Completed: More Thurlows, With A Side Of Skinny

Fair warning #1: I almost resorted to calling these the Thinlows, but I refrained. You guys are welcome.
Fair warning #2: These pictures are really really terrible and I am sorry for that. I was saving to buy a new camera because mine sucks, and then I accidentally spent the money on something else that I decided I wanted more. Actually, I’m not sorry about that part.

Check out my new Thurlows! We are up to six pair at this point, so I understand if you are sick of this pattern now, but y’all gotta understand that I am just in love and we’re still honeymoonin’ strong over here. My TNT! My one true love! The Thurlow!

You’ll notice these are a bit different, in fact they went on a bit of a diet! As much as I loved those nice flared legs in the original pattern – I’m a skinny girl at heart, at least as far as my pants are concerned I’ve hemmed and hawwed for a few months now on how to properly execute the slim-down. I probably should have hemmed and hawwed just a little bit more because honestly, these aren’t exactly my best attempt! Blame it on a combination of bad pattern, er, combinations (which I’ll get to in just a second, so put your hands down!), as well as a tricky fabric choice. It was a learning curve, that’s for sure!

To get the legs skinny, I ended up merging the top of the Thurlow pattern with the legs of the Clover pattern. One issue I noticed right away with my tracing – and you probably notice this right away in these pictures – was that the grainlines for each pattern were TOTALLY different. Just skewing in completely different directions. So which grainline was I supposed to choose? I took a wild guess and stuck with the Thurlow grainline. Also, SPOILER: I picked wrong; look at those crazy wrinkles and folds and off-grain madness going on – the side seams are trying to so hard to wrap around my legs! WAH! First lesson learned here: pay attention to those grainlines. They need to go straight up and down the middle of the legs, which is why each pattern was so different.

Mistake #2 came from my fabric choice. I really like this fabric – it’s a very soft, wool-blend felt that I picked up at the Vogue store while I was in Chicago last year. It was super cheap, feels great against the skin, and I love the color/fuzzy soft texture. However, it has waaaaay too much stretch for this pattern. I don’t know if that saved the grainline fiasco or made it worse than ever, but the massive amounts of stretch definitely contribute to how these pants hang off my legs. Also, the sizing was horribly off, due to the stretch. I kept basting and taking in the sides – I took over 1″ off each side seam. The welt pockets are now too close together as a result; and the pants are still a little loose. Didn’t think that one through, I’m afraid! Second lesson learned: no stretch on these pants, at least not without sizing down first.

Here’s a better picture of my fails. Wrinkles all up and down the backs of the legs, and the welt pockets are sitting in a weird spot. Oh well!

I don’t think they’re all bad, though. They’re quite comfortable, thanks to the stretch and how soft the fabric is. And honestly – is the fit that much worse than RTW? I dunno.

NOPE, NEVERMIND, THAT’S PRETTY BAD. HAHAHA!

I plan on revisiting these again, as I have not yet satisfied my need for skinny pants. I think I’ve got a better grasp on the grainline issue, but if anyone has words of wisdom they’d like to share – let’s hear it!

And yes, I still plan on wearing these. In all their wrinkly, off-grain glory.

Completed: Thurlow Jeans

Well. I have some good news and I have some bad news.

The good news is that the trouser portion of the Thurlow pattern is just as good as the shorts portion. One would think that goes without saying, but occasionally I do see patterns that focus all their attention on one component and add the second as a “bonus” without properly testing it (see McCall’s 5971 – the cap sleeves are perfect, but the long sleeves were not properly drafted & cause some funky problems when you try to, you know, move your arms & shit). Anyway, that’s not the problem here. These parts are perfect.

Which brings me to the bad news… uhhh… I hope you like looking at pictures of me wearing Thurlows, because you are about to see a LOT of them. I have fabric picked for 2 more pairs of trousers & one more pair of shorts. And I have ideas for more. Lord help us.

At any rate, I guess I found my new TNT, desert-island pattern! Woohoo!

So, without further ado… let me introduce you to my newest pair of jeans (and also a deliciously trashy part of my back yard):

Don’t you luurve them!? Omgah, so comfy & flattering.

Check out the rear view!

