I finally finished my black trousers/pants. I made a muslin of this pattern made way back here in January 2014. The fit was pretty good and so I cut out another pair from some aqua and white tiny houndstooth fabric about 6 months ago(non stretch) and modified it by narrowed the legs as I found the bottom of the leg at a shorter length flapped about and annoyed me. Alas, they didn't even come close to fitting and I can't work out why as I cut the 14 like I did with the other pair and this one. They aren't finished and waiting for me to whittle down my bum to fit (ha ha..how long will I wait?).
Sorry I just realised I didn't take a photo of the pants on, or a full length photo either but will do that when my photographer comes home. Hopefully I'll have a blouse to go with them! When I was just about finished, I made the button hole. Firstly I put it vertical.... unpick, then I made another test button hole and went to make on the pants. Doh, what did my machine do, but the automatic button hole made the first run the right size and the next run was short??? I don't know why... more unpicking and then a good button hole. I haven't hemmed them as I wanted to wash them again in case they shrank up. The fabric is a cotton sateen stretch that is a bit heavy; great for pants. I think I bought this at the fabric sale I go to. I made them plain, no pockets and I think I miss them. I will probably make these again but I bought a Burda pattern recently and I want to try them for fit.
Here's my fly front... pretty good even if I do say so myself. The instructions are good and easy to follow in my opinion and the waistband does meet properly but I wasn't focused on that .. oops.
This it the inside of the waistband and fly. I used some fabric from a dress that's half made (see bum too big above) with rose fabric from Singapore, and some hot pink bought bias binding. I love the inside pop of colour.
Here's the back waistband, which I haven't mentioned is a curved one and gives a great fit. I 'm thinking to make the back waistband piece in 1 piece instead of 2 piece - any thoughts on this? Overall, I love the pants. They fit really well, not perfectly but much better than ready to wear. If you are nervous about making pants, this is a great one to try. They are not narrow at the bottom though, 'cause they kind of look like that on the pattern envelope, but they are pretty straight down which works for ankle length but not cropped for my taste. Next... yawn... school trousers.
I made 4 pairs of school trousers, but boy it really hasn't been cold enough (yet) to wear them ... well you know not me, my son to wear them. After school holidays in June/July I think we'll be using them for sure. I made two pairs for here and two for Dad's house. The fabric is from East Coast Fabrics and was $3.65 per metre and at nearly 2 metres wide was a bargain. I still have some left and may try my hand at a school polo shirt. I've harvested (I love that term!) the school name collar so it will look pretty good. At about $36 a t-shirt it's worth a go and we only have 7 months left at this school so I don't want to buy any. I've got a couple of patterns so will put that on the list.
This is the pattern I have used over the years. It has a great fit in all the sizes I have used (7yrs to 11years so far) and worth the $1 I paid for it :)! I have a Burda boys jeans pattern too but while my son is happy to wear the pull on elastic pants, I'm saving up my time and making those.When he wants fly front pants, then I'll use the other one or adapt this one.
In other great news (for me but not the stash) is my gift of patterns from my friend in the U.S. She picked these for me and I love them all. The Connie Crawford pattern is just pants and the vest/jacket with "purchased top".... what?? The drawing shows the top in the same colour as the pants so I think it's a bit misleading and I don't really like a long vest or duster coat pattern, but maybe the pants are good. The rest I love. The See & Sew B5909 is kind of like a cape but not so structured from what I've seen and it recommends boiled wool and I have some red from memory so I may try this out soon. The top B5203 may be made super soon too... I'm not normally a fan of the handkerchief hemline but maybe it'll be nice with some heavy tights. I'm not sure when I'll have time to make a bag but I do want to try and I like the one handle bag in this photo that I have taken badly and you can't see it. I don't like fabric bags as they scream home made to me but I did use one my friend made for a while and liked it.. so maybe it was just fabric choice... these look like ugly table runners to me.
Next up is finishing a lime green jacket that I started last year (or the year before?) with fabric that was bought in the '70's - from Mum's stash. I've got lost of things I want to make NOW, so lets see how I go. Anyone seen or made any of these patterns?
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