I've been sewing.
I need clothes. I can buy clothes. But somehow last year I didn't want to buy clothes. Yet I've been more successful in making summer clothes and remiss about winter clothes. I also have a fair number of dressy casual to dressy specialty pieces, and am short on basics. Something had to change.
I realized that in terms of every day wear that could be dressed up or down, I was wearing one of two pairs of jeans, or a pair dark gray ponte pants that are probably at least 6 or 7 years old. I like the lines of the pants and they mostly work if I wear a long top over them, as seen here. The fitting issues are mostly above the legs. They bag a bit in the seat, the front crotch is too long, and too deep; the back crotch seam is too short. They pants are meant to be just below the waist and they are faced, without a waistband. I do not like the way the facing is sewn in, and the pants do skew as I wear them (torso portion only) but that is not unusual for me in pants. You would not know any of this to look at me.
The plan was to make one or two pairs of black pants, then to take these pants apart and add length to the center back, using the facing piece then applying a new facing using the black ponte. The pants originally had a side zipper, but that was removed when the pants were cut down in size two years ago. I never used the zipper anyway as the pants are stretchy enough to pull on and off, and I do not like really tight clothes.
First up: Pattern. I have patterns for darted faced pants much like these, but they are all cut for non-stretch woven fabrics, with wider legs. I have a muslin I fitted with friends 4 years ago (?) which is now too big but is a good starting point. That was traced from a pair of Nick and Zoe pants I loved, but which had the same issue with being cut too long in front and too short in back. And I found these two patterns in my stash, both of which are similar cuts to the Nick and Zoe pants (which I no longer own).
Style Arc Beth, which I purchased not that long ago because I had forgotten that I had also purchased Style Arc Sage (below). Looking at both patterns now, I think that Beth may be a better option for me because of the waistband. But I may experiment with both patterns as I move into making spring pants simply because I like pattern play.
I pulled out both patterns and compared them to my fitted muslin, ultimately deciding to put them aside for now as I really wanted something simpler with straight lines, a high waist and a waist band. Enter this pattern from Simplicity, which I bought on a whim a couple of years ago while I was flipping through patter catalogs at Joann while my mom shopped. I thought it would make a perfect, simple wardrobe for working at home and dog walking but nice enough to go out. I still think that.
I next compared my fitted muslin (from a few years ago, but which I knew fit through the crotch curve) to the tracing of the gray ponte pants and the simplicity pattern. They gray ponte pants were very close to the simplicity pattern, the main difference being that the legs were straighter and hence slightly wider at the hem than the gray pants. I decided to go with the simplicity pattern.
I traced the simplicity/gray ponte pattern on to paper (green) and then traced the pant muslin pattern from a couple of years ago over the top of it to compare (pink). This is one of the back pieces. On the fitted muslin, the right and left pieces are different. The simplicity is symmetrical and I simply flipped the pattern.
From all this, I cut a new pattern. Is it sewing yet? Well, yes, it is part of the process, and I've learned I love the math and the pattern process as much as the actual construction.
At this point everything went together well and I tried on my first pair of pants. They fit mostly well through the hips, but the legs biased. This is not unusual. I rarely get much visible bias on new RTW pants, meaning the legs hang straight, but the torso part of the pant strains and biases around my body. It has always been this way, and I admit that when I was young I didn't know any better. I do miss loosely cut wide pleated pants from the 80s and 90s because they hung from the waistband, and there was often enough fabric that the biasing effect was not as evident. There is a lesson for me in that.
I marked, very roughly with chalk, where the side seams on the legs "should" have been. Not an easy task while wearing the pants, and then cut those pieces off, moved the seams to the appropriate locations and cut a new pair of pants. This is not quite as straightforward as it sounds because the basic geometry of pants still applies. The waistband has to be parallel to the floor. The hems as well, and the side seams running perpendicular to the floor, visually. But the legs of the pants are now skewed in relationship to the torso, or is it the other way around. This was more noticeable on the front pattern pieces than the back, which is not surprising from what I know of my own scoliosis and body torsion. This meant that I needed to redraw the grainlines, and I took my time with this to be sure I did it correctly. This also explains why I almost always need more fabric to cut pants than is recommended in the pattern guidelines.
Success! The next pair of pants worked. Center front, back and side seams were all in their proper places. The pants hung straight without skewing. I was really tired the next day (Thursday) however and did not finish the pants.
Yesterday I was determined to attach the waistband, hem the pants and cut and sew a second pair. I didn't. But I don't consider that a failure. Once I put the waistband on the pants, I noticed a few small fitting glitches that I thought could be tweaked for better fit. Once accomplished, those changes could be transferred to the pattern for the next pair of pants. But it was dinner time, and I know that I do not need to be cutting, sewing, or serging in the evening, especially working in tight spaces of partially constructed garments. I decided I would finish the pants this morning, and did so.
I still have to hem the pants, but I am very happy with them. They are not perfect, but I don't need perfect. They are better than what I have been wearing. I also learned a lot about fit and geometry and comfort.
I think I will cut the next pair narrower through the leg, more like the cut on the gray pants. The second pair will be much faster to construct because most of the pattern work is done, but there may still be small tweaks simply because I am using different fabric.
Pant sewing is not likely to happen today (except for those hems). I have a baptismal towel to embroider and hem. But I think I gained far more than just a pair of pants in this process. I'm sure there will be ups and downs over the course of the year and I hope to share them all with you. Mostly, today, I am just happy and excited for future projects.
