Semi-Boring Basics

Poor fashion basics, they're like the steamed vegetable of the sewing world. But you can't eat dessert for every meal or run around in chiffon dresses when it's 50 degrees. Some times you just have to knuckle down and sew a boring pair of navy pants.

Sewing pants really isn't the problem, it's fitting pants.  Most of you know this cause I like to rant about pants fitting on a regular basis. I'm like an old man yelling at the TV, just replace the TV with pants muslins.  The language is equally salty.

My lower body fitting issues include, tilted waist, post baby fat shelf, giant butt, narrow upper back, full thighs and large calves. That's just the stuff I know about at the moment, because the list never seems to stop growing.

For my foray back into the "cycle of pants fitting hate," I decided to use a pattern that already had some of the kinks worked out of it, Colette Clovers.  Past me had done a pretty good job with the waist area and I thought those changes could be copied over to another size. For the legs I wanted to try some of the fitting adjustments that Cation Designs detailed in this very informative post.  Some of those alterations I'd never seen before and I'm always looking for the magic key to great fitting pants.

Much like every pair of pants I sew, these feel like they fit a little better but aren't perfect. But first lets do a quick rundown of my alterations broken down for each fitting problem.

Large Butt - Raised the rise at CB 2.5". Extended the back crotch hook an 1" and also scooped out the crotch curve about 3/8".  The front crotch curve was extended 1/2". On the side seams  1/2" extra ease was added just in the butt area.

Narrow Upper Back - Increased the back dart to have an intake of 1". Shaved off about 1/2" off the CB by making the seam line more diagonal.  The back waistband was reduced in width to match.

Titled Waist - this means your waist is lower in the front than in the back.
Cut down the CF seam line 1/2 and blended this out to nothing at the side seams. Raising the CB for my butt also takes care of the higher waist in the back.

Post Baby Fat Shelf - Straightened the CF seam line and added 1/2" to the front side seam area only.  Front waist band was increased to match the new width.

Full Thighs - Did the Full inner thigh adjustment shown on Cation Design's blog to the front pant piece only. A 1/2" was added through out the leg, up to the crotch curve. I skipped this alteration on the back because I always seem to have excess fabric in that location. Adding more fabric to that area seemed dumb.

Large Calves - Did the hyperextended calf alteration also on Cation Design's blog.  I split open the lower leg a 1/2".

*Other alterations were, 2 1/2" of additional length to the legs and "Excess Fabric at the Crotch" alteration to try and remove some of those back thigh wrinkles.*

Conclusions - Transferring my fitting changes for the tilted waist, narrow upper back and baby gut to the new size worked. I'm pretty happy with how the whole waist area fits and feel those like fitting problems are solved.  The full inner thigh adjustment and hyperextended calf adjustment seem to be an improvement over what I was doing to the legs before. (A knock knee adjustment and adding extra width to side seam.)  I may need to increase the calf adjustment a tad since wrinkles still stack on top of them.  The back rise, oh the back rise, will forever be the bane of my existence. It's a little too short and gives me the slightest of wedgies.  I do prefer that look over the "looks like I took a dump in my pants" thing that happens when I start extending the back rise.  I've also come to terms with the fact that there will always be wrinkles under the butt.  I need a lot of "sitting down ease" for that butt, so it's gonna have to hang out on the back of my thighs when I'm standing up.  For now I deem this pattern "done with fitting alterations."  I'd rather spend my time on more fruitful occupations, like plotting new shoe purchases.

Hey guess what? I sewed up another basic, but one that's a classic instead of being boring. It's a semi-sheer striped Trifecta Top.

One of the good things about having a large stash is that fabric can disappear until the perfect pattern arrives.  I recently unearthed this roll end from the deep stash level and immediately knew it would be perfect for the high scoop neck version of the Trifecta Top. The fabric is an extremely stretchy jersey with a sweatery hand.  It seems to be some sort of rayon blend, making it perfect for transitional weather. I traced a straight size 4 and made no alterations.  The extra stretchiness of this fabric worked in my favor and disguised any fitting problems that might have happened with a more stable fabric.  The stuff was a bit of a pain in the ass to sew, but I'm really happy with the finished top.

To be honest, this is the sort of thing that gets a lot more wear than pretty pretty dresses.  But don't worry, I have more pretty pretty dresses to show you. So many dresses.....so little time.