Sewaholic Thurlow Trousers DONE!

This post is dedicated to gwensews, one of my biggest sewing cheerleaders.  I'd like to think that last Wednesday night, when I was so worried about cutting my pants on grain that I forgot all about nap, that Gwen was there telling me to turn the fabric around so that I actually cut out my cords with the nap.  Miss you Gwen!

You know that feeling, when relief floods your whole body?  That is what I'm feeling right now!  I'm just 6 work meetings, one meditation session, one therapeutic massage and one packing session away from the ASE.

The Sewaholic Thurlow trousers are DONE!

I had no idea that it was Scary September, but I unknowingly joined BeaJay in pledging to sew something that scared me--to make my first pair of trousers!    So woot to that!

Also a HUGE shout out to Angela Wolf who helped me fit these in her PR online class, Altering Pants. I'm going to see Angela at the ASE and can't wait to hear what she says. We went through many muslin iterations online.  Thanks Angela!

And another HUGE shout out to Lauren of Lladybird for her Thurlow Sewalong instructions. The pix nicely supplemented the Sewaholic instructions--I really appreciated it!


It was 40F this morning which made for a fast photo shoot.
I wore them to work (it eventually warmed to 74F but was still fine in my chilly office).
General consensus at work is that they look "too big" especially in the thigh (with one of the cutest comments being that "Kyle is a person who thinks she is bigger than she is.")  I'm going to taper the side seams in and see if that makes a difference.  However, right now they are PERFECT for sitting down.

I'm not a fan of the jagged lines at the inseam, where you can see the back from the front, but they look better than they did in the muslin, that's for sure.  Dark fabric is your friend!

I was also surprised that you can see the back pocket bags from the outside--I mean the bottom edge of the back pocket bags.





These are my first pair of trousers ever (and only my third pair of pants with a fly front zipper).  I think I'm kind of hooked on making pants now.  Or maybe I'm just a moth attracted to a flame.  Gertie's pants?  Simplicity Amazing Fit pants?  Sandra Betzina's Craftsy pants?  Bring 'em on!

I wound up wearing them to work with this top, which one of my coworkers said made me look French.

I'm calling these my NYC pants.  Why?  The exterior is a midnight blue stretch Alice + Olivia corduroy from Mood that I bought with velosewer back in June during her NYC excursion.  I dithered over buying it but then went for it.  I felt there was little chance I'd find it again in Mood's vast corduroy selection during MPB Day.

The interior is a quilting cotton from The City Quilter in NYC that I first spied with Antoinette during her May NYC excursion. It's the NYC subway map!!


I love how fun the quilting cotton makes these pants!

They make me smile!

A big shout out to my Brother Project Runway machine, which makes AMAZING buttonholes. Unplug the foot pedal, press a button, and it sews the buttonhole in ONE SHOT, flawlessly and quickly. Where have you been all my life???  I used fray check on it before slicing it open with an exacto knife.  Gorgeous buttonhole!
Mom says she doubts she'd ever be able to top that Christmas gift.




Other sewing bloggers have said that the fly extention is too wide. I had no idea what they are talking about before but now that I've sewn them up, they are right!  Like others have said, cut about 5/8" off the fly extentsion and you'll be fine. Luckily I had cut the right waistband extra long so I switched the left and right waistband (learned that in Jennifer Stern's jeans class--cut the waistband extra long and then cut off what you don't need after you've sewn them on. But the left waistband looked so long that I didn't cut it longer--should have!).  Anyhoo, that is why the pointy end is now on top and on the right instead of underneath and on the left.


I wore them with my red clown shoes.  Love those shoes.

Here's your oops shot of the day:

More pix are in this loving album.
Relieved. Relieved, I tell you. Phew!
Be well!

Sewaholic Thurlow Trousers: 14 hours and counting

Thanks for your words of encouragement on my trouser project management post! 14 hours of sewing so far.  Just the hem to go...oh and I want to make a ribbon belt too.


The hem on one leg is pinned....

Front

Maybe I should use a more sedate button.

What, doesn't everyone have the NYC subway map inside their pants?

'scuse me while I go pass out now.   If I was 25 I'd stay up and push til the end but I'm not so good night!

Be well!

Project managing my trousers

All the raw edges were serged with care, in the hopes that trousers soon would be there.

I've been project managing my trousers all week long and you didn't even know it.  I'm starting with my muslin that I abandoned back in May. I made a sample of the welt pockets and the fly front zip back then.

1. Monday/Tuesday night:  selected fabric candidates; washed and dried fabric twice
2. Wednesday night: chose the #1 candidate; ironed fabric; cut most of the pieces out
3. Thursday night : cut remainder of pieces and interfaced (there is a neat trick where you rough cut the fabric and then iron a block of interfacing on and *then* cut your pieces out--it saves a lot of time--learned that from Kathy Ruddy at the ASE in 2010 and have been using that trick ever since, except I had already cut the waistband so I had to cut the interfacing just for those pieces and do the rough cut and fuse trick for the rest.)
4. Friday night: serged all raw edges
5. Saturday (today): Sew them up!!!
6. Sunday morning (projected milestone): Finish them up, photo session
7. Sunday afternoon (definite):  Social with my gym classmates
8. Sunday night:  blog posting.

