It's a weekend and I'm back on my sewing nonsense.
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So far I'm glad I did! I did the front legs, and it looks great! Himself looked at the pintuck and went "did you, like, starch these?" which is precisely the effect we're going with here
I have now done all four pintucks and guess what. They are all consistently 1cm off grain.
I really was super careful cutting and measured the distance from the grainline on the pattern to the selvedge, so now I'm wondering whether it was me that was wrong, or whether my selvedges were wrong. It wouldn't be the first time I bought cheap fabric that was imperceptibly skewed.
Next time I'm doing stripes I'm gonna use the stripes themselves as grainline guide rather than the selvedge
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I have now done all four pintucks and guess what. They are all consistently 1cm off grain.
I really was super careful cutting and measured the distance from the grainline on the pattern to the selvedge, so now I'm wondering whether it was me that was wrong, or whether my selvedges were wrong. It wouldn't be the first time I bought cheap fabric that was imperceptibly skewed.
Next time I'm doing stripes I'm gonna use the stripes themselves as grainline guide rather than the selvedge
You may have thought that I'd be off my sewing nonsense, because the long weekend is over, but I have bad news. I took the rest of the week off and I'm still at it. But I'm also trying to rest up so it's a little slower.
The Callahan pant pattern has eight darts. And this fabric just didn't want to be marked. I used tailor chalk, pastel, frixon pens. Poof! It just disappears.
But worse, because I'm interlining the pants, I had to do darts on the lining too. Sixteen! Sixteen darts!
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You may have thought that I'd be off my sewing nonsense, because the long weekend is over, but I have bad news. I took the rest of the week off and I'm still at it. But I'm also trying to rest up so it's a little slower.
The Callahan pant pattern has eight darts. And this fabric just didn't want to be marked. I used tailor chalk, pastel, frixon pens. Poof! It just disappears.
But worse, because I'm interlining the pants, I had to do darts on the lining too. Sixteen! Sixteen darts!
They took absolutely fucking forever. I'd say I'd be happy not to see another dart for a while, but my next project has darts too, so no such luck.
Next are pockets and front fly.
I read the front fly instructions like seven times and I think they're just fucking stupid. I don't know why they're making this so complicated. I'm gonna use my favourite zip fly method instead, working from the wrong side, and just add an extra step to make sure the zip ends up 3/8'' from the center front.
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They took absolutely fucking forever. I'd say I'd be happy not to see another dart for a while, but my next project has darts too, so no such luck.
Next are pockets and front fly.
I read the front fly instructions like seven times and I think they're just fucking stupid. I don't know why they're making this so complicated. I'm gonna use my favourite zip fly method instead, working from the wrong side, and just add an extra step to make sure the zip ends up 3/8'' from the center front.
Welp, that's a bit of a lie. Next is front interlining, which I must put in before I tackle the zipper.
Normal lining sorta "floats" inside of a garment, but with interlining it's meant to be treated just like the main fabric, so it's joined to it at all seams. In order for the fabric to "behave" nicely, I need to baste the main fabric and the interlining together.
By hand.
I'll baste the fronts, and that will be last thing I'll do today. Back pieces I'll do after pockets.
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I have now done all four pintucks and guess what. They are all consistently 1cm off grain.
I really was super careful cutting and measured the distance from the grainline on the pattern to the selvedge, so now I'm wondering whether it was me that was wrong, or whether my selvedges were wrong. It wouldn't be the first time I bought cheap fabric that was imperceptibly skewed.
Next time I'm doing stripes I'm gonna use the stripes themselves as grainline guide rather than the selvedge
@jjcelery I learned that the hard way too last week
or worse, I assumed the top and bottom edge had been cut cleanly, but they hadn't, so all my on-grain pieces ended up 2–5° off grain until I realised and cut the rest by the stripes -
@jjcelery I learned that the hard way too last week
or worse, I assumed the top and bottom edge had been cut cleanly, but they hadn't, so all my on-grain pieces ended up 2–5° off grain until I realised and cut the rest by the stripes @amberage oh top and bottom edges are absolutely never true!
