Last year I touched on creating your own Vintage Inspired wardrobe. I can’t believe it’s been THAT long! Finally I have gotten around to starting to actually create my wardrobe, so I have something to share.
This pattern has been marinating in my collection, as well as the navy microfibre material behind it. The denim pants that we made before summer last year, got worn so much they were falling apart by the time Autumn struck.
Step one is tracing out the pattern. I like to use a lightweight, non-woven interfacing for this. Sometimes fabric stores will sell rolls of 10m for about $6, they’re handy to have for fittings, as it behaves more like fabric than paper, and doesn’t tear as easily when fitting.
For these pants, I only traced the top 2/3 of the pattern, as for me, the most important part of fitting is the ‘seat’ area, and making sure seams are behaving the way they’re supposed to. Hemlines is something I prefer to not to worry about until I have everything else fitted.
Then everything gets pinned together (just as you would with fabric) and you ‘try it on’. In the Palmer/Pletsch book I referred to in my previous post, it shows you how to do this. It’s basically a piece of elastic around your natural waist, and you tuck the fitting pieces up under them. I didn’t include any photos of my doing this as .. well, you don’t want to see me in the early fitting stages.
It’s by no means a fast process, as you fiddle and alter one little bit at a time, which may introduce new areas to alter. For my pants alterations included:-
- additional width at natural waist
- length removed from front
- shortened through seat
- extra room through depth of seat
- moving side and inner leg seams
- moving darts
See all those pins and tucks? Fun huh?
So after numerous try ons, pinnings, stickings (ouch), we have something that resembles a suitable pattern piece. You’ll notice it looks quite different from what we started out with. That usually happens with me, as I’m an odd shape. After this, trace it off again onto either more interfacing, or paper.
Whilst this process is a long one, the good news is, the fit will be infinitely more flattering (no pulls or sags)! Also, you’ve made a pattern that fits, so you can then make them again.
Next time:- We get the fabric out and make ourselves some pants!
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