Vogue 8397 - Marcy Tilton Pants

This Marcy Tilton pant pattern has been fairly popular on Pattern Review, especially View C. View C is a pant with no side seam. I have been wanting to make it but my first rendition doesn't use the pattern as designed. Instead, I decided to try out a version Marcy has shown on her website. Here are her two versions (click the pictures to take you to her pages):

As you can see, Marcy has changed the pant detail at the hem. According to her page, she has created three 1/2" darts at the hem, tapering to nothing. From looking at the picture, I assume she has also put 3 corresponding darts at the back. When I made my pants this way, tapering them to nothing inside of the horizontal pleat, and tried them on, they looked unbalanced on my body, so I ripped the darts out and replaced them with 1/4" darts, tapering them to nothing about 1/2" away from the pleat. I also put a dart where the side seam would be and on the inside seam, so there were 8 in all, rather than six. I liked this look better.

The fabric selvedge serves as the hem of the pant.

The other detail Marcy has changed is the addition of the funky patch pocket. She gives a tutorial for creating this pocket. I created a template using her measurements and made the same pocket. That is the fabric selvedge at the top of the pocket.

My fabric is a navy linen/poly blend from Fabrix. I have enough to make another pair of summer pants and I'm thinking another pair of Marcy's panel pants with the horizontal pocket. :)

DVD series - The House of Eliott

I am sitting here, in a noisy Starbucks, while my van is nearby being serviced for a recall which is required before I can renew my vehicle registration for this year. I am trying to work, which isn't easy in this highly distracting environment, so I thought I would post a quick entry on my most recent obsession.

I love BBC programs and have watched them for years. But, somehow, I completely missed this one. The copyright date is 1991, and I had my first child in 1992, so I guess when it arrived in the U.S., I was preoccupied with nesting and/or breastfeeding. Luckily, a friend mentioned it at our recent sewing retreat. Still, I didn't act on it immediately. When I eventually looked it up on Amazon, I discovered the series is pretty expensive, so I joined Netflix just to see it.

The House of Eliott.

swoon

I have now watched the first 9 episodes and it is fabulous. How does this relate to sewing? Well, it begins in London in 1920, where you meet two sisters who were raised by a deceitful, tyrannical, despot of a father, who is also a successful doctor. You never see him, but he is very Scrooge-like, and does his best to ruin the happiness and prospects of his daughters. He dies, leaving them virtually penniless, with a male cousin in charge of their finances and as guardian for the youngest, who is 19. The eldest is quite a bit older and could have been the guardian/executor, but the doctor clearly thinks little of females. This cousin, a solicitor, is one of those arrogant, self righteous sorts who thinks he knows best, so he hides facts, and money, from the two sisters.

The only real skill these girls have (because their father would not give them a proper education) is sewing. The youngest, in particular, has a gift of design. Eventually, these two open a fashion house and there are many scenes which revolve around the world of society and the garments they create.

I am only 9 episodes into the first season, but I am loving it. Each time I pop the DVD into the mail, I wait with bated breath for the next one. Luckily, because Netflix is *so* fast with the shipping, I usually get it in a couple of days.

I highly recommend it.

OK, now back to work. :)

Sewing Workshop - Teagarden T and Trio pants

To those of you who celebrate Mother's Day, I hope you had a good one!

Eldest Daughter is off in Washington for a week and a half for a ballet "thing", so the burden of celebrating fell onto Youngest Daughter. She did herself credit, though, by taking me for my first pedicure in 10 years. Yup, I remember the last time was on a cruise to Alaska. I pity the poor technician that had to deal with my extremely unkempt feet and I told daughter to make sure to give her a good tip. :)

Afterward, DD2 and I had a great lunch, and even ended up at my favorite fabric store. Some of our other plans got a bit derailed when DD2 was invited to a last minute birthday party for a friend visiting from Holland, but I enjoyed a long nap. What's not to love?

I have a new outfit made from TNT (Tried 'N True) patterns. The top is a Teagarden T, one of my favorite Sewing Workshop patterns. I declared that I would probably make 20 of these, and this is number three (not counting the muslin). It is made from a cotton interlock from Britex. I have #4 cut out as well.

I have been wanting to make some cream linen pants, but I was very nervous about it. It's been years since I've had any white or cream pants – they seem so impractical! But I found this gorgeous Dana Buchman fabric from Fabric Mart in cream; it's 65% rayon, 30% linen, and 5% silk. I threw it into the washer and dryer a couple times and it came out beautifully, but the second time I added a light blue linen and it came out of the dryer with lavender spots sprinkled all over it. I washed it a third time, with bleach, but it didn't seem to help the spots.

I decided to use another new favorite pattern, the Trio pants (I think this is number three from this pattern as well). I cut around the worst of the spots, but there are very light spots that I hope are mostly invisible. If, later, the pants develop further stains, I may dye them a darker color. But for now, I love these pants! I was planning to buy more of the fabric, it was on the website for a long time, but, of course, it's sold out now, except in peach.

Youngest daughter took these photos of me today. In the second one, she asked me to do a Kung Fu pose. I did my best. ;)

Vogue 8637 - Marcy Tilton Pants

This is Marcy Tilton's latest pant and skirt pattern. I originally planned to make the skirt first, after a fellow sewing group friend made it and I tried it on and loved it (it looked amazing on her!), but I have been on a pant kick recently, so I decided to start with the pants.

