Sewing Vloggers

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Simp 2860 "amazing fit" Pants Pattern

These pants are made from 100% linen and just from running up and down the stairs a few times they were wrinkled before DH took the pics. That's OK. That's what linen does. Not the most exciting color but it works great with my new green blouse and a few other things in the closet. Here are a question or two on the fit. Do you see how the front waist dips down at CF? That happens to me on all pants, including RTW. There was a huge amount of fabric between the crotch line and the waist and I folded that out. Whether I add or subtract, my CF waist always dips down, though. I have a pretty flat tummy and am short from waist to crotch. Any observations for improvement? Is this swayback? In the back you can see my right rear leg has some folds. I know my hips are shaped differently from side to side. One, the left, has a little more high hip than the other. I am thinking I need to drop the right side waist seam down a little bit? Whatch think? I don't think I would have caught this without the camera. These pants are meant to fit one half inch below the waist. Other than the observations just stated, I am pretty happy with them. Now am I happy with the angle DH got of my ass picture? Oh, My! This is a great pattern.

They walk you thru the entire measuring process and give you the option of a slim, average, or curvy cut. I knew I'd be a curvy. The pattern instructions are VERY clear, even having you stitch directionally for the stay stitching. They walk you thru the entire prefit, basting process, and then help you examine the fit wrinkles. The adjustments are laid right out for you.

I made my muslin out of some drapery blackout lining, a good choice to replicate a bottomweight. Once I tried that on it was clear a fish eye dart was needed to subtract bagginess under my bum. That is the greatest alteration and you can see it on Debbie's blog, here. Thank you Debbie.

These pants are really full, which normally I don't like, but I think for summer pants that will be a comfy plus. I did not want to line these pants. I make a lot of linen for the summer and really love the loose one layer feel of it. Because of that I usually serge or Honk Kong my seams. I could have serged here, but I have learned that HK seams add weight to an otherwise light garment. So I chose the HK seams to make this hang better and I think it did.

I used bias strips of a poly georgette from the stash, a leopardy type print. A word about the zipper first. The process in the pattern does not match up to the pictures, in my opinion, and it makes it a lot more complicated than it should be. I usually use the Sandra Betzina fly method and should have this time. Next time I will by pass the pattern and pull her book out. Her method is sooooooo easy and is done in less than 5 minutes. Only way to go.
The zipper has a an underlap, or what I call a "fly cover". I bound that as well but was in a real quandary as to which side I wanted to put to the outside (?) world. I decided to keep the binding toward my tumtum. But, then I didn't want to cut back the other side and it was already stitched up for the second time (another story)! So I left it wide and finished it off with some catch stitching done with a buttonhole twist. This is probably not the textbook way to do this, but I like it and that's all that matters.

Bottom line, there is still some tweaking to do and I hope to get some more fabric soon to make some more of these pants. But I think this is a great pattern. Other than the fish eye dart, it was pretty good right out of the envelope. That NEVER happens.

********************************************************************************

Thank you, Paco, for further recognition. He has been lovely to award me the Kreative Blogger award and it is really appreciated. If you have not checked out Paco's blog, please do. It is an absolute inspirational treat. Gracias, de nuevo.

************************************************************************************

I have a pet peeve. This ripped little paper has been sitting on my desk for a while now and today is the day I deal with it. Call me a pill, or pain, but can we get the words right? Here are some words I find over and over again on blogs and posts and even in conversation. First, the worst:
  • Muslim....Ok, this is a belief system, a religion, some would even say a race. IT IS NOT a fabric. It is not a trial garment. M U S L I N is a cotton fabric, usually white or beige, used in sewing, quilting, and pattern making. It can also refer to a trial garment, not necessarily made out of that fabric, that is used to test fit. I find it offensive to all our Muslim brethren every time I hear or see this. N, N, N, not M!
The next has all sorts of spellings.
  • It is ARMSCYE. Adele Margolis says it is the same as the armhole. She provides a drawing that she says illustrates it as the Eye of the Arm in "Fashion Sewing". I bow to Adele. In the past couple of weeks I have seen it as ARM SCYTHE, ARMS EYE, and other spellings now and then. These can give you some really strange visualations. Yikes!
All of this is offered in the spirit of congeniality and friendliness and with no ill will. I am just one of those people who had her mom constantly correcting her grammar and pronunciation. Does that mean my mom or myself are/were always right? Heck no! But I just had to get this off my chest and thanks for letting me vent. Off the spelling soapbox!......Bunny

11 comments:

  1. I love that binding in the trousers - that burst of print is fun.

    I agree with you regarding those common spelling errors. I cringe when I see "muslim", too. Yes, I already had the visual for "armscythe" before I got to your last sentence of the paragraph. As a teacher, spelling was especially important to me. If it wasn't spelled right, it wasn't right!

    ReplyDelete
  2. My absolute favorite malapropism from the presidential campaign was "Obama is a Muslin". I saw that a bunch of times and it just cracked me up every time. It did, however, take me far to long to explain that our president is neither a Muslim NOR a piece of tightly woven fabric. People's eyes started to glaze over.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Your pants look great. I have the same problem with bought pants (even undies) where the back is much higher than the front. I figure it is because I don't have a very big curve to my rear. I imagine the way to fix it would be to sort of fisheye across the back above the crotch to reduce the centre back length. I havn't actually made any pants (well not in the last few years) yet to test this out.

    ReplyDelete
  4. The pants are fabulous. There is nothing wrong with the cf being lower. Obviously you have a lower waist. I have the same thing, and if the front fits, and it does here leave it alone. Secondly, yeah a little bit more room on the right side will take care of that slight wrinkle. But, really these are beautifully cut and fit pants that flatter you. I love the poly georgette binding on your seams. So high end.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hello there! I always love your Hong Kong seams. I don't have a serger so they are of particular interest to me! I mean, I have a serger but trust me, it’s not good to use. It doesn’t even cut the material as you go along :)

    So how do you do the Hong Kong seams? I suspect you cut 2” strips on the bias and then use your iron to fold it in 4ths, with the raw edge in the middle? Is that what you do? How do you have the patience to make all the strips?! I think it looks fabulous for really special garments, but for the rest I’ll either line them or … don’t judge me… leave the edges raw. Can you believe I do that sometimes?! I would never do that if I was sewing for someone else :)

    ReplyDelete
  6. Not quite that complicated, Heather! I think I will do a tute on this by the end of the week so keep watching. Welcome to the blog. It's nice to have you on board!

    Thanks, all, for the feedback. Whatever form it takes, it is greatly appreciated.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Love the pants, especially the contrast under-fabric. And hah! too funny about misspellings. You're so right!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Beautiful pants, both outside and inside. Your work is impeccable!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Ooooohhhh I learned something new and helpful today! I will try the Hong Kong finish on my seams in my linen summer garments. I totally understand what you mean about how lightweight they can be. Thanks!

    Btw, I am one of those people who have to check to make sure that I am spelling "muslin" and not "muslim"!!! It's so easy to make that mistake when typing.

    ReplyDelete
  10. I am a newbie to your blog and I was very interested in the under-bum dart but the website seems to longer exist. Could you elaborate??

    ReplyDelete

Engaging commentary:

Had to Refurbish This One!

    About  6 or 7 years ago , during the dawn of the Zipper Trend,  I bought one of my rare retail items. It was a blush pink and black bord...