Flat Fell till you Fall: the Sew Liberated Arthur pants

After being not very interested in Arthur or Bob pants for the longest time, suddenly I was seized by the urge.  And it was sudden and urgent!  I had these off to the printer within one week.  They jumped all queues.  The fabric was my stashed beautiful hemp something blend fabric from my last shop at Blackbird Fabrics (I think.)  I've been saving it because it is just so lovely, but a bit too drapey for jeans, and the linen denim I got in the meantime was better for my jacket experiments.  This is the only fabric I had 3 meters of.  Truthfully I don't think I needed 3m, but I didn't test the pattern on shorter lengths of stash fabric.  I have enough left over for a pair of shorts.  

I think this is a good weight for these (or maybe just a bit heavy), a bit heavier than chambray, but it did get thick when I was folding up the french seams of the side.  

My first flat felled seam was a bit wavy but all the others were better.  I did gain confidence as I went along, and I was really glad I used a fabric that doesn't fray.  I think a fraying fabric would really make the process hard.  

I sewed size 4.  I think that is usually what I sew in Sew Liberated Patterns.  I shortened the rise 1" and the height 2" at the lines, noting the pattern is drafted for a height of 5'7".  

 

These are so beautiful on the insides.  That's the trade off for the endless flat felling.  My final feeling is that they are wearable, which is good, though they feel a bit heavy.  But I should have actually just removed 3" from the rise and left the leg shape alone.  I think I created a more curvy looking leg when I adjusted it, and I really do not like a droopy crotch, my thighs are introverts and prefer privacy.  There is however so much fabric in these overall that maybe my thighs won't get too sweaty together, time will tell. 

I think I might do the adjustment of just the rise and make a knit pair quickly (100% overlocker here we come) to see what I think of the shape but without the commitment.  Shapeless loungy pants are my friends and my two pairs of linen lounge pants have SO MANY holes.  It will be awhile before I have an interest in making these in a woven fabric again, it's too useless of a shape for my life in general.  I do think a pair in patterned linen would be interesting though (and I was very tempted in the fabric stores a few weeks ago, but managed to resist.) 

Deer & Doe Acajou pants review

I schemed these quite awhile before I could make the time to actually sew them. The fabric is a lovely green Japanese suiting from The Fabric Store, which fit my vision of slightly scruffy and yet very cool man pants just right.  I read through the (few) blogs available to help me out - is it just me or are old blogs vanishing as Google supplants them by paid search content??

Anyway those blogs were useful, and I ended up removing 2" from the rise. They have a very long rise. I cut size 36, no other modifications. 

I don't think I enjoyed the fly particularly.  As usual, reinventing the wheel is annoying, everyone does it differently, there are 1000 methods and I don't really KNOW one of them so well to use it all the time so I always follow the fly instructions.  The results are fine, the fly looks good.  

 

 

Pants are a satisfying sew!  Wool suiting is a great fabric to sew with, very well behaved.  I love how there is elastic hiding in the back waistband of these - which in my case is very barely doing anything, and yet it cinches my waistband in just right.  

Total success, I love these pants.  They are exactly what I hoped for - a high waisted pant that will go with everything cropped.  A new shape, because we are kind of sliding out of the old shapes and into the new shapes lately.  I've noticed that in my dissatisfaction with my current jeans.  It's good to have some basic shapes, but as the styles change it's *exciting* to have new and different shapes too, and that's where sewing comes in.  Now that my new sewing room is up and working it feels like I can do anything!  

Also a sad wave goodbye to Deer & Doe patterns - one of the best (for my body shape) and will be sorely missed.  I know companies come and go but it seems like we had a dreamy decade with indie companies backed by drafting education, and supported (or hashed apart) by bloggers with engineering minds.  Now everyone is selling a pattern on etsy and half of them are other people's patterns : (  

Closet Core Pietra pants, a review

 I was fabric shopping when I suddenly out of the blue had a hankering to make these. The fabric that drove this plan was a mystery-blend with stretch, heavy, purple.  I bought it at The Fabric Store.  I suppose it must be viscose as I won't buy polyester. 

I absolutely wasn't fazed by the stretch in the fabric.

I went forth and read a lot of reviews.  It was refreshing that there were even a number of blog posts!  The summary I got from the reviews is that this pattern has a relatively long crotch that fits nobody very well, and it's quite oversized if you go by the size chart.  I'm kind of dusting off my mental archives here and recall that Closet Core patterns are often pretty big and the size charts are not very accurate; my Ginger jeans were a size 4 and are too big around the waist.    

For some reason this all spurred me onwards.  Maybe because I was just on a boot-making course and after 4 days making something that was a constant challenge, I wanted the challenge of something I theoretically can do well.  So I pulled out my old crotch curve pattern - harvested from pants that were made to measure for me in Vietnam. I pulled out the Persephone pants too just in case because that butt is the best butt - but I decided that was too much change for one pattern (maybe next time.)

I made size 4.  My measurements are a perfect size 6.  (27-37)

The size 4 is roomy but not too too big, and remember, I used a stretch fabric. 