A few fitting notes – these are a size 0, aka the smallest size. FWIW, my waist is 26.5″ & my hips are 37″. These are a PERFECT fit on me. I did pull the back crotch out to a size 4, because I noticed my shorts didn’t have as much butt room as I prefer (and occasionally hovered near the zones of Wedgie City, eeeew). I did not shorten the front crotch of these, there are a few wrinkles but that’s mostly because of the way I’m standing. LOVE the fit of these. LOVE LOVE LOVE.

Oh, they are a little long. What you see in the pictures is the natural length, with a shitty cuff job (sidenote: I have no idea how pants cuffs work, nor do I own any pants with cuffs that I can compare to. I am pretty sure I cuffed these wrong because they fall out often. Help?). I’m 5’3″ sooo take that as you will. Next time I will shorten these before cutting.

I mean, LOOK AT THEM.

LOOK AT THOSE WELTS.

I did minimal topstitching with these (just around the welt pockets, top of the slash pockets, and the zipper – all in navy) as I wanted them to be very sleek and, er, trouser-like. Also, these are one hundred thousand times better than my previous denim trousers, fyi.

The insides are the best part! I had plans on using a piece of floral cotton I had floating around my stash, but the lining for these pants actually take a fair amount of fabric. So I went to the flea market on Saturday morning in hopes of finding something suitable… and welllll, look what I found! Had exactly enough, too!

I mean, are these like the happiest jeans or what.

Another rear view. These are probably my best welt pockets yet.

On a slightly frustrating note, it would seem that I’m not capable of keeping pants hooks & eyes in my possession. I lost my first pack in the move, somehow. So when I found them at Vogue Fabrics while I was in Chicago, I rejoiced & bought the biggest pack they sold. Come Saturday evening (*ahem*, yeah, I sewed these up in a day…), they were nowhere to be found! I KNOW I bought some because they are in my gloat picture of all the goodies I brought home. I’m fairly certain I threw them away with the plastic bags. Along with the sweet marking wax stuff that I also bought… ::sob::. So these hooks & eyes come from Walmart. And they are just as terrible as you would guess, but hey at least they were cheap!

But, whatever, I have new jeans so I guess it all evens out…

In closing, a few questions for y’all:
1. Since I’m planning on making a few more of these anyway, is anyone interested in a little sew-along? Might be closer to the end of the October before I can start, but I’d be happy to take pictures of the more confusing steps & hand-hold if necessary! C’mon! It’ll be FUN! And the pattern includes both pants & shorts, so those of you in warmer climates don’t have an excuse to back out, nyah nyah nyah.
2. What is your TNT pattern? Is it a Sewaholic pattern? Is this some kind of conspiracy?

Completed: Simplicity 3688 Trousers (with bonus crop top)

I just realized I should probably call this ensemble the ’88 or something of that nature, since both pattern numbers end in 88. What are the odds, eh?

Anyway, new outfit! I’m not even going to both separating these into 2 posts since they are pretty simple on their own. Both pieces were SO quick & simple to make – that crop top took maybe 2 hours. Amazing!

I made the trousers first, so we will start with those. They are Simplicity 3688, you know, the incredibly-famous-incredibly-flattering-incredibly-EASY pattern that everyone has been raving about? I was mildly curious (and also interested in making some high-waisted trousers that didn’t involve a front-fly zip), so I picked it up at the most recent $1.99 sale. This pattern is pretty sweet, I must say! I only made a couple of very simple adjustments – tapered the waist in to fit, and added a little bit of room at the back for teh heiny – and the fit is pretty spot-on. I didn’t even have to adjust the crotch length like I normally do. SWEET. SO SWEET.

Here they are with my very favorite crop top, a sweet little embroidered Hungarian piece from the 60s. I love this top, but unfortunately it is old as shit & totally falling apart (it’s made out of some class of sheer cheesecloth-type fabric). So I have to be careful with it when I do wear it – otherwise, it is restricted to wall art haha.

My only beef with this pattern is the available sizing – it only goes down to a 10. I really should have graded down the waist to an 8 or maybe a 6, but it doesn’t go any smaller than the 10. Sadly, I don’t think I will be making the blouse or the jacket from this pattern – as darling as they are – because they are simply too big. BOO. Why not offer all sizes, Simplicity? I’ve seen you try to do this with the bigger sizes too. Sneaky sneaky.

The fabric is a *very* lightweight denim chambray – it might even be too light for pants, these kind of looks like pajamas. Perfect for summer, though The waistband has a bit of horsehair interfacing for stability.

