A month of months

Burda 07/2010 #104  (link to the German site, the American one still seems to be having issues after the change in ... management?) is a pattern from over a decade ago.

I made this pattern before and it was... not great. The fabric was way too stretchy and weirdly polyesterish.

This time, I used my jamie jeans as a fitting template. This fabric has about 20% stretch. Jamie requires at least 30%. The pattern pieces are so different, but it looked like this pattern was about 10% bigger through the hip. So I just cut on the original lines. And that size was either a size 38 or 40.

I took in an inch width of the center back seam at the waist, and subsequently had to add 1 1/4" in height, which gave a deeper yoke.

These jeans would be slightly more comfortable with 4.5 gauge zippers. Apparently, the color I wanted is not sold anywhere in continuous yardage. All I could find was 5-gauge and they are a little too beefy.

Making the zippers was a bit of a learning curve. I ended up mangling a couple of the tapes trying to remove the teeth before I figured out how to cut them off without getting the tape caught in the jaws of the wire cutters. It looked like I had discovered gold - flakes were flying everywhere.

I bought 2.5 yards and had about 10" extra, and that was a good thing. I lengthened the pants 1" longer than the pattern, and I definitely don't have longer legs. The zippers do NOT open all the way up, there is a backing strip that ends just below the knees.

Also, I didn't realize the zipper pulls weren't the dangly kind, ie, with rounded corners.

They fit and are very comfortable. They do, however, tend to stretch out and not quite recover. I'm guessing that's a function of the twill weave, not the stretch part.

This was another project I immediately wanted another pair of. What is happening.

Without zips, though.

Fabric: Cotton stretch twill 60"wide 1 3/4 yds
Cost: $26.23 fabric, 3.10 thread, 14.27 zippers
Time: 1/30 fabric purchased, 2/9 zippers purchased, laid out pattern 2/14, sewed 2/15-16, finished 2/16

These are the finished corduroy pants.  I did some piecing of various parts, most notably in the back pocket (click to see bigger).  The front welt is a single piece and works much better this way.  I think next time I may raise the waist on these 1/2" - they don't quite look in proportion to me.

And wow, the camera really shows the wrinkly-ness of freshly laundered corduroy. I hope these aren't pants I have to iron.

Also, I forgot how stretchy corduroy is and these pants tend to expand over the day.

If only I had bought 2.5 yds instead of 2.25 of the amazingly cheap 100% wool herringbone!  I could have made both the Ruby and Nichola pants as originally planned.  However, it's the type of fabric I originally wanted to make the EvaDress trousers from, and so I'm leaning towards making Ruby pants again, and plus I really really like the Ruby pants, but then I don't want to have 139,728 pairs of pants with buttons down the sides.  Urgh.

Brrr! Back to the cold. This is why I was glad I frantically took pictures when it was sunny.  Well, sort of glad. These trousers really don't look like what I thought. Not quite as flattering, really. This is why I take photos - the camera doesn't lie.  Maybe I could have been tipped off by the overalls I made from the same pattern that also make me look short and wide - the pattern being EvaDress T30-1936 (which doesn't seem to be available anymore). However, they are comfy.


They are a lovely wool flannel from Mill End, and hey, guess what! Wool flannel stretches.  The other pants I made out of sturdy cotton twill were too short, so I added a couple inches to the hem this time, only to cut them right back off after the material stretched. I made the bound buttonholes this time and like them WAY better than machine made.

I also had to interface the waistband with fusible tailoring hair canvas in order to hold the weight of the pants + lining. Did I mention these are lined? Buttery soft hang-loose lining. So, like I said, comfy.

Oh, has anyone figured out how to get the $@#*^ ridge line of a tucked-in shirt to go away?

*Livejournal seems to not allow clicking on photos to embiggen anymore, so you can right click and choose "View Picture" and see a bigger version.