I was made aware recently that it's not just sloppy cutting and shrinkage - as I had thought for ages - but that the fabric is actually wound onto the bolt at a slight angle in production. So even if it's cut accurately in the shop, until you wash you don't know how "off" your cut edges are going to be. Absolutely infuriating
And sometimes you do your best but the fabric has other ideas anyway...
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Welp, that's a bit of a lie. Next is front interlining, which I must put in before I tackle the zipper.
Normal lining sorta "floats" inside of a garment, but with interlining it's meant to be treated just like the main fabric, so it's joined to it at all seams. In order for the fabric to "behave" nicely, I need to baste the main fabric and the interlining together.
By hand.
I'll baste the fronts, and that will be last thing I'll do today. Back pieces I'll do after pockets.
Bias tape side quest completed, I have put in my patch pockets and interlined the back legs. Now I'm onto the zip fly.
This is my fist interlined project that isn't a skirt. The instructions say (paraphrasing) "baste the interlining to the main fabric, then simply sew both fabrics as if they're one piece".
"Simply"!! If I had it my way every person who writes instructions would get an electric shock every time they're about to use the word "simply" or "just".
But damn is it lovely.
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Bias tape side quest completed, I have put in my patch pockets and interlined the back legs. Now I'm onto the zip fly.
This is my fist interlined project that isn't a skirt. The instructions say (paraphrasing) "baste the interlining to the main fabric, then simply sew both fabrics as if they're one piece".
"Simply"!! If I had it my way every person who writes instructions would get an electric shock every time they're about to use the word "simply" or "just".
But damn is it lovely.
On a side note, every time I make and photograph a butt patch pocket, a quote from Hot Fuzz pops into my mind unbidden:
"Annette, that Sergeant Angel's coming into your shop. Get a look at his arse."
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Bias tape side quest completed, I have put in my patch pockets and interlined the back legs. Now I'm onto the zip fly.
This is my fist interlined project that isn't a skirt. The instructions say (paraphrasing) "baste the interlining to the main fabric, then simply sew both fabrics as if they're one piece".
"Simply"!! If I had it my way every person who writes instructions would get an electric shock every time they're about to use the word "simply" or "just".
But damn is it lovely.
You may notice two bits:
1. There are no pintucks on my interlining. It made no sense to do them twice, and would have been very difficult to make them on double fabric. But I cut interlining from the same pattern piece, so it follows it must be a little larger than the resulting pant leg.
I couldn't predict by how much and where *precisely* the excess was gonna be, so I left the trimming to after I basted it in. It turned out exactly 6mm / 1/4 inch and I trimmed it on the side seam.
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You may notice two bits:
1. There are no pintucks on my interlining. It made no sense to do them twice, and would have been very difficult to make them on double fabric. But I cut interlining from the same pattern piece, so it follows it must be a little larger than the resulting pant leg.
I couldn't predict by how much and where *precisely* the excess was gonna be, so I left the trimming to after I basted it in. It turned out exactly 6mm / 1/4 inch and I trimmed it on the side seam.
2. The only details from the pattern on the interlining are the darts.
The darts are placed so that the "right" side of them face the inside of the pant leg. You need to remember that before basting.
The extra thing nobody tells you is that lining and interlining and main fabric darts need to be pressed in the opposite directions.
If the main piece darts are pressed towards the crotch line, the interlining ones go to the side seam. This reduces bulk, and makes dart alignment easier.
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2. The only details from the pattern on the interlining are the darts.
The darts are placed so that the "right" side of them face the inside of the pant leg. You need to remember that before basting.
The extra thing nobody tells you is that lining and interlining and main fabric darts need to be pressed in the opposite directions.
