Pants Play

Sewing Classes really cut into sewing time. I just completed Pattern Drafting II class - skirt and pants. I now have a pants sloper that fits me wonderfully, especially in the waist, hip and “saddle” or crotch area. Using the waist and hip area of this pants sloper, I can draft skirts or I can combine my bodice sloper with a skirt draft to create fitted sheath type dresses. This class and the other pattern drafting class were taught by Annette Hickman, a mainstay on the G Street Fabric stores teaching staff, and an excellent teacher. Typically sewing class attendees are all women. One of the students in this class was a 13 year old Asian boy, “J” who is interested in fashion design and who sews clothing for his mother and sister. His presence caused a bit of scrambling on the part of the female attendees, especially those that had expected to have their muslin fit while wearing only underwear. The second class everyone showed up with close fitting exercise/yoga shorts which maintained modesty, but don't add bulk. The young man drafted a pants pattern based on his father’s measurements and we got to watch Annette fit the muslin on his father.

It was done very professionally and with respect for personal dignity. Annette is a great advocate for "reading the creases" of the fabric in areas like the crotch and underarm where is it difficult, and downright dangerous to be sticking pins to take up excess fabric or scissor to snip too tight seams. The body heat and moisture in those areas acts like a little steam iron. For example when fitting my drafted crotch curve, which was not deep enough, the muslin fabric bunched up in that area. After taking off the muslin we looked at where the fabric was creased because of the poor fit. Annette instructed me to sew the new crotch seam along the lowest crease line. In my situation and several of the other attendees, the new seam gave me a perfect fit. Thanks to J’s dad for participating in the fitting exercise. I don't know many men that would have pants fitted in front of an audience. I personally learned a lot seeing a man fitted. Especially from the discussion about their saddle area shape and the resulting pattern, versus those of a female. I live with three guys, including two very tall and slender teenagers that are hard to buy pants for, so this was especially useful for me. I am now reading anything I can find on using slopers to alter commercial patterns. Past blog posts by Jkaori and HongKongShopper were very helpful, as was this article from the Threads magazine. Using sloper on commercial pattern

To use my pants sloper for the first time with a commercial pattern, I chose to make a wearable muslin of this pair of "carrot" pants from the Aug 2009 Burda. Carrot pants are named so because of their carrot-like shape–wide at the hips and tapered at the ankles.

SSASYCHIC has some helpful guidelines on wearing pleated pants which includes carrot pants. Pleated Pant Types


These pants have a shaped yoke and a shaped waistband, with front pleats and tapering legs. I chose this particular pattern because it was fitted in the waist and hip area with the pleats starting below the hip. A better silhouette for me than one with pleats starting at the waist. The pattern is in tall sizes. My sloper matched the seam lines in the hip and crotch area closely for the size 88. Good thing my self image is not tied to a size, that number is big! Weirdly, my front crotch length was 2 inches longer than the pattern. The back crotch length matched exactly. I checked the pattern markings and all the descriptions to see if the front waist was supposed to be lower than the natural waist. No indication, so I compromised and added 1” to the front crotch tapering to nothing at the side seam. The fabric used was a medium weight, but drapey twill weave ?rayon? off the $2.95 table at G Street. If you read blogs or pattern reviews by sewists that live near the DC area, you may have heard of the G Street $2.95 table. It is a wonderful source for low cost fabric. According to Annette the fabric on this table is remnants and pieces from NY clothing manufacturers. It arrives weekly on Thursdays, stuffed in bags, via tractor trailer truck. It is dumped on the receiving area floor and employees fold or roll it up into neat bundles. By Saturday the new arrivals are on the table, which is at least 40 feet long at the Rockville store. I have found both beautiful and beastly fabric on the table, but I always enjoy pilfering through the pile.