I finished these as simply as possible – serged seams, topstitched waistband, side lapped zipper. They close with 2 hooks & eyes.

Now for the crop top, McCall’s 4488…

Ahahah, I bought this pattern at the flea market a couple of months ago. It’s so ridiculous! Honestly, I thought the seaming was kind of tacky, but it actually looks a lot better made up. The fabric is some weird stretch knit that I bought at the thrift store for $2.

There’s not much to say about this shirt. It’s very simple, and actually kind of flattering. I’d like to make it in a longer version, maybe even with long sleeves for winter.

The side stripes did originally match up, but I had to take quite a bit in to get it to fit, so now they don’t match. Wah wah. They actually look quite good, considering that I did not take the stripes into account AT ALL when cutting this.

Here’s a scandalous mirror shot of how it looks without the high-waisted – HAHA. Ummmm I don’t think I’ll be wearing it out like this!

The finishing was pretty interesting for this – there is a very narrow facing at the neckline, which is folded back & then top stitched according to the instructions. It looks very similar to ribbing, actually. The sleeves & hem are just stitched down with a twin needle.

On a side note, yesterday we celebrated America by eating hot chicken. In 100*+ degree heat.

At the Music City Hot Chicken Festival – we waited in line for over an hour!

Hurts so good.
If you’ve never had hot chicken… uhhh I don’t exactly know how to properly describe it. It’s not necessarily spicy. It just sets your mouth on fire. Definitely an experience if you like to inflict pain yourself haha.

So there ya go. AMERICUHHHH.

Me Made May – Week 5 Roundup

Well, Me-Made-May is finally over – 5 weeks/31 days of handmade with daily photographs. I’m not even going to pretend I wasn’t relived to NOT take a photo of myself this morning

Since I was on vacation pretty much the entire week, I tried to be creative with my photos (mostly because I didn’t want to drag the tripod, camera *and* laptop with me to Florida lol). It was a bit of a struggle on a couple of the days, mostly because I spent lots and lots of time in my bathing suit… but I managed!

5-26
Shirt: Sewaholic Renfrew – modified some more since it’s original inception; you can’t see it too well but I cut the ribbing off the bottom & replaced it with wide lace (just like my Taffy blouse)
Pants: Colette Clovers
Necklace: Vintage bracelet I turned into a necklace
Shoes: Rugged Warehouse
Shades: Pangea
After a long day of driving (nearly 8 hours in the car! Plus 2 hours at some rando gas station after a belt in Landon’s car snapped & we had to wait for my dad to fix it. Which was preferable to towing it to some shop & paying them assloads of money to fix it, by the way!), we made it to Santa Rosa Beach! This is the view/balcony via our condo.

Uh huh.

5-27
Top: Giant men’s Hawaiian shirt resized by me
Skirt: Vintage, dyed by me
Shoes: Rugged Warehouse
Couldn’t get anyone to take a picture of me, so I settled for one of those awful mirror shots in the fitting room at Goodwill haha.

5-28
Top: thrifted – from the aforementioned Goodwill, no less!
Shorts: Simplicity 5110
Shoes: Walmart
Hat: Not mine, just trying on the goods
This was taken in a cute little town called Seaside, just a few miles from Santa Rosa Beach. We rode our bikes there, and I spent the entire time dying over the bike paths-

Totally flat, totally separate from the main road (which is on the left). It was SO NICE! I wish we had commuter/non-greenway bike paths like this in Nashville.

Seaside was really cute – there were tons of bikes

And shopping

And food trucks

And pretty things to look at

And a bonus outfit shot from Monday, 5/28:

Birthday dinner with Landon (and the rest of the family). I wore Vogue 1174. I knowwww I should have worn my birthday dress (I even brought it!) but everyone else was pretty casual so I decided on the blue dress at the last minute. SORRY.

5-29
Dress (worn as a swimsuit coverup): Hawaiian Sundress
Hell yeah I spent the whole day at a waterpark. And then Fudpuckers (where my little brother lost his debit card & the kind man at the bank verified the last transaction was from “pudfuckers” lol), and then some chintzy tourist shop called Alvin’s.
From left to right – Maddie (Matt’s girlfriend), my mom, Caroline (my niece), Matt (little brother!), me, my dad, & Landon.

