Saturday, February 11, 2012

New Look 6082, slim ankle length pants muslin


Ok, so here is my muslin of slim fit, ankle length pants.  Not sure if they qualify as cigarette pants, as I am not totally sure how cigarrette pants are defined.

I traced out New Look 6082 on to tracing paper.  I then pin fitted the pieces together and tried one leg on.  I could tell right away that there was going to be a crotch issue.  Namely, a camel toe and butt wedgie.  After some research, I went with a fix I read about on Fashion Incubator.  http://www.fashion-incubator.com/?s=camel+toe.   She has some very useful information and also a very entertaining read.    I started out with her idea that a camel toe in front is caused by too straight of a front crotch curve, which results in too short of curve.  I removed 1/2" on the vertical portion to nothing at the inner leg.  I did the same for the back, as a butt wedgie is caused by same issue.  I added the 1/2" that I removed front and back, to both front and back sides.   I cut out my muslin with my newly altered pattern pieces and I basted them together and the camel toe, butt wedgie were gone, but oh my, there was quite an excess of fabric on either side my front crotch and between my legs.  I took them off and stared at them for awhile..... then I thought perhaps that if I removed some of the inner leg from front and back that it might help.  So I basted out another 3/8" off of the inner thighs, front and back, tapering to nothing after about 6".  This cured it!!   So all in all, I ended up taking out 1/2" along the vertical crotch front and back and up to 7/8" toward the bottom of the curves.  I also lowered the center front waist by 1/2".  Below is what my size 16 tracing with my alterations looks like compared to the orignal pattern underneath.
front
 
back

Front, not wrinkle free, but then, what pants are?  I was not going for painted on look. 

 Side view, you can see lapped zipper....and also that I put the hem slits on the inner leg instead of outer.... oops.  I  mean, design feature.
 Back view, not too tight and no butt wedgie.  I am quite happy with them.  And they are comfortable sitting as well, very important, as I sit all day at work.     So now....... the grey denim.....


Stay Happy, Keep Sewing!!


Friday, February 10, 2012

Best Laid Plans

I traced out and cut out my muslin for B5712.  Then came work, school, a funeral, more school, laundry and somehow, I lost interest in that cute little jacket.

Might have been the vintage A-line wool skirt I bought at a second hand store while out of town for the funeral.  I just thought it was adorable, I envisioned it as a pencil skirt with my brown boots.... and it was only $6!
 The old zipper and vintage button were still in fine working condition.
 It was fully block fused with a wonderful knit interfacing
 I picked apart the side seams and zipper and just cut off waistband,  there would be no re-using that!  My waste is not vinage sized.    I used my Mcall's 5590 pattern to lay over the pieces to confirm that they were still big enough to contain me and for marking how much of the sides to remove for a nice pencil shape.  Cut off about 4"-5" of the top, that means my waist size must be about the hip size of the original owner! 
I then pinned it on me.....

 and DH took pictures ...... and yes, those are Christmas ornaments on the floor.  We JUST took down the tree.  DON'T JUDGE ME.  This was the first Christmas that all of my kids could not come home, somehow, I just needed to leave the tree up.  Hubby gently suggested on FEBRUARY 5th, that maybe we could take it down together.....I love that man.
 Back to the skirt, looking good, reserved the original hem.
Had a side lapped zip, so I left the back in one piece.  The orginal sewer did a fine job matching up the patterns on the back. 

And here it is!  I love my new old skirt!  Not sure why my green top looks black in this picture.......  and yes, that is soot all around the wood stove.  AGAIN, DON'T JUDGE ME.  It is cold where we live and my DH keeps that baby burning non stop.  Dangerous vacuuming up hot soot and ashes.  ((-:

Now...... I bought some nice ash grey denim..... think I want to make some cigarette pants...... only mine will be ankle or longer length.... does that disqualify them from being cigarette pants? 

The Butterick 5712 is sitting on the sidelines, patiently waiting.... I think it is curious about these cigarette pants too..

Stay Happy , Keep Sewing!