Thursday, November 30, 2006

Closer


The front crotch still has some poofiness issues (besides my poof). I'm hoping Beth works out hers before me so I can cheat. But … I wasn't really working on the front crotch, so I'll get back to the subject at hand ... those X wrinkles.

This is the New! and Improved! back view (standing with legs slightly apart):


And with legs together:


Remember, you can click these to see my butt even bigger. ;-)

The lighting is harsh and high contrast shadows aren't showing true detail. But this is the best I could do at night with a tripod.

And, here's the pattern:

The red lines are the wedges. The upper wedge is for high hip. (I added the high hip wedge lower on the front than I really wanted, but I was trying to keep the pocket area unchanged. Because the first sew of these pants resulted in a bit of poofiness at the front crotch, next time I will add this wedge higher and redraw the pocket.)

The lower wedge is to add length at the inseam.

After my first fitting in fabric, I also incorporated the alterations shown in yellow and blue.

The yellow lines reflect (1) removing hip width, (2) lowering crotch depth front/back, (3) lengthening the rear dart, and (4) returning the crotch points to the original pattern lines because I didn't need the extra I added. (Truing the grainline is also shown in yellow but I did this before cutting the fabric.)

The blue line at the back crotch curve shows where I deepened the curve.

The black lines are original pattern seam and grain lines. You can see that these alterations do not throw off the grainline very drastically.

This blurry photo is my first fitting. The red arrow is pointing to folds which were removed by that crotch scooping shown in blue on the pattern.

This shows that crotch scooping as sewn:


Below is my Spongebob pattern laid over the Simplicity 4068 pattern. They turned out very similar, which lets me know that I got grainlines, etc. right on the Spongebob pattern. The back crotch angles are actually more alike than they look here because Simplicity added a "just in case" seam allowance to the center back seam like what you see in men's slacks.


Oh, and lest you think that my pants look perfectly wrinkle-free all the time. Here's what they look like when I actually move. My usual one-hip-out stance, instead of the for-the-camera pose. Yeah, pants still wrinkle when you move. Imagine that. ;-)


Although I think I've got most of the rear fit issues worked out now, I don't really like this pattern. It's OK for slacks, but I'm a jeans girl and these are slacky-jeans, not jeans-jeans. I'll be looking through my Burda WOFs for a true jeans pattern I can morph with this one and I'll be testing out my new alterations to see how they transfer. Stay tuned, but don't hold your breath.

My review of this pattern on PatternReview.com is here.

6 comments:

  1. Debbie -
    You have achieved "look at my butt" pants. They are called that because they make your butt look so good. I am working on a pair of slacks myself. This is the first time in a long time that I can claim I have made some "look at my butt" pants. It is through tenacity that I can say that. And your photos prove how well your tenacity pays off. Thanks for sharing!

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  2. Debbie, I always love to see how you plug away at fit! It really motivates me to do the same! And I always learn something from your posts as well! I really like the details you put into your blog and how you share with the rest of us. Thanks!

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  3. Wow, those are looking great!

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  4. wow, thanks for sharing, I loved how you really describe the process of sewing your new pants

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  5. debbie, you (and allof your blog) has motivated me to keep at it, I have been reading your stuff for a long time but until today have been unable to see the word verification, so I couldn't post a comment! Thanks also for the tutorial on coverstitch. You have changed my life with the tip on getting the threads to the underside!Andi

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  6. Debbie, those pants look terrific.

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Thank you for each and every comment. I appreciate them all, but I have to be honest and let you know that I'm usually bad about answering questions. I hope you understand that there just isn't enough time in the day to do everything I want to do.

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