5-30
Top: Jalie 2921
Skirt: Vintage, dyed by me
Party Hat: YEP
Last time at the beach! I gave up on trying to wear cute outfits & just put on something comfortable for the drive home

5-31
Dress: Colette Parfait
Shoes: Target
Purse: Thrifted
Scarf (tied on purse): Flea Market
Last day of Me-Made-May! I celebrated by going to my favorite fabric store for their 50% off sale

So yeah! I consider this may a total success – albeit not nearly long enough, as I still have masses of handmade clothing yet to be worn. Oh well! Since wearing my stuff wasn’t really much of a challenge, I tried to mix up how I wore it, and I think I did pretty good! I can’t think of anything this challenge made me realize I had gaping, except maybe some summer jeans – which I bought fabric for yesterday, btw! I also used this challenge as a kick the butt to get me into my mending/fit-fixin’ pile, for certain things I never wanted to wear (I’m looking at you, Swiss Dot Violet!)

The only thing that I didn’t like was the daily photos… it got old pretty fast, and felt pretty narcissistic the entire time. I did find myself getting more comfortable in front of the camera, until I got to the point where I didn’t feel like I needed to take 40+ pictures to get that ~one perfect shot~.

Here are the rest of MMM’12 posts, if you missed them the first go-round!
Me Made May, Week 1
Me Made May, Week 2
Me Made May, Week 3
Me Made May, Week 4

And a big big BIG thanks to Zoe for pulling the whole thing together! Apparently, this was the biggest Me-Made-Month yet; I hope we made you proud

So today is June 1st, and here I am wearing all handmade anyway hahaha

Top: Leotard reconstructed by me into a tank top
Trousers: Vogue 2925
Cardigan: Thrifted
Belt: Thrifted
Shoes: Thrifted

Completed: Colette Clovers – The Denim Version

Ok, ok – ONE more jab at this pattern! Who is sick of looking at my butt in Clovers yet? Technically, I guess, these are the finished version of my polyester wearable muslin, so do they really count?

I bought this denim right before I swore off new fabric purchases until further notice. It’s a great denim – a nice dark wash, a good sturdy weight, and it has a slight stretch factor which makes them perfect for these jeans. I originally intended on make another pair of wide legged trousers with this fabric, but after lurking the shit out of Sallieoh’s Clover makeover, I decided to go with Clover jeans, with little flare legs. Hence, the polyester muslin.

So here’s the real deal!
(I’m sorry these pictures are bad – we are expecting lots of tornadoes today & it was straight up HAILING last night so I’m actually surprised I was able to catch enough sunlight to shoot these this morning)

I’m not going to hash out every single change I made to the pattern – you can check out my other version if you are just dying for the nitty-gritty, but I will share some additional changes I made with this pair. Here’s a list.
- I cut extra seam allowances on all the pieces since my denim wasn’t as stretchy as my poly. This was a MISTAKE. The pants ended up being way too big & I had to cut out all my seam allowances (and then some!) to get a nice fit. Whoops.
- I wanted to try out flat fell seams on the inside legs, but I cut too much SA off (this was after taking out something insane like 1″ of excess, see above), so I didn’t have enough denim to fold over. What you see are mock flat fell seams. Sorry!
- I stabilized the pockets with this awesome trim I found at the flea market – it’s measuring tape! Eeeheheee! I thought they might need some help to keep from stretching out, plus, it looks fun on the inside! The front pocket piece is red cotton, just to keep things from getting too bulky.
- I’m not terribly happy with the waistband – it digs kind of weird, there is some strange twisting going on on one side, and it was kind of tight so the button was pushed way over to the side (instead of in the center, where it belongs). And there is some kind of weird gap thing over the center back – does anyone know what that’s all about? I guess I needed to taper the waistband with a seam, idk. I don’t get plumber’s crack when I bend over, but I think it looks pretty bad. I may end up ripping out the waistband and starting over.
- There is a lot of topstitching on these pants! I used jeans topstitching thread with a more lightweight blue denim thread in the bobbin. My sewing machine was PISSED during some of those layers, gawd. I was able to struggle through, but now I’m wondering how some people with those little cheap hobby machines manage to churn out jeans. My machine is pretty heavy-duty and even with a denim needle it had some trouble, especially on the belt loops. Lots of cranking the handwheel on my end.
- I like how my belt loops turned out. I do not like that they aren’t evenly spaced at all! Haha! Oh well!

I think that’s it. Let’s look at some pictures instead!

Sorry you can’t see the hem in these!