I certainly don't look like the model wearing these pants, but they are comfortable and fun to wear. I didn't really have the other items of clothing to style them like Burda did, or the way the fashion magazines are showing them for spring; with a fitted tank top under a vest, but you get the idea. The final pair will be in a med. grayish blue drapey blend so hopefully they will look a little slimmer than the cream ones. Sorry about the headless pictures,I was taking my own photos with a timer. My photographers were busy, No. 1 - blowing leaves out of the gutter, No. 2 on his way to Hampton Roads for his girlfriend's Jr. Prom and No. 3 at friends.


It is a beautiful day today, so next on the agenda is planting oriental lily bulbs, Dahlia tubers and gladiola bulbs in my flower beds. Gardening in my yard is a war against critters. I have to plant most bulbs in wire baskets to prevent them from becoming mole/vole treats. The wire mesh Easter baskets from the Dollar Store work great for this purpose otherwise I make my own out of chicken wire. Thinking of some of the jewelry I have seen that is knitted using metal wire, I wonder if I could knit my own wire planting pouches. Something to think about while I dig.

Spring Break

This past week my classes had ended and it was ‘Spring Break’ for my DS’s. We redeemed all our frequent flyer miles for four tickets to the Caribbean island of Siint Maartin. I used the Dutch spelling because we were staying on the Dutch side. On our last visit we stayed on the French side or St. Martin. The two sides of the island is very different; currency, government, language, and the food in both restaurants and grocery stores. Amazingly, I found French language Burda, Elena, Mia Boutique, and Cadena magazines in one of the grocery stores. I was delighted. Here is the view from our bedroom balcony and the view from the back bedroom. I always get motivated to sew a wardrobe of resort clothes for these spring vacations, but in reality I wear a bathing suit most of the time, only putting on clothes to go to dinner. And though we go to nice restaurants, the dress code is still pretty casual. So I usually talk myself out of sewing anything for these trips. One less thing to stress out over. But a couple weeks before this trip, I saw this picture of a pair of Loeffler Randall shorts in InStyle magazine. They probably attracted me because they were a variation of the wrap shorts that were popular, and that I sewed and wore, when I was a teenager. Simplicity 4192 is a current pattern with wrap shorts. And I was tired of the Capri’s and Bermuda short that I have worn for the past few summers. I pulled up the shorts on the Bloomingdale web site to get a closer look (Zoom is wonderful!) and used the magazine picture to figure out the design scale and style details. Here is my sketch. I used the pants pattern from an old Donna Karan pattern, Vogue 2665,as a starting point because it had a narrow hip band. I made a copy of the front pattern piece and drew the lines for the pocket pieces. I made individual patterns for the pocket front and pocket back. The fabric of the inspiration shorts was a silk linen blend which is not available where I live. I settled for poly rayon fake linen with a soft drape, from Hancock’s, in a milk chocolate color. I couldn’t find a brown striped fabric for the piping, so I used a cotton print of turquoise flowers on a brown background. The scale of the print on the bias is similar to the strip used in the original shorts. I did not want to line the front pocket or front bottom leg opening to hide the piping raw edges. Instead I made piping with a 1 inch wide seam allowance on one side. I applied the piping so the wide allowance could be tacked like a hem allowance to the wrong side of the fashion fabric, hiding the seam allowances.

The shorts turned out more skirt like than the inspiration garment. The pockets tend to fly up in the air in the Caribbean beach winds, but back in hot humid ole Richmond, VA, they will hang demurely. When I make these again, I will move the pocket opening to hit higher on the hip. Though the current placement duplicates the the original shorts, I now realize the side seam of the original shorts are much “shorter” than mine.