The design of these pants is interesting, which you can see if you look at the line drawing. There are three pattern pieces — the front, the back, and the godet. It doesn't have a side seam, per se, but the front and back join for several inches at the hip, and the godet is inserted from the point where they intersect. It's very easy to construct, because you first attach the godet to the front, and then you attach that piece to the back, so there are no awkward corners to deal with. The godet is cut to be wide at the hem, but there are three darts to contain much of the fullness.

The finished hip of the size 8, the smallest size this pattern comes in, is 44". I decided that was perfect for my 40" hips. The waist of the size 8 is 33". This is a problem for me, since my waist is also 40". I couldn't do my usual trick of just drawing a line straight up from the hip without compromising the design of these pants. Widening the little seam at the hip would affect how the godet fits into the piece and I didn't want to increase the size of the godet. Instead, I slashed and spread the little extension that juts out at the side front, which you can see in the photo.

I also used the crotch curve from the Sewing Workshop Trio pants, since I like how those fit. I made the pants out of a very black ponte – the same fabric I have been using to test all of my pants. I bought 11 yards of it for $2.39 a yard, so I have been getting a lot of use out of it. :) I was pretty happy with the fit. The only alteration I made once the pants were made was to shorten them about 1.5", which is pretty typical for me.

I like these pants very much, though I wish they had a pocket. To add a pocket would compromise the interesting design, so I will have to think about this some more.

I lightened the pants in this photo so you could see them better. (Have I mentioned recently how much I love Photoshop Elements? I bought it for $30 on sale and it has been such a useful tool for editing photos!) I am wearing it with my Bells top that I reviewed last fall.

Here you can see the darts at the hem.

Do you think I need a new Welcome mat? :)

Sewing Workshop - Trio Pant

I finally made the Sewing Workshop Trio pants and I love them!

Janis, on Stitcher's Guild, has sewn some beautiful pants from this pattern, so I was eager to try them. I traced off a size small, though, according to the Sewing Workshop measurement chart, my hips are between a medium and a large, and my waist is off the chart (larger than a XXL). I can often get away with a smaller pant size since my hips are small and I increase the waist, as necessary. I didn't have to fiddle with these pants.

My first pair, using a black ponte knit, fit well, but were a bit short. I am 5'5" and almost always have to shorten things, so these must run short. I left the pocket off this first pair.

My second pair are from a brown stretch woven. This time, I included the pocket. I finished the pocket with buttons from my grandmother's button basket.

I had to lighten this photo a bit to show the pants better. I am wearing these with my new t-shirt with the Marcy Tilton neckline.

Worn with my Sewing Workshop Now shirt.

Pocket detail.

Cutting Line Designs - My Hearts A'Flutter Overblouse

Many of the sewists on Stitcher's Guild are fans of Louise Cuttings patterns, published as Cutting Line Designs. I have made two pair of pajama bottoms using her One Seam Pants pattern, but have not yet made a finished pair of pants because I still don't have the crotch fit right. Up until now, that has been my only experience with these patterns.

Louise's latest pattern is the Heart's A'Flutter shell and overblouse and I decided it was time to take the plunge. I was interested in the overblouse, but was not sure how it would work on my busty figure.

As luck would have it, a friend made the pattern right after it was released and let me try her size medium, which has a finished bust measurement of 55". I knew that the medium would fit me around, but was concerned it would hike up at the front. When I tried on her top, that is exactly what happened: the front hiked up and looked very "maternity."

To fix this, I altered the pattern using my friend's suggestion – I added 3" to the bottom of the center front piece, tapering it to nothing at the side seam. Since the alteration crossed two pattern pieces, I had to modify both. I did not alter the pattern piece that goes across the bottom front.

The fabric I used it a very wiggly, very ravelly, plaid rayon that I bought at Fabrix. This fabric has a mind of its own and I had to cut it out very painstakingly. Rather than deal with matching the plaid in all of the pieces, I took a leaf from Terri's striped version and changed the grain of the various pieces. I had much less matching to worry about.

I am wearing the overblouse without anything under it, but that is for the photos only. A shell or a cami will be needed for modesty's sake – the slits are a bit above the waistline and, as the body moves, you can see more bust than anyone would want – after all, it is called an overblouse. I do like this top. I am wearing it with my new Sewing Workshop Hudson pants, which I will review when I get some better photos. :)

DD1 suggested I wear her sunglasses. Too bad you can't see them better, because the lenses have diagonal lines across them. The height of cool. ;)

TNT T-Shirt with Marcy Tilton Neckline

I recently bought some fabric from Marcy Tilton's website that she calls Light on Water Shibori Microfiber. I decided to use it with my TNT t-shirt pattern, but to also use a neckline technique from Marcy's t-shirt CD. You can use this technique on any t-shirt pattern, which uses oak tag templates that you make using the original pattern.

Unfortunately, I didn't have the t-shirt seated quite evenly on my shoulders, but you can still see the effect.

I am wearing this t-shirt with Sewing Workshop Trio pants, which I will review separately.