I decided against doing the traditional topstitching in the back since I was not adding back pockets or a yoke. I know jeans are supposed to have the crotch seam flat felled & topstitched, but the idea of having a line of gold stitching running straight up the middle of my butt (with no other stitching going on back there) weirded me out way too much. So they’re simple from the behind!

See what I mean about the button? Haha I’m so embarrassed! I really should re-do that waistband… but honestly, I probably won’t. I mean, let’s keep it real here.

Pockets!

All that topstiching paid off – I think they look good!

Oh, and I finished my coffee cozy last night! It ended up being a really easy/quick knit, so I stayed up a little later than I should have, just so I could put it on my to-go cup this morning

(before you say anything… yep, that’s a Hello Kitty toaster. I got it for Christmas like 10 years ago hahah)
If you want to see the pattern/details, it’s all on my Ravelry page!

Ughff I think I’m finally done with this pattern. Seven Clovers (including a few failed muslins) is enough for anyone, I’d say!

Still… I made jeans!

Completed: Colette Clovers (again!) (but these are modified!)

I guess these are technically a “wearable muslin,” but bear with me here. This is the sixth time I’ve made these pants… and I think I’m finally happy with the fit. We’ve had some trial & error, some hair pulling, and a lot of wasted fabric. But on the flip side, I really feel like a Fitting Guru now *and* I’ve used up a significant portion of the weird stretch polyester that I can’t seem to get rid of.

I completely & shameless ripped these off thanks to two completely different sources. For starts, I found myself in the Gap a couple of weeks ago (totally weird in itself, since I never buy RTW from the mall anymore. Handmade or thrifted, thanks!) and I just fell in love with these high-rise flared trousers. Until I tried them on, that is, and realized they were a whopping 8″ too long on me – at 5’2″ (and a half!), I am shorter than average, but I ain’t that short, y’all! And they couldn’t be hemmed, because then I would have lost all that delicious flare. Anyway, they didn’t fit me too hot (too stretchy, plumber’s crack waistband, smile wrinkles all over the crotch, etc) and they were $69, so I tucked the inspiration away in my head and moved on with my life.

Imagine my delight when I discovered Sallieoh’s fabulous red pair – I mean, look at those pants! LOOK AT THEM. Perfect little trouser pants! I DIE. I immediately put the rest of my sewing on hold because, pants. And Sallieoh was so kind enough to provide a series of very detailed tutorials, which saved me all the trouble of figuring that shit out for myself. Thank you, lady! The only part I strayed from the tutorials was to add a flare to my legs – I used instructions from Patternmaking for Apparel Design (a book I’ve had in my possession for a few years now and never actually used… don’t beat me!) and added a ~9″ flare starting at the knee.

I think my pattern could still use a little bit of tweaking to get it perfect – the back dips a little too much, and I need to get that button tab on the waistband under control. But for a wearable muslin, these ain’t half bad! I am going to make them again in my nice lightweight, stretchy denim. These current pants look fine but the polyester isn’t exactly the most comfortable thing to be wearing against one’s skin

My apologies in advance for the pictures – navy doesn’t photograph too well! Ughhhhh

Haha goddd my hair looks ridiculous

Ok, these pictures are bad… have some super-lightened close-ups.

I’m sorry for making y’all look at my ass, but don’t these pants fit so nice?

Flare leg

I know, I know – the button tab looks bad. Whatever, wearable muslin!

I’ve sewn up a fly or two in my time, but never a fly shield! How exciting!

I feel pretty good about these – they are exactly what I wanted! And pants are so easy to sew up once you get that fit part down.

DO NOT FEAR THE PANTS.

completed: colette’s clover, v2.0

or i guess you could call these version 5.0, considering this is the fifth time i’ve made these trousers (the first three being oh-god-you-can’t-wear-that-in-public muslins).

ahem.

not much to say about these – i’m still picking away at my pants-fitting, still can’t decide if i’m making shit better or worse as i slash & tape. i received a lot of good feedback on my last clover post (i definitely recommend taking a peek if you are still questioning your pants-fitting), and made some more changes to the front of the pattern – added a tiny bit back to the front rise, and scooped out a little more of the front crotch. next time, i will need to add to the sides what i took off the front (i left it off because, well, i don’t know why.), as the whole top was super tight until i reduced the seam allowance to something laughably thin.