We made a day trip to St Barth’s. It is definitely an upscale island and a fashion lovers treat; from the outfits that the fellow ferry passengers were wearing, to the garments displayed in the boutique windows, and the swimsuits and cover-ups on fellow diners in the resort beach restaurant where we ate lunch. For the ferry trip, I should have had on a semi transparent pair of wide legged white linen pants, which required a skin toned thong and/or a total wax job. Designers obviously don’t worry about show through on white pants. In fact they use it as a design element. The pants are worn with a halter top in a designer print with a low draped front so that glimpses of breast show with any movement. High heeled sandals on manicured feet. Lots of gold; rings, chains with pearls, dangly earrings, and to protect me from the sun, designer shades and a big hat. There were several versions of this on women of all ages, included one that was definitely at the 60 year mark. She was well maintained, but there are just some signs of aging that cannot be hidden, at least not by the outfit I just described. Window shopping in Gustavia was wonderful. I was traveling with 3 males, so window shopping was all I got to do. This was fine. It was cheap and gave me lots of ideas. A swimsuit “cover-up” is a misnomer on this island. It should be silky, flowy and semi transparent so your toned body and itsy bitsy bathing suit can be clearly seen through it. Needless to say, my opaque blue knit cover-up declared “middle class American” loud and clear, that and my DS’s swimsuit in a print of Corona beer bottles on a blue background. But I felt quite happy thinking of those Fabric Mart silk chiffon scarf prints I have in my stash. They would make a perfect St Barth’s cover-up. St. Barth was expensive, beautiful, clean, and a fun place to visit. We didn't see any famous people, but the rumor was that Jimmy Buffet was there a couple weeks ago. If we ever make a return trip, I will definitely sew up the most summery fashion forward patterns I can find, and wear them proudly.

Back to School

I am doing lots of sewing, but it is samples/homework for the three sewing related classes I am taking. Draping on the Dress Form, Pattern Drafting, and Tailoring. And yes I am still working full time. I love every minute of the classes, but I am definitely having trouble keeping up with the homework. The pattern drafting and tailoring classes are every Thursday afternoon at the Falls Church, VA location of G Street Fabrics. A sewing friend was signed up for the classes and they needed one more person to make the drafting class a go. The opportunity to be taught pattern drafting in English was too good to pass up. I have tried to teach myself to draft patterns using the Bunka method and the Japanese magazines Ms Stylebook and Lady Boutique. But I have always felt I was missing a lot of information because of language difference. I am using up leftover 2009 vacation days to get the Thursdays off. Class days are long and busy, but also invigorating and fun. What with the drive, a 4 hour round trip, absorbing all the class information, resisting the wonderful fabrics and notions at G Street (even with my 20% class discount) we are both physically tired and brain dead by the time we get home. Because our classes ends at the same time the southbound rush hour gridlock forms, we choose one of the authentic ethnic restaurants located near the store and have a leisurely dinner, pushing our departure time until after traffic thins out. So far we have had wonderful Vietnamese, Burmese and Afghani meals. Our husbands, left at home to eat leftovers, are very envious.

I though I would share some high level information and key learning from the classes – First the pattern drafting class

The instructor drafted patterns for the apparel industry, had her own retail store in New York City, and is an amazing fitter. The text is Pattern Making Made Easy, 2^nd edition by Connie Amaden -Crawford. We used the book measurement guide and basic pattern drafting instructions rather loosely. The book is a text book and therefore teaches industry drafting standards; certain amounts of ease, specific dart location, specific differences in the the front arm hole length versus the back arm hole length, etc. The instructor preferred that we draft a no ease sloper using the instructions plus some additional measurements. She then fit the sloper on our bodies. She recommended the book primarily for the sections describing how to draft garment patterns from a basic sloper.

Our first exercise was to take very accurate measurements of each other, and draft a front bodice, back bodice and sleeve pattern on paper. Once the instructor checked our drafts, we transferred the drafts to muslin and added wide seam allowances. The instructor pin fit the muslin pieces on our bodies. We revised our flat patterns to reflect the fitting changes and used them to cut out a new muslin pieces. We sewed version 2 together and the instructor did a final fitting. Any changes from the 2^nd fitting were transferred to the paper pattern and from it we made cardboard sloper.

