'Sewing With a Plan' - winter completed, spring starting

In my slow fashion section I post the summary on my SWAP efforts over the year.

The winter period is now up (or actually it was up already before xmas). I had a very ambitious plan for winter - 7 garments of which I had tried non of the patterns before. No real quick projects either. And there was THE PANTS that I feared so much (and still do, to some extent).

The winter plan contained 2 dresses, 2 pants, 2 blouses and 1 jacket. I managed to finish both pants, one dress and exchanged one blouse for another:

The Thurlow #1 was blogged about here, Thurlow #2 here, and here. The bat wing blouse was blogged about here,  and Hazel dress here.

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Now, let's move on to the new plan - the SWAP of spring 2014!

Learning from my overly ambitions planning last time - and realising I'll have even less sewing time at hand during this next period I decided to aim for less. The SWAP states you should do 6 garments every season, so I feel totally rebellious showing a plan of only 4! Ha, ha.

I'll be going back to work soon, after almost a year on maternity leave, so I need to add some smartish outfits my wardrobe. The item I'm most excited about is the Anise jacket from Colette Patterns. I have never sewn a jacket before and I aim to make this one perfect! Gotta put the bar up high, right?

As any observant reader may notice, the fabric chosen for Anise is quite far from the samples I showed the other day (here). The reason is that I finally got around to check how much fabric I needed, which turned out to be a lot! Nearly 3y! So with the Harris Tweed costing a small fortune I chickened out and got some no name wool tweed from Sweden instead. It'll do just fine and has a spring feeling about it, I think. Besides, it is my first jacket and who nows how it'll turn out!


/Alexandra

2nd pair of Thurlows finished

It took a while but finally I'm done.

I really wanted this pattern to be my perfect pair of pants, but sadly I don't like them all that much. Not even after this 2:nd pair that I actually don't have much to complain about. I can't put my finger on what it is... I guess I just don't feel fashionable. They are a little dated in some way, even if they are meant to flirt with the old school, retro pant kind of thing.

Judge for yourselves (and as always AWESOME photography by me... haha).

I do like the single welt pockets though (as opposed to the double welts the pattern suggests). I'm happy with the belt loop X too - I think it adds some casual flare to them.

On a positive note,  one thing I learned is that the BBA (Big Butt Adjustment) was a great way to add booty room for extra junk in da trunk. I blogged about that here.

What's next now? I am actually working on some xmas gifts and since some people MAY be lurking the blog I better not tell just yet. But in regards of the SWAP I have just finished the 2nd garment of my winter plan and hope to finish Hazel Dress shortly. Looking forward to it!

/Alexandra

No poo hair report and Thurlow sewing status

Last night I got to sew on my Thurlows for an hour - yay!!!! I have now attached the waistband. Left to do is hemming (boooooooring), attaching belt loops and sewing buttons and button holes. I doubt I get any more sewing time until maybe Sunday, but soon there will be pictures - promise!


In the meantime I want to share some pics of my hair! I went "no 'poo" (stopped using shampoo) in August and I do get questions about how I'm getting on. I have to say I am very pleased with the results so far. I don't get oily hair nearly as fast as before and my hair has a whole new body to it. I lived under the impression that I had very thin, flat and lifeless hair naturally. Boy, was I wrong! I actually have quite full hair with plenty of volume and it looks so healthy now!

I haven't cut my hair since before I had my baby, some 9 months ago, due to lack of time. Please ignore non existent hairstyle... and while you're at it, any suggestions on hairstyles?

Dried naturally, no brushing.

After brushing

/Alexandra

Big butt adjustment (BBA) - another round of Thurlow pants! (kind of a tutorial I guess)

I made a pair of Thurlow pants a little while ago somewhat successfully. I blogged about them here. They are not bad. Since that blog post I have added one more belt loop at the back and added buttons to the welt pockets. That made the fit a lot better.

Pocket button.

I have since then used them a lot. Almost every day, actually. But I am only 95 % satisfied. The rest of the 5 % is gnawing away at my brains. Oh, the pain of gnawing at brains!! ;-D
I'll show you:

Issues to be resolved.

I still need some more booty room and the angle where the legs hit the butt is not quite right. The new belt loop and the buttons solved parts of the fabric droop, but still left things to be desired. This gal ain't happy until she's happy if ya know whatta mean!!

Time for round 2!

Since I had modified the pattern quite a bit before sewing last time I decided to compare my pattern with the original pattern sheet. And I was really surprised that I actually made pants SMALLER THAN SIZE 0!!!!!!! - except for the butt. I have never worn a size 0 in my life. That sizing chart is bent if you ask me.

