I am always sewing a new pants pattern hoping it will be the one that makes me look like I envision myself in pants; slim hipped, flat tummy, curvy butt. Reality is the exact opposite; wide hips, curved tummy and flat butt. There are ways to create the illusion with seaming and style details, but I am still trying to find that magic combination.
I wanted a slim fitting pair of bright blue pants, inspired by pictures of Peter Wu and Carole's lovely version.
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| PeterWu Pants |
When I make slim legged pants, the issue I have is the sudden transition of my wide hips to skinny long legs. My eye always settles on the widest expanse of fabric, right across my hips. So I thought vertical lines through that area might break it up. The pattern I decided to test this time was from the Italian pattern magazine, La Mia Boutique, Dec 2011.
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| La Mia Boutique Pant 1237 |
The pant pattern, # 1237, is designed to be made with a stretch fabric. There are top stitched creases on the center of the front and back legs. I did make a muslin and the fit of the lower crotch and legs was great. But the crotch was too short by 2 inches in both back and front. That is not surprising given my height. I remember feeling like a giant in the land of smaller people, while in Italy during the 2006 winter Olympics. And there was too much darting in the waist and hip area. So I took the easy way out and morphed the legs of the La Mia Boutique pants on to my trouser sloper starting at the crotch line. It looked something like this.
The sewn crease can be done on any pair of pants. Fold the front along the straight of grain at the midpoint of the leg. Use the bottom of the pant leg to determine the center of the leg. Sew close to fold line the length of the pant leg. A edge stitch presser foot, which rides along the folded edge of the fabric, makes it easy to maintain straight stitching along the fold.
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| Top stitched Crease |
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| La Mia Boutique pants |
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| BurdaStyle 8 2012 129 |
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| Butterick 6037 |
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| Butterick 6037 blouse |