these pants have LOTS of wrinkles, but i’m fairly certain that a good chunk of them are due to my fabric choice – that shitty stretch poplin i bought from fabric mart, which btw is on my list of online fabric stores i will not buy from again. it’s a *very* flimsy fabric, so i underlined the pants with more stretch poplin… just serged all the pieces together. there is a little sheen to the fabric so i think that is also making the wrinkles look more pronounced. i have also convinced myself that those smooth pants on the colette website must be photoshopped, and whether or not this is actually true, i still feel quite a bit better about myself.

oh, and these pants would have been ready last week, except that after i finished *everything* and put them on to check the length for hemming… the red zipper broke and i had to cut myself out of my pants. EW. i did not have another red zipper (that one was actually pulled from a pair of wool pants i harvested for the material a couple of years ago), and i didn’t want to go back to the fabric store so i just used an orange zipper in my stash. it doesn’t match, but no care!

the leg wrinkles are from wearing them all day! they are VERY comfortable! haha!

see the orange zipper? yep, me neither.

view from the back

with my leopard jacket!

here’s an inside shot – i bound the facing with white bias tape. and there’s my orange zipper lol.

i actually bought another piece of fabric that i think will make up a great little pair of clovers – more on that tomorrow!

RED PANTSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

completed: denim trousers

ahhh i’ve been looking for a pair of trousers like this – high-waisted, wide-legged denim trousers. you’d think this would be an easy thing to source at the thrift store – i recall many years of pushing past racks of high-waisted jeans – but i guess they’re back in style now, so they are getting snatched up at a rapid pace. meh.

anyway, i mentioned that i won a giveaway on molly‘s blog a couple of weeks ago… i got vogue 2925 and a really sweet vintage slip pattern. seriously, i made out like a bandit here. i mostly just wanted to make up that fabulous coat, but i didn’t realize until i received the pattern that there was also a pants pattern involved here. just the kind of pants i want, too!

i did have to make a few alterations to get the pattern to work for me – i folded out about 1″ of the crotch length (i am okay with my short crotch, and you should be too! huh, that came out all wrong) and eliminated the cuffs. the waist was a little too big, so i pulled that in on the sides (although, in retrospect, i may have pulled it in a little too much. they are kind of tight up there!). i ended up cutting quite a bit of the leg flare off the sides – something like 2″. they were dwarfing my poor little legs & making me look like a stump in 2 leg skirts.

i can’t really call these “jeans” because there’s not much about them that is like a traditional pair of jeans. there is minimal topstitching – and i went with denim colored thread because i wanted these to still be sleek – and no pockets. the seams are mock-flat felled. i did use a ~real~ jeans button & fly zipper (see my fly zipper tutorial if you’re like me & need hand-holding with this process!). the denim is… interesting. i picked it up at a yardsale over the summer… something insane like 4 yards for $2. and this is serious workman denim – it is very heavy and has no stretch. honestly, it’s probably as old as the pattern i used lol. this pants would probably benefit from a slight amount of stretch, especially considering how tight i made them. ah, live and learn!

obviously, i still need to work on my pattern fitting. there are smile lines & a little bit of bagginess at the bottom of the crotch.

the butt is a little tight, could have benefited from a small full butt adjustment.
(if you are wondering why my wall color keeps changing, blame the photo editing program i used :B)

they look good from the side, though!

the original pattern called for a folded over waistband… i felt like that was too much bulk with this denim, so i shaved an inch off the width & faced it with a bit of interfaced cotton. much more comfortable!

so, i feel pretty good about my trousers. there are definitely some fitting issues, but i approached these as a “wearable muslin” (hence the mock flat-felled seams), and i think i can get a better fit with the next pair. they are definitely wearable – and definitely perfect for those little boy’s sweaters i keep picking up that are too short to wear with regular-rise pants.

they would also probably look fabulous with a leopard print jacket. DAMMIT. i need to get cracking on that beast!

clover: let’s get real

i mean, let’s get real-real here.

this is my 4th pair of clovers i have completed thus far. in case you aren’t up to speed with this saga, every prior pair of clovers has been demoted to “muslin” and wadded up & stuffed in the Muslin Basket of Shame (i’ll throw that stuff away… eventually). making anything over & over again – especially if you can’t actually wear it out in public – sucks. it feels wasteful – wasteful of fabric, of precious sewing time, of misplaced giddiness (idk, i get real giddy when i am making a new piece of clothing lol).

