Pants fitting - the cycle of hate

Hello blog readers, this is a post that I debated about writing. While I'm not an overall positive person, I do tend to be positive about my hobbies.  And to say something is hard often discourages others not to try it/increases their own doubts about trying it.  But I've decided this is an area where I just need to vent and maybe you'll just shake your head in agreement.  Ok here goes....

Pants fitting is hard!

So now let me give you some back story.  I haven't had a proper fitting pair of pants since I hit puberty and developed the family derriere.  The family derriere is large in proportion to the rest of the body and is very full at the bottom and ski slopes into the lower back. So that old adage of "take a pair of RTW pants that fit well," makes me want to grab said writer and smash their head into a wall repeatably.  (SHE HULK SMASH!)

What if every pair of pants you've every bought gaps wildly at the CB and yet does not give you enough butt coverage to confidently bend over?  (Other than maternity pants, which where the shizzel.) What if you've been living with a semi-wedge all your life that you're not even sure what a properly fitted pant is supposed to feel/look like?  What if the properly fitted pants you see in fitting books looks like something your grandma would put on with her Keds to go buy mass quantities of fabric at auctions? OK maybe your grandma plays bingo, but you get my drift.

I've been working diligently (in spurts) on pants fitting since 2011.  I've purchased several books, read blog posts, bought craftsy classes, talked to other sewcalists and still the cycle of pants fitting hate continues.  It goes like something like this...
1. See slim blogger with "flat white girl butt" rocking a newly made pair of pants.
2. Think that looks fantastic I must buy that pattern.
3. Full of enthusiasm the pattern is purchased with thoughts, "This time I'm gonna make some awesome pants and look fabulous too."
4. Pattern is traced and first muslin cut out. Dreams of fabulousness continue with planning shirts that will go with the awesome pants.
5. 1st muslin is tried on and I am once again confronted with "yes my ass is that big."  Still optimism remains, I have fitting books.... I can fix this.
6. Make 2nd muslin, try on. Think "I added 3 inches to the rise, how can this thing still be giving me a wedgie!  Also what's with all the wrinkling on the back of my thighs?"
7. Make 3rd muslin, try on... there is still not enough ass room.  I start scooping out the crotch but somehow it makes very little difference. My brain starts musing that the right measurement for the back crotch length must be some made up equation like (The airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow - the number of red shirts killed in original star trek episodes x a number that Nathan Fillian is thinking right now.)  Decide to add length to the front crotch too.
8. Make 4th muslin, try on... now the damn front is f'ed up and the back looks exactly the same.  A pox upon you pants!!!
9.  Remove front crotch alteration, scoop back crotch even lower, extend back crotch another inch.  Make muslin #5, try on and.......@#&%^*(@&#%%  the back looks exactly the same as it did in muslin #2.  Commence a 15 min rant about how pants are a dirty dirty b**ch to my confused husband who replies with, "I thought your hobby was supposed to be fun."
10. There's a 50/50 split on the final step in the cycle of pants hate.  A. I make the pants anyway figuring they are slightly better than RTW cause they don't gap at the back, or B. I light the pattern on fire while laughing maniacally and then go make knit tops.

This is my long ass way of saying I'm in the middle of pants fitting again and I see the cycle of pants hate repeating and it frustrates me.  I don't want to hate pants because I vastly prefer wearing them. (Probably because I fall down a lot and not giving strangers and accidental up skirt shot is a real concern.) I want to be able to figure this out and then rock some (non granny) pants even though I have a giant ass.  Is that really too much to ask for?  Well I'm still on step 6 of the cycle of pants fitting hate so maybe, maybe this time things will be different. Cross your fingers for me.

My New Sexy Love...Cobalt

Hello Cobalt, I was minding my own business when you walked into the room and gave me that look. Oh you know the one.  I tried to resist you saying, eyelets aren't for me.  But you sidled up along side me and whispered, "This time they are."  Then you might have winked in a rakish manner.  It was then that I realized I had to have you.

Sure our relationship hit that rough patch when I didn't do a proper muslin. I get very cross with you and needed some time alone, but let's face, it you're too beautiful to throw out of the house.

When I pulled you out of UFO box last month you gave me that saucy grin again and I remembered our torrid love affair.  This time we could get it right....this time we did. Fin*.

