SewTawdry: Burda Pant 10-2011 127

Sometimes I use the contests on sewing sites and blogs to motivate my sewing. More often than not I do the research and planning, purchasing, and finish a project, but rarely enter the contest. My enjoyment comes from the process and the finished product.

This time it was the Pants Contest on Pattern Review. I have lots of black, navy, and gray work pants and the usual selection of jeans, straight leg, skinny, flared etc. So what kind of pant to make? I love to do google searches where I put in a descriptive term, the word “pant” and look at the images. You never know what will pop up. I sewed two pairs of pants

The first one was a flare leg pant. Picture source: Illustrated Fashion Alphabet Check out this site for great fashion info and history.

.

I have to alter the back of every commercial pant pattern I sew and it gets old. About a year ago I attended a pant fitting workshop with Rae Cumbie . We sewed and fit muslin of her Eureka Pants that Fit pattern.

I left the workshop that day with a great fitting trouser with a slightly tapered leg. I have sewn several pairs of them for work. But I wanted some other style pants with the same great fit. Yes, in theory I could have drafted flare leg on the Eureka, but after reading several different methods in my drafting library and being totally overwhelmed, I decided to try superimposing the Eureka pant pattern over a Burda pant pattern that had the leg shape I wanted. And that was this pattern.

"These mid rise boot cut trousers are ultra-flattering. They lengthen the leg with a slight flare. The back is left smooth but the front has decorative patch pockets for a finished look." The pattern is available for download at this link.       Burda Pant 10/2011 #127

The first thing I did was establish the center line on the front and back pattern pieces, of both the Eureka pants and the Burda pants. I assumed both patterns had been drafted using standard pants drafting techniques, which puts the middle of the front halfway between the side and the crotch point.    And midway between the inseams and out seams from hem to knee on both front and back. Continue the fold to waistline. This establishes the center on each piece, which should be parallel to the grain line. Note: grain line is often marked on the pattern, but is not necessarily in the center.

   I lined up the crotch line of both front patterns. This will work on pants styles where the crotch is worn/drafted at a normal level.   It would not necessarily work for culottes and wide leg pants which often have dropped crotches.   My front Eureka pattern matched the Burda pattern pretty closely, front crotch curve, side seam and waist seam. That made me feel more comfortable about using this superimpose method   The back pattern piece is where all the differences were.

My bottom is low and flat so I do not need all the fabric, waistline darts, and the center back dart (back wedge) needed for a higher, curvier bottom. I used the Eureka pattern shape above the crotch line on the back. And the Burda leg shape below the crotch line. Below is the Eureka pattern (pale yellow and outlined in green on top of the Burda flare pattern (white).

The fabric was purchased from Marcy Tilton a couple of years ago and supposedly it was used by a French company for pants. The fabric has a tiny bit of stretch. It was sold by the panel and expensive. The border print ran along one end of the panel. There were some white (unprinted) spots in the print and the fabric was actually in my give away pile when I thought.."what have I got to lose…" I did have to so some descrete piecing in the back crotch.

These pants have an interesting patch pocket with a welted opening. I had the welt lines marked on the front pants pattern pieces when I decided to read the directions and discovered the welts were made in the patch pocket pieces. Hmm nice design. If you mess up the welts, the pants are not a loss.

1. Make welts in the patch pocket shape