I got the pant muslin done and, wonder of wonders it worked on the first try. There are bits of tweaking to be done, but over all I think I am close, very close.
I started the muslin at 4:00 yesterday afternoon. There are actually two patterns I wanted to work with and I started with this one mostly because I thought it would be the easiest based on the old pant muslin I had as a starting point. Besides, it is a style that has historically been very good for me.
Pattern: style 105 from the October 2006 Burda WOF magazine.
I traced the 44, which I actually thought might be a little small and I was right. Bummer that. Then I laid my old pant muslin from 2005 over the pattern to see what obvious adjustments I might need to make. The left front was perfect (so does this mean I am 25% a size 44?).
The right front needed an inch at the waist going straight down and tapering to nothing at the hip.
The back needed more work. I needed to raise the waist about an inch, and add more width at the waist too, tapering down. I did not need the same amount of width on the left as on the right, nor the same taper. I also needed to change and lengthen the back crotch curve. None of these things surprised me. My back is flatter and long than my front.
I tried the Burda pants first because in the past I have grumbled that Burda patterns are often short through the torso for me, need a lot of alterations but I hadn't tried pants. I had assumed I was long through the lower torso as well, until I did that body mapping earlier, when I learned that I was actually pretty short from waist to hip. I thought it was possible that the Burda might work, and it does. I need more room at the high hip because I move from my waist measurement to my hip measurement very quickly.
After tracing, marking and cutting the pattern I was very very tired. After making dinner I just sat and watched television with G, drinking a glass of wine and catching up on email. I figured I might not get to the muslin last night, but I was too tired to care. I was also annoyed with myself for slacking on the exercise front. If I had continued with my exercise regime from August and September I might have fit into the size 44 pant or smaller. Vanity, vanity all is vanity. I thought I would work out late, when G went to bed. Instead, at 9, feeling refreshed I started sewing.
Really the hardest part of making pants is the fitting. Once you have a pattern they are quick to pull together. Despite getting my zipper discombobulated again (invisible side zip on these pants) and discovering that I had marked the seam lines and darts on the front side of the front pant pieces rather than the back side of the fabric I had them finished by 10:30. The fit, in a dark mirror in a dark house was good enough for class.
Now the question. I plan on making these out of black wool crepe. I have to wash some bemberg today to use as lining. I would have sworn I had washed black bemberg, but I don't. I also have some brown wool crepe that I could use for these pants and I could take that. I have no brown lining fabric so that will have to be dealt with in NYC.
Or I could take the gray flannel and the other pant pattern I intended to make, the pants from Vogue 2922.
If I take the brown I need to steam the wool crepe but I can do that this afternoon. If I take the grey I just need to wash the bemberg. If I don't take the grey I can continue looking for the Alice and Olivia pattern I originally intended to use to make the grey trousers and do it at home later.
I'm not sure it matters which pants I make. Once I have one pant muslin fitted, everything else is just variations on a theme, or at least so I think.
Today I have to figure out these packing issues, get packed, and exercise. I need to find a new way to get the workout back into my routine. I miss the early morning workouts before breakfast. But the current reality is that I can't get up early enough to get up before G. Anytime after 1 AM, if I get up he will be up with me. I have to go to bed before midnight also or G will be up and keep me up, so that puts a quash on working out late. If I work out after 9, no matter how tired I am I can't go to sleep before midnight and I'm doubly screwed.
This will be my goal for December: working out a way to get reasonable amounts of sewing time, knitting time, and workout time. It is a tall order. It is also all I want for Christmas.
And because I promised a friend, here is a picture of the blue cotton fabric I am using for the princess shirt. It is a lovely shirting recently acquired from Michael's in a lovely shade of blue. I don't have appropriate shirt buttons either, so although I 'should' spend all my time sewing, I will also be spending some of my time shopping. I hope Marji wants to shop too, we buy so many of the same fabrics it would be really fun to go to a fabric store with her.
You make me so envious with all your knowledge! I can't wait to be able to write posts in this sort of detail about complex fitting. A couple of questions: Are there different gauges of muslin or just one sort? And, are invisible zippers de rigeur? Couldn't one just use a regular? Do you need to use a special zipper foot for invisible zippers - not the regular zipper foot? Or does one zipper foot do it?
Posted by: K-Line | Tuesday, November 17, 2009 at 10:42 AM