Key Learning from this class- No matter how accurate your measurements and flat pattern drafting skills, the fitting will reveal changes that need to be made. Flat pattern are flat, but the body is curved. A measurement will not accurately reflect curvature along its length. For example, the center back to waist, and shoulder point to waist measurement. The draft distributes the length proportionally down the whole back length, but in reality a lot of that length for me is in the shoulder/upper back area because of round shoulders and prominent shoulder blades. Only fitting will identify fit difference due to body curvature. So there goes my dream of being able to draft perfect fitting patterns straight from measurements. Based on discussion with friends that use software to draft their patterns, like PMB, they go through the same process of fitting and tweaking each pattern drafted by the software. A comparison of the my draft pattern versus the fitted pattern are shown below. Green line is drafted pattern, Orange is fitted.

The remaining classes we will learn how to use the personal sloper to make fitting adjustment to commercial patterns. The pattern I am going to ask the instructor to help me with is this Patrones dress.

It was supposed to have been one of my Holiday 09 dresses. But I hit a fitting wall when I made the muslin. No, not the issue the girl in the photo has. My problem is the front is about 2 inches too long and a bit too wide. So I probably have to do a combination of a SBA and shortening the length. The back bodice is too short . My issue is how do I make the fitting changes and retain the integrity of the design especially the yoke and band shapes. I suspect the dart ease/bust shaping is incorporated in the seaming but I can’t figure out where.

Well, my ride to today's class will arrive shortly, so I have to get off the computer. More info on the classes next time

Show and Tell

Update on the over blouse. I took it the Fashion Focus group meeting last week for Show and Tell and got teased quite a bit about making my own buttons.

But what should I get in my email a few days later? A newsletter from SewStylish magazine with a link to a story on …. Make your own buttons from polymer clay . It is good to know I am not alone in some of the things I do.

Thanks to Joy for pointing me to Karen's Blog. Karen made the blouse for her daughter and moved the gathers on the blouse up to the bust area. I went back and did the same. The wearablity issues went away. However, I really think the pattern was drafted as a tunic front with very little shaping and the gathers in the waist area are a style detail, not a bust dart rotation.

The center front placket is 2” wide. When the gathers are moved up to the same level as the bust point, the side view is a little strange. I don’t have any cleavage so the placket lays flat against my chest bone between the “girls”. I don’t know if this would work for a person whose bust is fuller in the center front. Most blouses with center front gathers have them on either side of a very narrow front band.



The Show and Tell part of the sewing guild meeting was wonderful this month. Since we were snowed in for two weekends, many attendees had been "sewing up a storm” to use a corny phrase, and had lots of garments to share. Show and tells are fun and inspiring. I always come away from them with a list of more patterns I "need” to buy or techniques I “need” to try. I took 2 other items to Show and Tell. One was a skirt. This fall, I purchased some thigh length sweaters to wear with skirts and pants, a la this inspiration photo. But I needed some help styling them. Many of the magazine photos showed a belt around the waist either over the sweater or on a skirt under the sweater; I suppose to make the eye read the silhouette as if it had a waist. Belts over sweaters look horrible on me, so I looked for a skirt pattern that could be worn with a belt under the sweater. Skirt #110 from the Aug 09 issue of Burda Style fit the criteria and was quick to make, The brown poly wool blend fabric with a cream and black metallic grids went perfectly with a long beige sweater.

My second item was a jacket. Made using OOP Vogue 2896, this Anne Klein (AK) jacket has notched collar, three-quarter length sleeves with turn back cuffs and inset carriers for a belt.


The inspiration for this was another fall purchase, a Tahari wool jacket with similar styling. I liked the fit and style so much I decided to make the pattern.

I thought a brown tweed jacket would be quite versatile given the many brown + color print blouses I have, or worn with solid brown bottoms and solid blue, green, cream or red tops. I found this brown/cream wool tweed at Hancock’s. It actually has some threads in blue and green.

