Trouser Saga

Oh the vexed matter of making one’s own trousers (or pants.  tee hee.)

Although I had wanted to sew clothes for a while, Sewaholic’s Thurlow trousers is what inspired me to properly commit to garment sewing.  I very much have a uniform: trousers and a shirt.  If it’s a workday, a button-up shirt; if it’s non-work, a t-shirt, and the trousers are more likely to be jeans.  I even have a particular style of trousers and jeans that I’ve worn since becoming an adult and which the vagaries of fashion have not moved me from.  Roughly straight legged, mid-rise, slash pockets.  There was a time in the late 90s, when trousers were cut exactly as I liked them.  Alas, that time is past.  I of course wear leggings for legging-relevant activities, and trackie-daks for trackie-dak related activities (like going to the shops in the middle of the night for ice-cream).  But even my preferred hiking trousers fit exactly this mold.

I have occasionally tried to branch out and wear other styles of trousers: higher-waisted, wider legged, harem (lordy, what was I thinking?) and fisherman (dear god why?). Those trousers invariably hung in my wardrobe watching their straight legged, mid-rise counterparts get worn to such an extent that they become threadbare and the knees permanently bag out.   

The Thurlows look exactly like the trouser I have always worn.

I made Thurlow shorts a long, long time ago.  I did a bunch of things wrong, but they were my practise pair, and I thought the fit was alright.  I recently (ish) made a muslin (!!) of the Thurlow trousers and they are huge on me.  Huge all round and especially huge in the derriere department (please read that with a terrible Pepe le Pew faux French accent).  I pinned out excess fabric and thought long and hard and researched longer and harder about the changes I would need to make to the pattern.  I had neglected to consider one key factor: Sewaholic does not design for me.  Tasia designs for the pear-shaped woman, and I am very happy she does. particularly as you with booty who have sewn her patterns appear to think that she does a sterling job.  I love the Alma.  The Cambie is also very sweet.  I am not a pear-shaped woman (mouthy stick with shoulders, remember?) and I decided maybe I needed to find another pattern.

There is no one, that I’m aware of, designing for a mouthy stick with shoulders, but that’s okay.  I’ll just try me some other patterns until something works.  I thought it might be easier to modify a different pattern, rather than work on the Thurlows.  But I do rather like the Thurlows so maybe one day I will return to it when I have more fitting expertise.  My unfinished projects are never discarded.  They visit a lovely resting place until I’m ready for them again.

I put my Thurlow muslin on to take photos for the blogpost, and lo and behold: it is not as bad as I remember.  I can only think magic sewing elves fixed it for me while it hung on my WIP rack.

There is someone designing for the petite woman, and she has designed a pair of trousers that look about right, but I have two issues: (1) I really don’t like the brand name and (2) though I’m short, I’m not sure I actually qualify as petite.  Petite is 5’4″ and under.  I’m just on that, but I’ve never really found RTW petite clothing fits me, so maybe I am proportioned averagely rather than petite-ly?  I’ll keep an eye on the patterns, but I just don’t feel persuaded enough to overcome my dislike of the brand name to purchase a pattern.  

Style Arc has a bunch of patterns that I’ve “pinned” (which being also a sewing term is practically like making them, right?) and I even bought the Audrey trousers, which came with a pair of free Lola trousers.  I’ve made the Lola but I did not like it.  Because it was not a pair of mid-rise, straight-legged trousers!  (I’m really an idiot, sometimes.)  And actually, the Lola trouser is a woven version of True Bias’ Hudson Pants (tee hee), which I have made three times and liked *a lot* but the Hudsons make no pretense of being anything other than fancy trackie-daks.  Woven trackie-daks? Not for me. I just cannot think of any occasion when I would wear them.  If it’s casual, I may as well wear trackie-daks.  If I want to look nice, well, I would not be wearing trackie-daks.  See?

I’ve settled on my next trouser pattern: the Sew Loft Emma pants (tee hee. Oh, you northern Americans.)  They’re like a skinnified Thurlow.

Muslin sewing is fast, though muslin photos are always terrible.  The Emma pants are pretty good! I was right (how gratifying). 

Sew Loft is a new to me pattern company, and I’m keen on these trousers and the Harper blouse, although I feel like a stranger to myself when I want to wear a sleeveless top.  The PDFs are well designed and not at all wasteful of paper or annoying to piece together.  I haven’t sewn anything yet, so I cannot say (nor am I particularly knowledgeable on the matter) whether the patterns are well drafted.