Modified size 6 = smaller than size 0!

Anyhow.  I have now decided to start from scratch, from a size 0, and then do what I will call a Big Butt Adjustment (BBA). I know some call it Full Butt Adjustment (FBA). But I think it sounds kinda gross (constipated much, anyone?) plus it can be confused with Full Bust Adjustment (FBA).

I will do it pretty much like shown by Coletterie here.

Note! The BBA is done only on the back pattern piece!!

#1 - Tracing a size 0. 

Marking the seam lines to make the changes within the "finished garment" and not in the seam allowance area. In this pattern 1,5 cm seam allowance is included.

Dotted lines mark seams.

 #2 - Marking the cutting lines. 

This isn't an exact science. The green pivot circle should be places a good inch below the dart point though (roughly where you think your butt cheek apex is) and the vertical green line right through the dart. All other pivot points (circles) are placed on the seam lines. I'd suggest the angle of the turquoise line should be determined by how far down on your thighs you feel the need for extra fabric. The read line is for adding length to the crotch line.

The great thing about adding butt room this way is that you don't change your side seams at all. That means that all the pattern pieces will still go together like a dream. Cheers to that!

Marking all the cutting lines and pivot points.

 #3 - Slash 'n' spread! 

Cut along all the lines STOPPING at the pivot circles!

Now, to get the right amount of spreading I compared my old pattern piece with the original patterns and found that my butt requires roughly a size 6. The difference in width between 0 and 6 is about 2 cm (less than 1 inch) so that is the amount I am spreading.

If you don't have an old pattern piece like me, you can try to measure the pattern across where your butt is at its biggest, double the measurement (minus seam allowances). Let's say that adds up to 40 cm on the pattern in the size you've chosen. If you now measure your ass in the same place with a tape measure, you may get, say, 46 cm. That is 6 cm more than the size of the pattern. Which means you need to add about 3 cm in the BBA (since we're doing half a butt on the pattern).

Comparing with the old pattern piece.

#4 - Tape in paper and redraw lines
When you're happy with the alignment above, tape in paper and redraw lines.

Before I cut the paper, I measured the pocket marking to 13 cm. I make sure now when I redraw the pocket marking that it is still 13cm. If you look closely below, you can see the old pocket line penciled in. The dart is redrawn by just following the old dart legs until they meet again (blue lines, not the green). They should now meet the pocket line, just like they did before.

New dart and pocket line in blue.

#5 - Verify the crotch curve.

When I compare my old pattern (which I had altered a bunch of times) I see that I need to deepen the crotch curve a good deal, thus making it more L shaped. I am marking this on my new pattern and then cut. 

Old pattern, on top, has a deeper curve than the new pattern.

BUT. I wasn't entirely happy with how my butt pushed the fabric down, remember! I suspect I have a low hanging butt (nice, eh). To find out how my crotch curve REALLY looks I got a tip from a friend to roll up some tin foil and then form it against your body (along the crotch line). 

Placing my pattern pieces together (overlapping the seam allowance and then adding my foil roll shows the truth: Yes, I have indeed a low hanging butt. And this is even after I did the above adjustment... 

The pattern pieces shouldn't follow the foil roll exactly, but the shape should be the same. See the difference in the angle (black lines) and the size of the yellow arrows?

I draw a new line that better reflects my body. Purple curved line below:

Finished pattern piece!!!

The daddy.

Just for fun I will now compare the finished pattern with the old one:
In this pattern we see the biggest difference is actually the crotch line and the size of the dart. Everything else is kind of the same around the butt. Remember I said I thought they were just too tight? I figure since I now started on a size 0, and the old front pattern pieces were actually a good deal smaller than 0, i will gain the extra room around the body by not altering the front pieces. This should make the side seams better positioned than last time too.

The real difference is when I compare the whole pattern piece!! Look at the angle of the legs!!! You know when you pin out fabric here and there, weird things can happen. Hopefully this will now take care of some of the drooping fabric behind the legs too.

Anyway, it just goes to show that it is easier to take a smaller size that fits most parts of you okay, and then add extra room where you need it, than going for a larger size and then pin out all the excess. THAT should be famous words, my friends. Just compare FBA. Same thing there. Am I right?

Now I "just" need to sew them up, and that will take me a couple of days. I'll let you know how it went. I will also go against my better judgement and skip doing a muslin. I need pants NOW and whatever saves me time... (famous last words).

So long!
/Alexandra

Thurlow pants

I did it! I made pants - finally. I have been scared crazy because ill-fitting pants are really awful and there are so many ways pants fit can fail that you don't even know where to begin. But I need pants desperately so, as a part of this winter SWAP, I've decided to make two pairs. And they are gonna be great. They just have to.