This jacket is shown with a belt and really does require one to look good. There is no front overlap or fastening so the belt holds the jacket closed. There are faced slits in the dart legs and side seams so that the belt can pass underneath the jacket fabric there. The belt only shows at the center front and back. I didn’t like the self fabric belt tied casually, as in the pattern picture, so I used a store bought belt. While the AK jacket is OK, it did not come as close to the Tahari jacket as I would have liked because of 1. the non overlap front which shifts up and down even with a hook to hold the front edges together, 2.the fit in the torso is much looser, and 3. I like the look of the belt showing on the side waist of Tahari jacket (done with double princes seams with slits). But it does go with the skirt and the over blouse so I have a little mini wardrobe developing.

Burda Magazine 3/2009 109 Over Blouse

Do you want to increase the work on a blouse sewing project? Just follow these guidelines.

1. Choose a blouse pattern with an inset neck band/front placket
2. Pick a fabric that can be challenging to work with - example: silk charmeuse
3. Add piping around the neck band
4. Hand dye the fabric for the piping
5. Hand baste the piping in place before final machine sewing
6. Redo piping several times
7. Make your own buttons out of polymer clay
8. Put the placket button holes on 45 degree angles so that button looks like the print,

I loved this Andrew Gn polka dotted blouse with piped trim. Notice how the big buttons on the skirt echo the polka dots. So cool.

I found this dark brown silk printed with cream flower petals that reminded of me of polka dots, well abstract polka dots. This fabric is everywhere. I bought mine at Hancock’s. It was available at www.Fabricmartfabrics.com at about the same time and is still available at Vogue Fabrics and FashionFabricClub/DenverFabrics. I would love to learn more about the supply chain for fabric. Why are some so hard to get, and others show up everywhere, like this one. I thought this Burda blouse was similar to the inspiration blouse. The fabric used to cover the piping is silk/cotton sateen I found at my local quilting store, of all places. It was bright white. To make it more cream colored, I tea dyed it. A long time tea drinker, I know from personal spills and splatters, just what color the stains are; the perfect light brown tinted color I needed. The grocery store brand of tea, made especially for iced tea or drip coffee makers (cheap, black and strong) worked just great. Five minutes swirling the piece of fabric around in a pot of hot, regular strength tea, yielded the perfect color.


The filler for the piping was rayon rat tail cord. Normally I am a “machine sew everything” person, but I always hand baste piping to a garment for control and careful placement. The neck band has 90 degree inside corners and outside corners. After I had machine stitched the piping in place, I was very dissatisfied with the look on the piping on the inside corner. I remembered a picture of piping on a similar corner, applied using a overlapping technique, from a 2005 Threads magazine article called “Perfect Piping” by Susan Kahlje. There were no instructions, but the picture was clear enough for me to figure it how to do it on my own.

Button sources in my town are limited. Many years ago someone gave a presentation at our ASG Fashion Focus neighborhood group on making buttons from polymer clay (like Fimo or Sculpey brands). I loved the idea. A Google of "polymer clay buttons" will bring up numerous web sites with pictures and instructions if you are interested. With a dollar for a package of clay, and a half hour for forming and baking, you can have machine washable buttons in any size, color or shape you want. I made flat oval buttons, with shapes similar to the larger petals in the print. I used a canapé cutter to cut the oval out of flattened clay, and a corn handle to make the holes for the thread. I don’t know how familiar folks are with corn handles, especially if they don’t eat sweet corn right off the cob. They are little pronged handles you stick in the end of a cooked ear of sweet corn to make the eating a tad neater. They keep the butter and salt off your fingers, but it still gets on your face. I wanted the buttons to look scattered like the ovals in the print. To accomplish this I put the button holes on 45 degree angles, alternating the direction of each one.
I chose this pattern because the neck band was like the one on the inspiration blouse, but I was concerned about the front gathers, which are below the bust. They put lots of fabric in the waist area and not in the bust where I would have expected it. I thought about moving the gathers up to the bust when I sewed the front to the placket, but didn’t. I wish I had, and will probably do it in the near future, when I am in the mood for careful seam ripping. The placket buckles when there is any movement that pulls the fabric over the bust. After I get it fixed, I plan to wear the blouse tucked into a skirt under a jacket, not as an over blouse.

