Archive for the 'Pants' Category

Cuffing Travel/Trekking Pants

Published on April 20, 2010 in Pants and Tips. 2 Comments

Every pair of travel/trekking pants I own has a bunch of features I really like, but no one pair has every feature I like.  The particular pair I’m posting about here are nearly perfect, but the legs are much wider than I prefer for most uses.  Most such pants have tabs, snaps, or some other way to cinch in the legs, but this pair doesn’t.  That’s because they have side seam zippers so that the legs can be easily pulled over hiking boots:

That’s a great feature, but on me, these legs are waaaaay too wide.  I needed some way to rein in that yardage!

There was no way to find fabric that was exactly like the one used for the pants,  so I bought a half-dozen buttons and sewed two small loops made of 1/8th-of-an-inch elastic.  I sewed two buttons just close enough to hold the elastic loop next to the pant leg.  Then I sewed a third button on each leg far enough away so that stretching the elastic to reach it made the pant leg as small as I wanted.

Then I sewed each elastic loop permanently around the far left button.  The free loop slips over the button to the near right when the pants are being worn with the legs wide, keeping the elastic from flopping.  The far button is used to hold the loop in place when the pant legs are cinched:

A pleat is automatically formed under the buttons, and voilà, no more balloon-legs.  Or ticks crawling above your socks.  Much better.

PR Mini-Wardrobe Contest: Vogue 8499

Published on May 17, 2008 in Pants. 0 Comments

First piece finished! I originally made a muslin of these Marcy Tilton pants from a linen-like fabric. This version, for this month’s Pattern Review Mini-Wardrobe Contest, is made from a black cotton blend sateen fabric with just a little stretch. The “stretch” was pretty irrelevant to this particular pattern, but it adds nice wearability to the pants.

These pants are just as much fun to wear as the first pair, but they look very different. The linen version has a flowing weight, and a casual, crumpled look. The black sateen is crisper, and these pants look almost tailored, even though the legs are so over-sized. I love the effect — these are pants I never think about while I’m wearing them. They just feel like a part of me.

Many reviewers have commented the sizing on this pattern is huge. It is! Be careful when you cut — you may need as many as four sizes smaller (I did!). Once you’ve got the right size, though, these pants are great — the flat front keeps them trim looking, and, even though the back waist is elasticized, shaping in the rear keeps the seat from bagging or looking puffy. In real life; this photo isn’t exactly proving my point, so I’m asking you to take it on faith. There’s the ease you’d expect from an elastic waist, but the seat fits mine pretty closely:

When I run elastic through a waistband, I like to make it adjustable and replaceable. Normally, I add buttonholes to each end of the elastic, but this time I sewed a bit of woven trim to each end, and will make the buttonholes in it. I’m waiting for the return of my Pfaff to do the buttonholes, but here’s what the tabs look like:

Not only does this look a little nicer, but it’s also a bit more comfortable to wear.

These were sewn on a Fashion Mate 237 that I bought several years ago, but hadn’t used since then. The fabric for the next item on my mini-wardrobe storyboard isn’t as forgiving as this one was, though, and I’m going to have to address some issues on the Fashion Mate before I start on it. Yikes! We’re already more than halfway through May!

Vogue 8499 – Marcy Tilton Pants

Published on April 27, 2008 in Pants. 4 Comments

This pattern is turning out to be one of my all-time favorites. This time I made the pants.

I love, love, love them! Yesterday was cold and rainy, and after running a few errands I retired to the sewing room and whipped them up. Mine are made of the same quirky linen blend I used for the skirt, and it turned out to be a great choice. It’s heavy enough so that the pants hold their shape, but it also flows very pleasingly.

(Apologies for the horrible wrinkles on the great pants. I made them, I wore them, I abused them. If you look at this fabric, it creases. I should have ironed them again before the photos, but I did not hesitate when the photographer was free. So the good news is that the pictures are on a real body. The bad news is that the fabric’s a disaster.) Side view:

The pattern directions were very clear, and construction is very simple. There’s a lot of topstitching, which takes some time, but nothing complex to deal with. However, be forewarned that the sizing is more than a little strange. Theoretically, I should have cut a size 14 (I wear an 8 or 10 in RTW, unless it’s really expensive RTW, in which case it’s a 4 or 6). BilllieJean’s review on Pattern Review confirmed my suspicion that these would run large: I cut a size 8, hedging my bet by cutting the crotch seam as a 10, and it was perfect. They’re still plenty big and flow-y, but that’s clearly the point.

The pants are also peculiarly long. I’m only 5′2″, so it could be argued that anything seems long to me, but I made View B (the cropped pants) and the length is right where I think it should be for View C (the long version). I may add one inch next time, but these are pretty good just as they are. I deliberately chose not to alter the pant leg length. There are wonderful darts that shape each leg, probably bracketing the knees on people of average height. Without a proper alteration, the top dart hits just at the top of my knee, instead of both bracketing it symetrically, with one dart well above, and one well below. I chose to view the darts as a structural detail rather than an accommodation to a joint; I think they look fine on me right where they fell.

I made one change: The waistband is flat in front (nice!), with a casing for elastic in back. I sewed two flat buttons to the inside of the front waistband, and made reinforced buttonholes in the elastic that I ran through the casing. This not only allows for some future adjustability, but also will let me replace worn elastic easily later. This is a simple trick I especially like for anything I wear when traveling.

This version was meant to be a muslin, but it’s turned out to be very wearable. Eventually, I think I’ll have to make them out out of my namesake fabric; they’d be spectacular in silk noil.