Ok but back up. Before I did that, I shortened the entire rise by 1" which by now is a relatively common adjustment for me, and was supported by how the crotch is too long for everyone.  Then I compared it to my crotch curve and cut a line into the front crotch about 4 cm and just overlapped it about 1 cm, to remove a wedge, flattening the paper of the pattern til it was mostly flat.  I can draw this if someone needs a picture? 

This will remove that extra wrinkle of fabric that always hangs in front crotches on me (I hoped.) 

It did - I could take a bit more, but it's not terrible! 

During the sewing, I encountered a kind of comedy of errors.  The fabric has a subtle difference between the right and wrong sides.  I think...I sewed the wrong sides of the back facing out and I noticed the legs twist.  But even before I did that, I was overlocking the seams and my overlocker blade pretty much died.  On its way down the death spiral, it took out the front seams in great monstrous messes (plus 2 overlocker needles.  I have never broken 2 overlocker needles before!)  This all led to some of the waviness in the front seam.  

I used the length of back elastic recommended by the pattern and it does seem a bit loose at present.  For the most part I followed the instructions, which I found satisfactory.  

When the final result lies on the ground it seems quite twisty.  On my body the pants initially also seem to twist, with the seams coming from the back around to the front, and they feel roomy with stretch everywhere.  My previous experience with pants that have some stretch content is that the elastic tightens on the first wash and the pants shrink for a few more washes, so I wonder if they will tighten up.  The fit seems reasonable considering that the pattern is meant for totally nonstretch fabric.  After wearing these around a bit instead of staring in the mirror I stopped thinking about twisty legs and the pants felt fine.  I had fun making these despite the debacles. 

I agree with one of the reviewers who commented that the pockets are quite high, but I can access them to put stuff in and they are big.  I will have to wear them a bit to determine if I think they are too high. 

Reviewers with more engineering precision than I have commented on the plumb line of these pants.  From what I can see, the side panel is relatively straight, but the front panel curves outward.  I would read this as a combo of my overlocker mess, and maybe some design feature, rather than assuming it's a fail of drafting.  The seams on the front feel weird when I'm wearing these, but the fit feels ok.  I'll have to wear them around and see what I think, but I would definitely eventually be inspired to make an actual nonstretch pair and see what happens.  In the meantime, I am now inspired to fix the crotch curve on the Clyde pants! I have bought 2 lots of green suiting fabric so expect some more experimentation with dreamy Man pants so I can keep living my scruffy Menswear chic life...I have found a few patterns that are inspiring me to move away from the elastic waist pants and to up my game...after the Clydes...

Waffle Patterns Pinda pants in stretch corduroy

 Finally picking up my sewing pace a bit!  I have been really keen to make these pants because it's winter and I want long pants that cover my legs all the way.  The flappy elastic-waist ankle length items of summer just are not doing it.  I also love Waffle Patterns and after making the Azuki work pants I realised I had missed just how cool the Pinda might be.  

So, fabric is stretch corduroy from Nick's Fabric in Auckland again shaming me as I bought it for these pants a year ago.  

Size 38 since that seems to be the wisest fit.  Alas, I didn't necessarily think about how stretchy my fabric was and that 38 is kind of loose on me.  I should have sized down for these.  If you make them do take the stretch into account - 38 would have actually been a great fit in ZERO stretch, but you need the pants to have some negative ease when they are so stretchy and that's not happening here. 

The sewing took a few days but not as long as things were going a few months ago.  Hopefully I'm gearing back into sewing mode.  I made the cute double pleat back pockets...um, beware as they will kind of pleat open and make your bum look big.  I find the pocket placement to be too low as well.  

I did the patch front pockets. The instructions don't have you create a separate pocket if you use the zip so what I did was: add a little pocket facing to the zip area, like making a welt so it would be neat and reinforced.  Once my zip was installed to that, I created a back layer to the zipper pocket from some quilting cotton (see bats!)  I then treated the two units as one and finished the main pocket that way.  Thus the zip pocket is in front of the real pocket where you put your hand.  I'm definitely going to do this again.  I love these patch pockets more than I think I love jeans pockets, because they actually have room to fit stuff whereas jeans pockets are full of my hipbones. 

Anyway the waistband was fine, everything else was fine. The fly installation I do not love.  It looks totally fine and was ok while doing it though you are using a folded seam allowance as your guide instead of basting the fly shut to start, but my zip is actually angled a bit sideways at the top as though somewhere the zipper tape wasn't completely sewn down flat well enough.  I think I actually prefer the method where you baste the fly shut, even though I have said in the past I hate that method.  Changed my mind! 

 By the way, no, we are not going to talk about nap direction.  I am really amazed by how many times *in a row* I can forget something so basic...  please, don't be like me.  Corduroy is directional.  Thanks.

Alas upon trying these on they are very large and are now seeking new owners.  Very large like a solid 4" so no, I'm not going to try taking that out.  I'm also not happy with how much excess fabric there is everywhere.  I could probably have sized all the way down to 34 in this stretchy fabric.  I'm happy with my experiment though and luckily I have lots of pants so even if these ones didn't work out for me, I'm still clothed.  I might think harder about places I can put these nice patch pockets.  Even my little pocket zip was very exciting and I want to do it somewhere else.