And on to the first ‘real’ pair of
pants. These are made of black Bengaline (polyester not silk) and intended for work.
As far as I’m concerned, all real pants
need pockets and my favourite style is the hip pocket. I made the pocket pattern this way:
1 I traced the pant front.
2 I drew the pocket on the traced front. I began by sketching the sort of curve I
wanted, then marking the lines for the pocket itself ensuring that they didn’t
get in the way of where the fly extension would sit. I tidied up the lines using my French curve. This gave me the basis for the pocket and the
pocket facing, since both would follow the curve, the side seam and waist seam
lines. You can see the pocket sketched (faintly)
and the final curve (darkly) in the picture of the pants front pattern below. Incidentally, it’s done using Vilene which is
cheaper and more robust than tissue.
2 I just traced the pocket adding a seam
allowance at the curve.
3 Since I knew I did not have a lot of
fabric, I decided to cut the pocket in two and make the hip area from the Bengaline
and the pocket bag from lining fabric, so I retraced as two pieces adding seam
allowances again. This is how the separate
pieces looked when I had finished.
I made the pants more or less following the
pattern directions for view B (the non-couture version). Because Bengaline has lengthwise stretch they are cut on the cross grain. This made it a bit hard to ease the front to the back above the knee, and in the end I didn't ease it, and just cut the excess from the fronts at the hemline. Because my overlocker is being repaired, I
did a Hong Kong finish on the seams. Lots of
practice at stitching in the ditch was very good for me, though not exactly
fun. I also added a fly underlay, which
stops me zipping up bit of underpants or worse, bits of tummy, as I do up the
fly.
The end result, which you can see below, wasn’t perfect. I hadn’t been quite generous enough with the hip area fabric so that the lining shows a tad when I move. More seriously, the back waist band rises in a peak! But it will always be hidden, so I decide to live with it, just altering the pattern piece a tiny bit to smooth the curve out.
The end result, which you can see below, wasn’t perfect. I hadn’t been quite generous enough with the hip area fabric so that the lining shows a tad when I move. More seriously, the back waist band rises in a peak! But it will always be hidden, so I decide to live with it, just altering the pattern piece a tiny bit to smooth the curve out.
The pants
are very comfortable and I like the pattern much more than my previous TNT pants. After a couple of wears, they too began to
slide just a little towards my hips.
This is, I think, not fixable with pattern tweaking; it’s because of my
shape. There is a simple though unstylish fix- a little bit of elastic
sewed to the waistband at the side seams grips enough for security and is not
visible because I never tuck tops in these days.
With one reasonable pair made, it was time to take deep breath and cut into some seriously luxurious fabric – plain grey Italian wool flannel. This time, there was enough fabric for the hip area and pocket to be cut as one, so I just made the pocket facing in lining fabric. I took my time and worked as carefully as I could. The only embellishment is top stitching on the pockets (shown below) and fly- done with the sewing thread and using the triple-stitch. The topstitching of the fly was nerve-racking! It took three goes and unpicking triple stitch is painful when you dare not just rip for fear of leaving little holes in good fabric. But the fabric was beautifully behaved- no issues at all with easing. When it was done I felt that I was a real clever clogs.
The end result (shown below in a very poor shot) is
really nice to wear. My only regret is
that spring is here already and I won’t be able to show them off till next
winter!
The next project for this pattern is to revert to something closer to Claire Shaeffer's straight-legged design lines, trialling the style in worn out sheeting. If it doesn't make me look too short I might then try these trousers in some nicely drapey grey crepe- more polyester, but this time not cheap. Instead of hip pockets, I might use plain inseam pockets. After that, who knows what I might do with this pattern. I'm learning heaps using it!