Will it be a success?  A failure?  Can I sew most of the pants in one day?  with a fly front zipper and 2 double welt pockets?  Will I make a fatal blunder?  Will the fit be bad even after the muslin?  Can I make it work?

You know what I mean.

Wish me luck!!!

Simplicity 1609: the full report

Wow, thank you for all your kind words on my dress!!  Here are some more deets and pix.

Look at the lift on that collar!










To recap, L from You Sew Girl suggested covered buttons, an idea I loved, but I didn't have the covered button kit in the right size.  A quick jaunt to Joann's after work on Friday, and one Covered Buttons tutorial (by Gertie) later, and I was covering up some buttons.

I actually used a mix of the Dritz instructions and Gertie's instructions, and something that I came up with on my own (though it has probably been done before).

General gist, after realizing how much of the shiny button covered shined through the fabric, even though the fabric was interfaced!  I read that putting another layer of fabric between the button and the outer fabric would help but I didn't want another layer of fabric and potentially make it harder to snap that button together.

1. Sharpie marker the immensely shiny silver button.  (I tested this by markering then letting it dry and running it under water in the sink.  The ink seemed to stay put.) 



2. Cut fabric per template on back of button kit.
3. Follow Gertie's instructions for making a basting stitch, pulling up the bobbin thread to make the cup, 
4. and put the button inside the cup.  and pull up the strings.
5. At this point, follow the Dritz instructions for pushing the fabric onto those little prongs
6. Still deviating from Gertie, I then I cut the strings off 
7. Now pop the back of the button onto the button.  I was able to do this pretty easily on the 5/8 buttons and I could hear the "snap". I also got the (smaller size) but I could not get the button to snap on (note the smaller sizes do not have any additional tools like the larger buttons do.  Dritz recommends using a spool of thread to helop push the back of the button on but it did not work for me.  I also tried a hammer which still didn't work AND it dented my button so I wound up using the 5/8" buttons)

I'm really pleased that the buttons are no longer shining through the fabric.  When I wash my dress in the washing machine I'll let you know if the buttons stay as no-shine or not.

The other bit of note is that when I first made the muslin I dismissed the extra fabric at the ends of the darts as the result of quickly sewing the darts and not for what it really truly was--there is too much space in this dress for my bust.  So when I sewed the real deal, I was mighty surprised.  

I wound up ripping out the side bust dart and extending the french dart up into some hybrid of french dart/princess seams for a faux french princess seam ("french-ess"?).  Princess seams should go over the bust apex and what I did does not, but I'm calling it a "style line" and leaving it be.

The result is there are some drag lines on the side of the dress in the bust area BUT I prefer that to having bagginess under the bust area.

Also Gertie raised the armhole on hers and I wish I had done that on mine--but at that point I thought I was going to raise the whole dress from the shoulder seam and wound up not doing that...


I used Gertie's tutorial for the collar but cut most SA down to 1/4" instead of 1/8" to make it easier to use my new point presser.

I am excited to finally own a peter pan collar dress--I love peter pan collars--another dream realized.  Hee!


Good news! My Jack Be Little mini-pumpkin is growing on the vine. One this year, instead of seven like last year, but it's something!!


Be well!

Simplicity 1609, now with covered buttons!

Thanks everyone for participating in my poll regarding buttons or no buttons for Simplicity 1609.

The results are in!  I enjoyed reading all of your comments, suggestions, and supporting evidence for your arugments.  As Nina Garcia would say, you clearly thought about it.

--8 votes PRO buttons
--5 votes for "stick a fork in it, it's done, NO buttons"
--1 vote for MAYBE, depending on what the buttons look like.

I had some buttons in stash but I didn't feel they were quite right.  L from You Sew Girl!  hit the nail on the head when she suggested self-covered buttons.  YES!  I liked that idea quite a lot!

I'll give the full report soon, but here are some pix:


on the hanger

on the dressform in mid-afternoon light

On me.

Full report coming soon!

What do you think? Have you changed your mind now that you've seen it with buttons?
Be well!!!

Simplicity 1609: buttons or no buttons??

It's coming along!
I embroidered my name into the facing tonight and tacked down all facings.  Also blind hemmed it and pressed.

Should I add buttons or not???
The view I'm making calls for buttons, but I might leave them off??


What do you think?
Be well!

Simplicity 1609 in progress: Peter Pan this

Simplicity 1609, view A.  It is Peter Pan-licious, with a scalloped twist.


It just needs a hem. and maybe some tweaking. But mostly a hem.

I wish I could say it was a Jiffy for me (as the pattern is a reissue of a 1960's Jiffy) but it was not.  I have put a LOT of hours into this dress and made many mistakes (and that's even with a muslin) but I think this dress is going to have a happy ending!

I got to use my brand new June Tailor Pressing Board for the first time!

Specifically for pressing open the collar seams.
First it looks like this:

Then you press the seam open and it looks like this:

Very awesome tool.

Princeton Farmers Market flowers for this week:

Lisianthus.  They kind of look like roses, but they're not.
Be well!!!