*Actual sewing details.
The pattern is Colette peony with some style changes.  Using the A line skirt as a base I drafted a pencil skirt with a back vent.  The front tucks were converted to darts and lengthened a bit. The boat neck was scooped a tad lower on both the front and the back.

I got the idea to line the cotton eyelet with some silk chiffon from a RTW top tried on at Anthropolgie.  This allows the wearer to have more opacity but still retains some of the lovely airiness of the eyelet.  It also feels divine as a lining.  The entire bodice and skirt were lined but the sleeves were left as a single layer of eyelet.  I removed all facings, understitching the lining to neckline instead. (Both fabrics purchased from Gorgeous Fabrics last year)

There was a bit of trouble fitting this dress for two reasons....

Fitting problem 1 - I did not read any PR reviews before starting and did not know the back was rather wide .  My standard 1/2" of additional back width was added as well, making the problem even worse.  On my muslin I did not install a zipper and did not notice the excess fabric in the back.  It was not until a zipper was put into the real dress that the fitting problem was noticed.   At this point I got frustrated and put the dress in the UFO box for about 4 months.

Fitting problem 2 - I lost 12lb in those 4 months so now the dress was too big all over.  Now some semi-large amounts of fabric needed to be removed to size the dress down.

Final fitting changes as follows.
1. Connected the back dart and neck dark to create a princess seam in back.  This allowed me to take out some of the extra back width, about 1/2" here.
2. Took in the side seams an 1" on each side.
3. Also reduced the diameter of the sleeve 1".
4. Took in the CB seam 1" in the bodice tapering down to 3/8" in the skirt.
5. Increased the back dart intake to 1 1/4".
6. Made a 3" sway back adjustment on the bodice.
7. Took about a 3/4" wedge out of the remaining shoulder seam.  The slope of my shoulders did not seem to match the pattern with the boat neck shape changed.

The back still isn't exactly right, but it works in a pinch.  If I was to make this dress again, I'd start over again with the correct size for my current measurements and go from there.

 But for now I'm gonna enjoy my sexy new love, Cobalt

Leveling up on my stash busting pledge

Back in January I joined the stashbusting-sewalong and pledged to use up 12 pieces of fabric.  Well after sewing 100% from stash in the first quarter of the year I've used up 23 pieces of fabric.  Yikes, even I'm surprised.

Seems like it's high time to update that pledge so here goes...
I Heather B, rabid sewcialist pledge/buyer of too many shoes, pledge to use up 40, yes 40 pieces of stashed fabric by the end of the year.   Honestly that would only put the most minor of dents in the stash and technically I'm already half way there.

Right now my sewing table seems to be in a blue phase, Spring is making me want to sew bright colors.

Half of these blue fabric blobs are already finished. There will be fun new FO's to show you but I'm waiting for shoes, always waiting for shoes.

My TNT fitted buttondown - McCalls 5138

Hey All, it's time to round out Button Down March with a fitted button down. This one was inspired by the PR fitted blouse contest and the fact that I already had a properly domesticated pattern.

McCalls 5138 and I went 12 rounds last year but in the end I was able to beat it into submission. Then I lifted my arms in the air and yelled Adrian!!!!   Umm no wait, then I made a Joan Holloway inspired blouse. For all the gory details on that, check out this post. 

And now for the photos of me trying to look nonchalant in my front yard as neighbors walked by with their dogs. Laa laaa laaa, pay no mind to the self obsessed women next to the hedge....damn it's cold out here.

I call this one, Hey is that a plane....or maybe Superman!

While I have a strong preference for two piece collars, the combination of the one piece collar and no button band gives this pattern a vintage feel that I love.  Full flickr set here for more detail shots.

The linen was a Marcy Tilton purchase from last year.  She cleverly sent a book of linen swatches with another order and I was hooked. Why didn't I buy the metallic gray color too!

An now a final shot of this shirt properly styled for the current weather with past FO Burda leather jacket.

 Hey there ladies, just leaning up against a tree. Wanna come over and talk about sewing?

Sewaholic Cordova with GillianCrafts

Twitter pal Gillian, of Crafting a Rainbow, and I conspired together and decided we needed to sew Sewaholic Cordovas for Spring.  She didn't need to twist my arm much, the pattern was already in my stash and it seemed like a good time to jump back into jacket sewing.

Not gonna lie, going into this I had some concerns about the style.  Peplums do not look good on me.  (Why did you buy it then....because it was cute, shut-up!)  Despite knowing that I just had to make up the first muslin with all the fluffy peplum bits.

