipper, mock fly, and pockets! Baby steps!

The fabric I have is a cotton/poly blend in camel. A nice color, cheap fabric from Hancocks bargain table. I don't think the pants will last long but if I get a good fit, I'll make them again in good camel wool crepe or something nice.

Here we go again, wish me luck! Heh.

I'm embarking upon a second pair of pants today. I've jumped from Faced Waist to contour waist, fly, and pockets! Well I just wanted to make that Simplicty Threads Pattern 4366. It's just about the only Simplicity pattern not reviewed on Pattern Review, so I guess I'll give my beginner's take on this pattern when done. Picture of the pattern is on my blog at http://www.susinok.com/?p=209.

Wish me luck. They're cut out and ready to go. Have not done a waistband, fly, or pockets before. This should be a learning experience!

Got the side slant pockets in. So far so good. Break time. Lunch and hair dye. Stay tuned.

http://www.susinok.com/?p=210 for pictures of the pockets.

Sus, just went to your blog and saw the zipper/fly and pockets. Brava, well done!

This pattern is givng me fits! It's a real fly, real slash pockets, and a contour waistband. The sewing order is funky, too, but I'm not practiced enough to change it just yet. However, next time I make it, the waistband goes on last!

Right now the two sides are held together by the fly and that's it! Side seams are sewn, now put on the waist band on each side. Then you sew up the crotch finally (almost last!) and do your fitting. It's the most backwards way I've seen a pants pattern. Yikes. Problem is, you do all the work with the fly and pockets and just at the end you get to fit your pattern. If it doesn't work, you might have to take off the waistband and deepen the darts or side seams. It's crazy!

I've put it down for the day. I'll work on it again tomorrow night. If I do more work on it now, I'll start making (more) mistakes. My back hurts, too.

Consoling myself with mint chocolate chip (light).

Susan,

This is the stage where I would do a basted fitting: or even earlier.

What I do is complete the pockets and fly - congratulations on yours - and then baste it all together, including the waistband.
Then do a fitting with a really critical eye.

And, yes I know, you'll have to take out quite a bit of that basting before you can complete the construction but it's so much easier than unpicking machine stitching. And who says that making well fitting pants is quick and easy?

The idea behind the order of work suggested to you (as far as I can tell) is that you should be able to fit simply by adjusting the center back seam. To my way of thinking this simply doesn't work. It's the way tailors do the final fine tuning of made to measure pants but as a way of doing the main fitting it's inadequate.

Once you have a pattern that fits pretty well you can decide at what stage you need to do a test fitting. I know that I can do pockets, fly, back darts, inseams and usually crotch seams before I baste and fit side seams and waistband. But you need to be pretty confident about your pattern to leave fitting to this late stage.

I'm enjoying seeing your sewing process; do go on letting us know how you get on.

That's a great idea, Anne, and I think I will do that this evening!

I am especially nervous about the crotch seam, since I added so much to the back crotch seam. I need the extra room but I may have gone a bit overboard. Also these pants only have two small darts in the back. I wonder if I'll need to deepen those, I have a sway back and my waist goes in quite a bit over that backside. We'll see.

Like you, I'd rather remove machine basting than maching stitching. I don't mind the time it takes. I was worried that all the time went into them and I have no idea right now if they'll fit or not.

I didn't work on these last night. I lay around like a slug with a bellyache.

Anyway on the next time I make these pants, do you think I could baste them together, do the fitting, and then take them apart and begin construction of the pockets, fly, etc in the order they show you?

On some of the other Simplicty pant reviews, the center back shaping worked for a lot of people because you had no gaping. I tend to have gaping on my sway back, so this will work for me, too.

Hopefully I'll be awake enough tonight to work on them a bit.

Susinok, will you be dropping the waist slightly (or more?) in your pants-in-progress?  Often that helps the fitting issues, when one doesn't have to indent the darts to fit a large change between waist and upper hip.  Plus, that design has been more in vogue, although waisted pants are creeping back into style lately.

Susan, you really need to be able to do up your pants properly, rather than just pinning them closed, to judge any fitting issues. For this reason I always complete the fly before I do a basted fit.
And, incidentally I always hand baste mine - more accurate and easier to remove.

I did not drop the waist on these. There was no petite adjustment on this pattern, unlike Butterick or Vogue, and I was not sure where I could do that without messing up the pockets or fly so i left it as is. We'll see, it does not look too tall to begin with, so these may be a lower waist style to begin with.

If I have to go down a bit in front I may just take a bigger seam allowance into the waistband and trim the zipper accordingly.