Day: August 5, 2023

Ahead Of The Curve

Posted by

4

I’ve been making clothes for myself for decades. I stopped being able to buy pants that fit without alteration since my early 40s; hence my long-term quest for pants patterns and techniques for fitting pants that would yield me something that fit me. My top measurements are closer to a single size although for the past decade I’ve avoided fitted shirts, t-Shirts, etc. because my waist has slowly, but surely, increased and that affects how any top I might make will fit.

I was laughing a couple of weeks ago with MaryAnn (a sewing pal) about a FBA (Full Bust Adjustment), saying what I need more is a FTA (Full Tummy Adjustment). She got up, went into her sewing room and returned with a book:

Book Cover

Everything you want to know about fitting patterns is here and if your question isn’t answered in the book, it will be found in Jenny’s blog: Cashmerette Sewalongs + Tutorials. Her foray into garment making for largish women is very informative. Her learning to make garments for herself led her into pattern making for curvy women. She’s recently introduced pattern sizes from 0-16 (the original sizing was 12-32). These simple, generally unadorned garments are suitable as a place to start for anybody. She wants women to look good in their clothes and to feel somewhat stylish.

While the book explains the complete range of adjustments in great depth, Jenny starts by describing “grading” – how you use today’s multi-size patterns to fit the different parts of your body. My challenge is I’m right between her smaller sizes and the larger sizes. With a size 12 bust, a size 20 waist, a size 8 bum, I can’t actually work within a single size range. I’m about to write Jenny to ask her advice concerning which size range I should be working in. I’m guessing because I’m a smallish person she’ll recommend working in the 0-16 range and grading my waist beyond the pattern rather than working in the 12-32 range and grading beyond the pattern to fit my bum. I’m going to take the basic pants pattern from the back of the book and size it to fit me (it’s a 12-32 pattern) to see where I get with it. If I’m able to get a fitting muslin using a graded sloper based on this pattern, I’ll be able easily to design whatever features on want on my pants from there.

Let you know how I get on!

Denim Pants

Posted by

1

Trying to take photos of the pants I’m modelling is so difficult. Not great photos but adequate to show how the pants fit.

Front
Side
Back

I finished the denim pants (made from the same pattern drafting I used for the white linen ones this morning. This was a test run to see whether I could use the pattern sloper without making any further adjustments. I could. The nips in the waist I’d taken worked out fine. The length was good. The front fits in the crotch without pulling, the side seam is perpendicular to the floor, the back falls straights without being baggy. I can sit in them confortably. The back crease is really a seam incorporating a dart under the bum (which is now in the right place).

I did add elastic to the back yoke because when I sat down the back pulled down. With the elastic the pants seem to be staying in place.

I’ve ended with a cross between Jeans and Trousers – I’ve used a jeans pocket (not a slant or inseam pocket used for trousers), incorporated the back yoke used to fit jeans at the waist, a fly front for easy access; but I’ve added the back dart down the centre of the pants, a straight leg, with limited top stitching that’s de rigueur for jeans, finishing the hem with a single top stitching, giving me a simple look more like trousers.

With my fingers crossed, in a couple of months, I will use this sloper to make some corduroy pants for the fall. That will let me purge some of the winter pants in my closet; some of which have been fitted and refitted many times as the years pass and my shape changes. This fit should last into the fall.

Let you know how I get on!

The Story Here?

Posted by

3

My sister Donna knows I’m interested in stray shoes/boots. A couple of months ago I came across a pair in the middle of the sidewalk. She came across these on her morning walk in Point Pleasant Park the other day.

The Story?

What’s goin’ on? The boots were small, in good shape, Donna thought about trying the on – she didn’t – she just took the photo.

My theory: the boots hurt; the owner wasn’t walking one more step in them; left them for another walker/hiker (of which there are many in Point Pleasant Park) that they might fit.

The remaining question, of course, is how did the owner get home? The paths in the park are gravel – pretty difficult to walk on in bare feet, even in sock feet! So how did that person get back to the parking lot and their car? No idea!