Cordova Muslin #1 - The pattern as drafted with both peplum layers.

Yeah, not so great.  The peplum says, "Heeeeeey, check out these giant hips/butt."  (Spared you the profile shot, your welcome.)  Also no collar/crew neck has never been a flattering look for me.  I was ready to give up on this pattern, but all my sewcialist friends pushed me to do some more tinkering.

Cordova Muslin #2

I drafted a collar, removed the upper peplum tier, and added more to the princess seams in the back and reduced them some in the front.  Now this had potential.

Further inspiration came from this review where Diana put contrast panels in her Cordova.  Awesome! I had to do that too and the stash had just the right fabrics to do it.

BAM, cobalt wool suiting and black faux leather.  Ohhhh Yeah I'm gonna be a faux badass!

Still have linings and zipper and other such unexciting things to do so no FO's for a bit, I got an Easter dress to finish.

Opening up the UFO Box

Last Fall I hit a wall in the sewing department.  A bunch of design ideas backfired, muslins made only to find the style didn't flatter, and fitting problems, lots of them. The end result is that everything I was sewing got shoved into a box and put away. 

None of these projects had reached the dreaded wadder status, they just needed to be ripped out again and refitted/restyled.  I didn't have the energy then but now enough time as passed to open up the UFO box.* 

(* Disclaimer, these are not all my UFO's...... only the most recent ones. There is a bunch of stuff wadded up in the back of the fabric cave that you don't even want to know about.)


 1. Purple Renfrew
This was supposed to be a quick FO to ease my sewing troubles but then the purple thread was MIA.  Looked high and low without success and finally ordered new purple thread.  The day it dropped on my doorstep I found the original purple thread in plain sight, in a location I had thoroughly searched earlier.  As a FU to the universe the cut out renfrew got thrown into the UFO box.

This week I wanted some brain dead sewing and this renfrew finally got sewn up.   So that's one UFO converted. You don't really want to see me model my millionth renfrew right?

2. Blue Peony
Made a muslin that I will swear up and down fit pretty good. (Except I might not havechecked the back.)  Made it up in the fashion fabric and surprise the back was waaaaay too big.   Fuzted around with it until giving up in disgust and throwing it in the UFO box

This seems like it would be the perfect Easter dress, if I can figure out the fitting problems in time.   I worked on this yesterday and it looks like the dress needs a sway back adjustment and to be taken in on the sides.

3. Silk magenta blouse from my shirt block
Was knocking off this Boden blouse and forgot that the sleeve I grabbed had gathers at the sleeve cap and the sleeve cuff.  When I sewed up the blouse those gathers + yoke gathers = super 80's blouse.  Not in a good way.   I disassemble the sleeves to cut the cap down and then got cranky this stupid project wasn't done yet.  Then threw it in the UFO box.

Haven't yet taken a look at this garment yet.  I can't remember if the sleeve heads are already cut down or what.  Due to the time constraint of finishing a dress by Easter this got stuffed back into the UFO box. Dumm Dummm Dummmmmm.

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Lounging Around - Maria Denmark Lounge Pants

We interrupt self proclaimed "Button Down March" to bring you lounge pants.  Cozy, cozy lounge pants.  This pattern is courtesy of Maria Denmark and is a steal at $5.20. (Less than that if you're a PR member and get it though their site).

Might used the "I saw it first" rule and stole from the kids fabric stash.  A 2 year old isn't gonna appricate fangy clouds like I will.

As with all pants patterns I took one look at the rise and said, "Well that's not gonna cover my all the junk in the truck," so the following changes were made...
Starting with a size XL
1. Dropped crotch 2 1/2" on both front and back.
2. Added 1" to the top of the back crotch at CB.

After sewing a pair up I found that the waistband was too loose and that the pants needed a tilted waist alteration. Took off the waistband and...
3. Cut down the front of the pants 1 1/2" at CF which was blended out to nothing at the side seams.
4. Took the pants in about 1/2" at CB and trimmed the waistband down the same.

Reattached the waistband and the pants were perfect!  Which is good because all my RTW knit pants are falling apart at the seams.

Front View

Back view showing the waistband.  I used a 1x1 rib knit with elastic inside of it.  If you had a knit with good recovery you could skip the elastic step. Mine did not have enough lycra content for that.

But what I really like to do in my lounge pants is read my comics.  Oh Gambit, what trouble have you gotten into this time?