Finally, in my Epic Trouser Saga, I’ve signed on for a sewing class with Thread Den, here in Melbourne.  The class is called “Perfect Pants Pattern” (please interject tee hee in the correct place if you too are juvenile).  That’s a big call, no? We shall see, we shall see.  I’m fairly confident of my sewing (and unpicking and sewing again) skills, but I just feel all flummoxed when it comes to fitting.  I haven’t had any major issues so far: take in a bit here; let out a bit there, lengthen, or shorten and we’re done. And usually it is only one issue on a pattern.  But trousers have a whole lot of cascading issues and I think I need someone to hold my hand, and provide me lots of fortifying chocolate.

Wish me luck, and keep a beady eye on your feed readers for the next installment of Oanh’s Trouser Saga!  Coming probably not very soon to an internet near you!

All About Alma

It took me a long time to make Alma.

I acquired the pattern about a decade ago (as calculated on the basis of sewing blogging and tweeting time. According to the Gregorian calendar, I acquired the pattern in October 2012.) I traced it almost as soon as I got it (yay me!) and then I did nothing with it for an age (boo me!)

Prior to Christmas, I cut out pieces. The fabric was acquired from The very lovely Kat of All the Whimsical Things at i think the very first Social Sewing day in September 2012. After cutting, I did nothing for an age (are you sensing a theme?)

The cut pieces sat on a hanger, which hangs off the floor lamp near My Sewing Corner. This is where all my started projects sit.

The WIP Station

Cut Alma sat there for a long, long time. She watched a Tiramisu come and go. She watched three shift dresses come and go. If she were a person, she may have wept and wailed that I was not paying her any attention. Or she would have glared at me every time I sat down at the sewing machine with something else. If I was Alma, that’s what I would have done.

But, thankfully for me, she was, at that time, multiple inanimate, emotionless pieces of fabric, and I was projecting my own guilt onto her and then mirroring it back to myself. What a bizarre vortex of emotions, that affects nobody at all. And really, that vortex should barely affect me. But there you have it, those were the feelings around Alma.

I eventually started sewing Alma up in mid January. I sure as hey took my time with her. I picked her up; I got nervous; I put her down again. It was clear that every other project I was doing was procrastination from completing Alma. I don’t even know why. Sure, I was a bit nervous putting in an invisible zipper, and a bit perplexed by the shoulder/sleeve binding instructions, but why on earth did I avoid completing Alma for so very long? I honestly do not know.

Anyway, she is done, and I adore her. I’m definitely going to make more. Not sure how long each of the mores will take me. Hopefully, less time, as one of my sisters would like an Alma of her very own. I’d like to fulfil that desire in a timely (for me) fashion. My sister has been warned not to expect anything any time soon.

Also, I am not sure I made sense of the shoulder/sleeve binding instructions. I even tweeted Tasia to ask her but got no reply.

In case someone goes a-googling like I did to try to make sense of it, here is what I worked out and I hope I’m right.

I basted, as Ms Bimble and Pimble would say, like a boss. But, sadly for me, I basted on the sewing line (that is 5/8″ from the edge of the fabric) I should have basted on the inside of the seam allowance (that is, anywhere closer to the cut edge than 5/8″). Foolish me. When instructions say baste, always baste inside the seam allowance. Otherwise, you will have to put the sewing away and wait for a day when you feel like unpicking the unsightly exposed stitching.

This is how not to baste. Tsk. Tsk. Tsk.

Where I had issues was with the instructions about binding.

The instructions are:-

Pin armhole binding to armhole with raw edges together, matching notches, and sew.
Trim seam allowance close to stitching, press binding to inside and edge stitch close to fold.

Is this terribly clear to everybody but dense me?

Eventually, I found the answer by googling images of sewn up Alma blouses, enlarging pictures and staring at the shoulder seam. The clearest image was Lauren Llladybird’s plaid Alma, where you can see the stitching line. Lauren is a ridiculously accomplished seamstress, so I was happy to concede that this was the correct way of reading the instructions.

So, you are supposed to sew the folded over piece – #8 – and then stitch it down. In effect, you will get some top stitching appearing from the other side, but if you match your thread very nicely (woo hoo! I did this!), it is barely visible.

I maintain that the shoulder/sleeve binding is weird. However, I cannot work out how to make it less weird. (Word me up if you’ve got a fancy shmancy trick.)

