2/11/12: I'm Sewing Pants

Even after spending about five or so days working on my pants project, I am still pinching myself. What on earth am I doing? Am I really attempting to sew pants and really try to make them fit right? I'm trying not to wake up and smell the roses. . . Not until the pants are off the machine.

So, yeah, I'm sewing pants. Last year I blogged about using Simplicity 2860 for my first ever pair and some black polyester poplin fabric.

Never touched the idea again until this past week. To tell you the truth, up to a couple months ago I was completely and utterly tired of certain wardrobe staples not fitting me right, aka pants and shoes. I'm over six feet tall and have large feet so I've had to put up with a lot of let-me-downs in the realm of buying these two items.

Can't do much about the footsies but I am determined to give pants a go. I bought a few pairs of career trousers from JCPenney last December when I learned they are now selling Ultra Talls (which have a 37" inseam!) and they fit pretty good. That gave me a glimmer of hope and now I want to perfect the whole concept by making my own. I know I won't be able to sew a pair that will have a 100% perfect fit, but I want to see what I can do and to learn the ropes.

So to give you the bare bones of where I'm at:

This is a shot of my sewing table, poorly lit because its almost 9 PM. My one and only pant muslin is all sewn up and I've tried it on and did some looking and pinning and tucking and some more looking and pinning and tucking. :) I think this must be the hardest part of the entire sewing process: assessing the muslin fit, in all its wrinkle glory. I've done a bit of muslin making before and most of the time, I hate to say, I never got past the muslin. It just became too overwhelming and it began to feel less like sewing and more like a guessing game.

However, I'm better prepared this time around. I resolved to slow down and savor my sewing time, which will help immensely during this muslin making, and I have two very good resources for this project. 

The Pant Fitting Sources I am Using:

1. Pattern Fitting with Confidence by Nancy Zieman. This book has a rather lengthy section on pant fitting and fine tuning and it all uses the pivot and slide method of alteration as a basis. I'm a big fan of this approach to pattern alteration (namely because its easy to remember the steps and it doesn't ruin the actual tissue pattern). It also includes at the back of the book what are the causes of certain wrinkle types (i.e. pull wrinkles, fold wrinkles, etc.). And call me strange, but I just like this book because of the illustrations. For some reason I can better understand alteration steps like this when it is drawn instead of reality photo shots. 

And I love the Personal Fitting Chart that you fill out with your pattern's measurements as well as your body measurements. It brings everything under a more mathematical point of view which helps me a lot. I'm no math whiz but I like when everything is written out so you can compare measurements. 

 2. Sunni's Trouser Sew-Along. Sunni from A Fashionable Stitch had a trouser sew-along awhile ago and I'm reaping so much information from her past posts. I love her straightforward writing style and her sense of humor. Just knowing someone went through the same muslin problems--I think she did a total of 3!--makes this whole experience just a little bit better. And I like her store, too. I just bought a buckle and belt kit from her this month. :)

------

Once I get a good, firm grasp on this project of mine I'll post some pattern alteration/muslin fitting details. I'm a sucker for those and so I'm sure your just itching to hear all about it. Right? :) Will be back soon!