If the main piece darts are pressed towards the crotch line, the interlining ones go to the side seam. This reduces bulk, and makes dart alignment easier.
Ho ho ho, now I have a zipper fly.
(It stops well short of the waist line because these pants have a generous facing on the inside.)
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Ho ho ho, now I have a zipper fly.
(It stops well short of the waist line because these pants have a generous facing on the inside.)
The only part of the zip installation instructions from the pattern I did follow was trimming the right hand side of the fly extension after installing the zipper, and I regretted it immediately. It left me bereft of seam allowance to install the fly shield and made it extra hard. One should trim it *after*, if at all.
I can now declare with all certainty that the whole shebang of zipper instructions in this pattern should go to the bin.
I used Closet Core method instead.
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The only part of the zip installation instructions from the pattern I did follow was trimming the right hand side of the fly extension after installing the zipper, and I regretted it immediately. It left me bereft of seam allowance to install the fly shield and made it extra hard. One should trim it *after*, if at all.
I can now declare with all certainty that the whole shebang of zipper instructions in this pattern should go to the bin.
I used Closet Core method instead.
I'm saying this fully aware that there are people out there who "hate, hate, hate"¹ the Closet Core method(s) and I watched and entire video rant about this just recently, entirely puzzled. I love it.
*I* think the zipper installation method in this pattern is stupid AF, and unnecessarily complicated. But if I learned anything about sewing is that everyone develops Strong Feelings about their favourite way of doing things, and there are so, so many. Go with your heart.
#sewing
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¹ exact quote -
I'm saying this fully aware that there are people out there who "hate, hate, hate"¹ the Closet Core method(s) and I watched and entire video rant about this just recently, entirely puzzled. I love it.
*I* think the zipper installation method in this pattern is stupid AF, and unnecessarily complicated. But if I learned anything about sewing is that everyone develops Strong Feelings about their favourite way of doing things, and there are so, so many. Go with your heart.
#sewing
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¹ exact quoteI'm psyching myself up for basting the seams for the final fitting. I cut a size 12 and I already know it's not gonna be right out of the box, because I've done pants from this block before, and because I'm closer to a 10 in waist and 12 in hip.
I want a good fit.
What I don't want is the work that goes into achieving it.
There's non-zero chance I'll have to redraft and recut the back facing 🥹
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I'm psyching myself up for basting the seams for the final fitting. I cut a size 12 and I already know it's not gonna be right out of the box, because I've done pants from this block before, and because I'm closer to a 10 in waist and 12 in hip.
I want a good fit.
What I don't want is the work that goes into achieving it.
There's non-zero chance I'll have to redraft and recut the back facing 🥹
I basted everything in and did two fit tests. First was... fine. Second was very good! But I'll be taking 4 cm from side seams and 2 cm from the center back. with total of whopping 10 cm of circumference at the waist, graded to the hip.
That a lot of fucking centimetres. I didn't expect that much
I will absolutely have to redraft the facing.
One one hand (Gollum voice) we hatesss it. OTOH this will give me plenty to play with for any future weight fluctuations.
More tomorrow.
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I basted everything in and did two fit tests. First was... fine. Second was very good! But I'll be taking 4 cm from side seams and 2 cm from the center back. with total of whopping 10 cm of circumference at the waist, graded to the hip.
That a lot of fucking centimetres. I didn't expect that much
I will absolutely have to redraft the facing.
One one hand (Gollum voice) we hatesss it. OTOH this will give me plenty to play with for any future weight fluctuations.
More tomorrow.
Now onto *feelings*. The pants, because of the interlining, the main fabric's weight, and the extensive handling have developed Substance.
They don't look like they're thick, or heavy. They *aren't* thick. Fabric is still a little see-through. But they have a Heft to them. Not stiffness, not thickness. Soft. But substantial.
I'm not entirely sure when or how that happened. It's two relatively lightweight fabrics paired together and suddenly you want to address them as Sir.
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