This may be “March Madness” in the basketball world, but this week I’m in the throws of self-proclaimed “muslin madness”.
I’ve just returned from New York with several pieces of beautiful new fabric that I want to use. (Thank you B J and Mood Fabrics!) Everything I bought is now pre-laundered and ready to cut but I don’t want to dive in before tweaking my muslins a bit more, particularly my jeans and yoga pant patterns. As my newest and wise sewing friend, Tina, said recently, “the more you know about fit, the pickier you become about sewing your own clothes”. So true; especially when it comes to pants.
While my previous efforts at making jeans and yoga pants have been reasonably successful, I think I can do better with fit, particularly when it comes to the back; hence making more muslins.
So far, the most successful jeans I’ve made have been from the pattern I created, copying my most comfortable pair of GAP boot cut, stretch denim jeans. My previous attempts with making this particular jeans pattern have turned out reasonably well, but I still notice some less than flattering wrinkles in the back thigh area. These same wrinkles are present in my original Gap jeans as well. I now know that for my proportions, I can make jeans that are more flattering in the back by shortening the crotch depth at the hip line by 3/4″, creating a dart at center back and tapering to nothing at the side seams, then adding 1/2 ” to the crotch length at center back where it joins with the yoke, then, using my French Curve ruler, tapering again back to nothing at the side seems. Thank you Peggy Sagers. Now I am taking what I’ve learned from previous trial and error and applying this new information to some other patterns I have, mainly “Lana’s Jeans” and the Three Piece Yoga Pants by Silhouette Patterns.
Lastly, I think there comes a time when one must forge ahead beyond “analysis paralysis” and start sewing. Wish me luck.
As my beloved first music theory professor, Dr. Edie Smith, used to say, “onward”!
PetiteSewSop 