Was it only me who thought this was completely bizarre? The bizarreness is the appearance of the top-stitching on the right side. It’s barely noticeable, but it’s just weird. I don’t have a problem with it, I just think there must be a better, non-top stitching way. Not that I don’t like top-stitching. I’m rather a fan, and I top-stitched the facing at the neck-line down like nobody’s business (two lines, even). Since completing Alma #1, I’ve noticed that, on almost all of my partner’s shirts, the stitching line at the shoulder seam is similarly visible. I had no idea.

On the subject matter of top-stitching, I discovered that top stitching is best done with a slightly longer stitch length. So, if you sew at stitch length 2, you should increase to 3, or maybe even 4 if you’re feeling all crazy-like, for top stitching. I sew at 2 (most of the time), top-stitch at 3 and baste at 4.

It took me a month to complete this single step because it just kept weirding me out. Every time I came to do it, I would re-read the instructions and think, “But that can’t be right,” pick up the garment, stare at the shoulder sleeve, put the garment down and think about it some more. Perhaps, I’m the one with the problem.

Really, I love this top. Posing for pics in my made garments? Not so much.

But the pace of this project actually worked well for me. I’ve found there is always a point when making something up that I get suddenly nervous: that it won’t work out; that it’s ugly; that it won’t fit; that I cease to like it. But if I just leave it and come back later, I’ll love it again. It’s weird and irrational, but that just seems to be my way.

This will not be the last Alma. I finished this Alma quite a while ago, and have worn it roughly once a week! I have orders from my sisters, and I definitely plan more for me. It is a perfect work blouse for me. But there are other things in the sewing queue at the moment, and quite a few almost finished projects that I need to finish, and then blog about. You cannot wait, can you?

Oh, for more hours in the day, or fewer hours at work, or another me.

Progress Report

A progress report and some photographs are in order.

First up:

Clockwise from Top Left:
1. The Garment formerly known as The Sack
2. First Renfrew (pattern by Sewaholic)
3. Second Renfrew
4. Bus Stop Bag (green) and Toiletry Bag (orange, with polka dots!), pattern by Nicole Mallilieu, made by ME!

I am trying to get better at doing little bits of sewing, so that I can get more done. I am trying not to mind doing only an hour here or there and setting everything up and putting everything away again.

The Sewing Station. Also known as The Dinner Table. Plus, a bonus muffin! Woo hoo!  Blur due to crap, out of practise photographer.

I am trying not to dream of a spacious room, with lots of shelves.
I am trying not to dream of even a wee tiny room (but it has to have lots of shelves).

I am also trying not to dream of owning an overlocker (a serger to some of you). Because it would be fairly easy for me to achieve that dream. Then I would be faced with the reality of where to keep it and when to bring it out. I have a love-hate relationship with the overlocking stitch on my sewing machine. It is very troublesome getting the tension right, but it is so good for finishing seams. And the other trouble is that I know the ease of an overlocker. I know it well.

Recently, I sort of almost but not quite completed my Thurlow shorts. I realised, after sewing it in, that I had cut one of the waistband pieces inside out and managed to insert it upside down. I have no more of the fabric (either lining or outer), and I have no patience for unpicking. So, I have put it aside and may return to it in future. (Both lining and outer fabric should be easy to source) And I did such a good job on the fly front zipper, too! Oh, the shame. (In case you follow these things, I skipped the welt pockets at the back because I’ve always found back pockets completely useless.)

I have, in any event, learned enough to feel confident tackling Thurlow trousers.

And I still love the Renfrew, having completed another V-neck tee. However, I don’t quite have the technique for the V.

To wit:

Renfrew V Neck Fail.

Still, I completed it. And to anyone who says, like my Partner* did, “Is it meant to bunch up like that?” The answer is, “Yes. Of course it is. That’s part of the Design.”

I am actually looking unimpressed at a bug that landed on my chest, but this is perfectly illustrative of my troubles with that darn V-neck.

I am not deterred! I will make more and I will master that V-neck if it’s the last thing I do! ->insert triumphant music, or the music from that bit of Gone with the Wind when you see Scarlett’s dark silhouette framed by the setting sun as she stares at the ruin of Tara and says, “If I have to lie, cheat, steal. As God is my witness, I will never be hungry again.” The moment is exactly like that.

You know the scene.  Of course you do.

 “>

 

* I was going to write an apologia for my Partner.  But I don’t think I will.  Take that, Partner.