The pattern I'm using is Thurlow from Sewaholic Patterns. This brand of patterns are developed with pear-shaped women in mind. That's a good starting point for me.

Let's muslin away, shall we!

The key to sewing success is making a muslin (or several). It is not the most fun part of the process, but I've never regretted making one. There is always some little tweak you wanna do.

Muslin #1 (using some old 90's curtains I found in hubbies old basement storage)

According to the sizing chart I measure a size 10. After reading some reviews I learned the pattern runs large so I decided to cut a size 6. The first muslin is a size 6 with no alterations:

Okay, not the best photos in the entire universe, but you can still see that the fit is not too bad actually. You can tell they are a tad tight over the butt and there is some excess fabric pooling around the thighs, but all in all probably a better fit than most pants I can find in a department store. But for the next muslin I decided to

• add some more butt room by increasing the crotch depth on the rear pieces 
• lower the crotch hight in the front 
• remove about an inch (2,5cm) on both legs all the way down, along the inseam on the back piece.

Muslin #2 

It seams like I don't have enough thighs to be a straight "pear" since I need plenty of booty space and still I get fabric flapping around them ol' legs. Or it is just the style of the pattern - I prefer fairly slim fitting pants and these are probably kinda loose in the design when I think about it. Oh well.

Now you can see the butt fits into the pants but since I still had plenty of room around the legs I decided to pin out one more inch PER LEG. I guess it would have made more sense to cut a smaller size (probably a size 2) and then add more butt room instead. Anyhoo.. I decided not to make a third muslin (feeling a little cocky now!).

Also, I expect some pregnancy fat to come off in near time, so I want everything I sew to just fit, so that I still can wear them when I've lost some. So, yes, a little on the tight side here.

Time for the real deal - cutting the fashion fabric!

Sewing up the pants

First step was to make pockets, including the double welt pockets. I had never done welt pockets before and I had to do some serious thinking to get it right. I am not even sure I like the look of them that much. I prefer single welt pockets so I think that's what I'm going to make on my next pair. For the pocket lining I chose a vintage fabric that I've had laying around for ages. The fashion fabric is nice black wool suiting that I got at a bargain price. These pants comes down to about 150SEK (15 GBP/ 17 €/ 23 US$) including all the zippers, buttons and stuff. A darn good price for good quality. If they fit, that is....

Front pocket lining

Back pocket lining 

Finished double welt pocket! Neat, huh!
(ignore the white basting stitches - i'll remove them later)

Sidenote: you probably can't see the details properly but with these linings I'll always have cookies in my pockets ;-) Lucky me!

Tadaa - zipper installed!!

So far so good.

The next challenge was the fly.
Tricky and fiddly but I managed eventually.  Now the pants can actually come on and off. Handy, handy.

I do regret making the fly lining in the printed fabric though. I should have used the black fabric (or something dark) - now I'll risk having a white strip shining from the side if the fly isn't completely flat against the body. I might just have to stand still while wearing them. Sitting down is for loosers anyway, right? Seriously though, I am contemplating of putting some black fabric paint on the left side of the zipper (in the picture). Any other brilliant ideas? I thought I had such a cute thing going on... with a balloon and everything.

Fly lining - with a balloon!!

Time for waistband! 

I don't particularly like attaching waistbands. It is fiddly to get the lining sewn  without it looking like a kid did it when you do it from the outside. Sometimes I slip stitch the lining by hand but it is slow. Instead I wanted to try putting bias tape on the waistband lining and let it hang down past the sewing line. Then when I "stitch in the ditch" from the outside any crooked lines won't be too apparent. First time I am doing that too, by the way.

Look at this lovely finish!!!
Almost looks professional if you ask me.

And then some belt loops. Can you see the "stitching in the ditch"? No, I thought so. It is completely invisible!! Key to success? Go slowly!

MOMENT OF TRUTH!!!! - THE FANCY SCHMANCY PANTS ARE DONE

It was surprisingly hard to take these photos without everything looking completely black. Maybe photos outdoors would have been the trick, but it is already dark out now and I didn't wanna wait.

I managed to fit into the pants (hooray!) BUT they were definitely on the tight side. I better shed that baby fat pretty soon or... 

Final verdict

All in all I am very pleased with my very first pair of pants! I would wear them in public and that is not a bad review. I think I might add a liiiiiittle extra room in the next pair though.

Rear view.

Put on a massive belt to show the belt loops better.
And Indiana Jones never goes out of style anyway...

Look at all that posing business going on!

AND a final butt pic. Enjoy!

/Alexandra