this pattern almost broke me. it might still break me because it’s not quite perfect. i’ve made a lot of fitting changes and i actually feel kind of pants-intelligent right now. so that’s nice. i don’t want to dissuade anyone from buying or making this pattern because i don’t think it’s a flawed pattern… i’ve seen many of these made up, and they look GREAT. unfortunately, the body they were drafted for is quite obviously not my body. so i’ve had to do a lot of fitting, and muslins, and more fitting.

anyway, pants #4. i took another 3/8″ off the front crotch length and slightly narrowed the inside of the legs (like, maybe 1/4″. not much). i decided to make these a wearable muslin, so i used a stretch poly-blend suiting fabric i found in my stash ($2 yard sale score!) and a zipper i pulled out of a dress someone gave me for fabric salvage. i did serge everything on the inside in case the wearable muslin turned out awesome.

after wearing them around this afternoon, i shaved about 3/8ish” off the front crotch seam & tapered the curved side seam (on the non-zipper side, sry, don’t feel like re-inserting the zipper) to a straight line. in the future, i may let out the waistband a little because it digs in when i sit down. also, i thought the waistline didn’t look terribly flattering on me – too low – but looking at the pictures it doesn’t seem so bad. what do you think? for anyone who is curious, they hit exactly at my belly button.

i guess my question is, how fitted is too fitted? of course we want a smooth line, but i don’t want to get it so smooth that i can’t move comfortably! this is where i want y’all to be honest – critique! please!

when i stand normally, they look close to perfect.

when i stand with my legs together, though, i get a little bagginess around the crotch (ughh i’m gonna get some weird google search terms for this one). how to fix this? what is stumping me is that it is all the lower crotch/thigh area, and i can’t find fitting info for that – only the top half. it kind of makes me look like i have a FUPA right now. i don’t want to look like i have a FUPA. help!

another view, another baggy crotch.

back looks good! there are a few drag lines on the sides and the darts look like that because i couldn’t get a good press (stupid poly), but i think it’s satisfactory.

side looks good!

last crotch-shot, promise
see that bagginess? what is causing it and how can i fix it?

ALL THAT BEING SAID, i like these pants. i think the fitting issues are pretty minor & most normal non-sewing people won’t notice them. so i will continue to wear these, and continue to improve this pattern block. i think they look really cute on me, and i want several pairs!

clover muslin #3

continuing my saga with the clover, here is muslin #3. yes, i made a second muslin and no, there are no pictures because i made them in brown fabric & you couldn’t see ANYTHING except the fact that i was wearing shorts (shorts muslin ftw!).

i have stopped hyperventilating about using up my stretch fabric in a thousand muslins, as i had a fabric epiphany the other morning & realized i had an entire stack of this awful polyester that i can’t seem to get rid of for some reason. there is just the right amount of stretch, and several yards of it – which, if i remember correctly, cost me something like $5 for the whole stack at a thrift store. why i have kept it for so long, i can’t tell you, except that obviously fabric hoarding *does* have it’s benefits so anyway, i’ve got plenty of fabric to keep making muslins. yay!

to be frank, the only thing keeping me cranking these out is knowing that once i get it perfect, i can use this pattern over & over… and also as a block for other pants-fitting needs.

i don’t think i’ve quite reached the wearing point yet, but i know i’m close. what do y’all think? so far i have shorted the front crotch by 1 1/4″ (I KNOW. and it looks like i need to shorten it more!), added approx 3/8″ FBA, and lengthed the back crotch an extra 1/2″. oh, and i tapered the legs about 1/4″ down the sides. excuse the lumps at the hips – that will be smoothed out in the final pattern.

i may take the waist in a smidge more as it’s the smallest bit too loose

i still get a little excess when i stand a certain way… not sure if that’s something that can be adjusted out, or if it’s just the nature of wearing tight-fitting pants like these.

excuse the panty lines, but hey – the fit looks good back here, no? can i also add that i think it’s hilarious that i need a FBA top & bottom? hahahaha

these were originally going to be a ~wearable muslin~ but i don’t think i’m quite there yet. i do see a light at the end of the tunnel, though!

in other news, here’s a sneak peak at another project i’m working on:

ceylon in green wool. it’s been on the backburner for a week or so because i decided to hand embroider the yoke on a whim. i like the way it’s looking, though!