Burda Blouse Blitz - #2

Another well worn blouse in my wardrobe is a mauve silk jacquard.

I wear it with a mauve/black/grey tweed jacket and dark grey pants, or with a grey collarless jacket with matching grey pants. Both combo’s are a bit color blocky and need jewelry or scarves to liven them up. When I found this quirky silk print of magnifying glasses in the same color way, I couldn’t resist.
Unfortunately I only purchased 2 yards instead of the typical 2.5 yards for a blouse. I have no clue why I did that though I suspect it was because I must have been trying to balance the guilt of buying more fabric, with finding fabric I just had to have. I was barely able to eke out all the pieces of BWOF 10-2005-102, a fitted blouse with French darts, hidden button placket, and tie neckline.

In hindsight, the drapey silk fabric was probably not the best choice for this style. Both versions of the blouse in the magazine were made in a shirting fabric. The long dart with slightly bias cut edges is better suited for firmer fabric.The front hidden placket, with its many precise folds, was a bit of a chore because of the soft, shifty nature of the silk fabric. I was getting quite frustrated until I decided to liberally apply spray starch to the front bodice pieces. This stiffened the fabric just enough to make the folding, pressing, and top stitching a breeze. I machine wash all my silk blouse fabrics prior to cutting so the finished garment is washable. I rinsed the starch out after finishing the blouse. I used silk organza as interfacing in front placket and cuffs. I am happy with the way the blouse looks with both jackets.

Burda Blouse Blitz - #1

Welcome 2010! Is it really mid Jan already? An update on the panda hat. T. loved it and sent me a picture of her wearing it.

Isn’t she cute? My DS the elder (17) met her at summer church camp several years ago. Surprisingly they have kept in touch and try to get together frequently. Ever since he got his driver’s license over a year ago, he has asked repeatedly about driving the 90 miles of highly trafficked roads to her house on his own. After talking to her parents and agreeing on some guidelines for visits, we got him a GPS for Christmas and tempered our parental anxiety long enough to let him make his first trip New Years Eve day. Thankfully, it was uneventful. DS is a good driver, but I worried he would encounter some of the idiot drivers I know are out there, and not have the experience to react safely.

Over my holiday break I spent time looking through nearly 10 years of old Burda magazines. I was looking for all the Burda blouse patterns I liked, but never had time to sew. I desperately needed some new blouses.

I have had the same dress code for work and relatively the same body shape and weight for many years, so I have garments in my wardrobe that are 10 to 15 years old and… I can still wear them. That doesn't mean I should. Specifically blouses. Some of my favorites were purchased in the early 90’s. They are favorites because they are made of beautiful fabrics like silk matelesse or iridescent cross woven’s in colors that still coordinate with many of my jackets. But they are so “out of style”. They have extended shoulders meant to be worn with shoulder pads, a loose fit in the torso, and breast pockets with flaps. I removed the shoulder pads long ago so you can imagine the look; droopy shoulders and lots of loose fabric around the waist when tucked into pants or skirt. As long as they are worn under a jacket, no one suspects. But I really need to wear blouses that are fit to be seen. I have personal global warming episodes when I need to remove my jacket to regulate my temperature. So I have been collecting fabrics in similar colors to the old blouses, in preparation for sewing replacements blouses. Here is the first of three I have completed so far.

BWOF 3-2009-112 collared V neck blouse with gathers along the neckline

I made mine in olive silk shantung to replace a olive silk matalesse blouse. The sewing was very straight forward. Here is the old blouse I am replacing.



Here is my new blouse,


I have a new coordinating jacket planned, but until it is done here are some of the RTW coordinates I will wear it with.

More to come on the other two blouses soon.