Friday, February 7, 2014

The Jeans, They Fit!!




I MADE PANTS THAT FIT!!

Okay, now that's out of my system.  Getting down to business.  I've made multiple pairs of pants before, but I've never been able to make a pair that fits.  When I make all my usual adjustments, it seems to throw everything out of whack on pants.

This was a major problem, considering that I signed on to the RTW Fast over at Goodbye Valentino, and I am not the type of woman to wear dresses and skirts every day.  So, after considerable frustration and five or six pairs of pants that didn't fit, I bought Kenneth King's Craftsy class titled "Jean-ius".  He teaches you how to clone a pair of pants that you already have that already fit (without destroying them first).  Ladies and gents, I HIGHLY recommend this class.  I am lucky enough to have two pairs of pants (one pair of jeans and one pair of trousers) that fit me perfectly-- in the summer.  They're too short to wear with anything other than the flattest of flats.  So, following Professor King's method, I got all the information I needed to clone the jeans (they're the Blanc Jeans from White House Black Market, if you're curious), and made myself daisy duke muslins-- see my previous post for more one that.  Once I got the fabric chosen, I got to work.  Professor King walks you through every step of creation, adding in several new tips that I hadn't heard before.  Here they are!


Don't you like my purple tie-dye socks? :)  

Now, all this is not to say that I did perfectly.  I somehow managed to mess up the applique pattern for the pockets, resulting in this:


I am SO happy I managed to make it look like it was on purpose, but that little layering effect is actually a second applique sewn down on top of the first!  Without it, you could see the pocket material, which looks like this:


Note to self:  Next time, use pocket material that's similar in tone to the pants.  From some angles, you can see the tiniest of white lines around my pocket openings on the outside.  But hey, those are CUTE little pockets :)  Emphasis on the little-- these are fairly low-rise jeans, which equals itty-bitty pockets.

I am really pleased with the interior construction of these-- it's the first time I've really used my serger that my wonderful husband bought me for Christmas, and I was SO happy with how RTW it made my pants look:


With that, I suppose it's time for some shots of the jeans in action, huh?  Fair warning, I took them with my cell phone, so the quality isn't great.  And, by the way, it is spectacularly awkward to get a shot of one's own caboose.  Here goes!