Monday 22 September 2008

Vogue 2925, last version

To improve the agreeable feeling of virtue I had this morning after altering a summer dress, and a RTW work blouse, I kept going and altered a hand-me-down wrap over empire blouse for my daughter. She was not inclined to have her photos taken, but I was on a roll, so started looking at my unfinished sewing.
I don't think these pants are officially an UFO. I cut them out at the same time as I made another pair of Vogue 2925 pants a few weeks ago, when I wanted to try the elastic additions to waistbands article in Threads. I don't have the next issue yet, so surely these were a mere work in progress :).
The reasons I did not finish them a few weeks ago are multiple.
1. Again they are navy blue, from the Michael's bundle.
2. Unfortunately, I don't think the fabric is really suitable for trousers, it is very stiff, even after washing 3x, and I think it is probably a jacket fabric. It does not drape well.
3. There is also a problem with my putative TNT pants pattern from my SWAP. For both these and the olive pants I made a few weeks ago, I had to take in the side seams at least 2 inches. I must have done this with my SWAP trousers, and forgotten to transfer the change to the personal pattern I thought I had developed. I am not pleased with myself!
4. I tried to be clever :( . I decided that as the back zipper from my 3 previous versions of these pants seems to be a point of wear, no doubt due to crouching and bending so much at work, I thought I would change these to a fly front zipper fastening trouser. I did not do this in a successful manner, although the fly front itself turned out perfectly.
5. I was distracted by the Marlene pants sew a long.

My finishing activities today were:
1.In order to be able to squeeze through the waist opening, I had originally lengthened the front crotch, and so also raised the back waist to balance it, which meant today I increased the width of every back dart, and added 2 more to each side. I also took in the sides a bit more, all down the leg.
5. After all this, I had somehow forgotten that a fold over grosgrain ribbon finish would not work on a fly zipper. I added a very skinny waistband to the top, which will fasten with snaps when I buy some. I then finally was able to hem the pants.
These pants are definitely only wearable with an untucked blouse. I also think they may languish at the back of the wardrobe, so will make a real effort to wear them on the most-likely-to-contact-noxious-subtances occasions.
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1 comment:

Sue said...

This is a really great idea - looking through the wardrobe and looking at ways to make those 'back of the wardrobe' pieces work. I should try this...

The colours thing I relate to - I have vowed to never buy something in a colour that makes me think 'uuummmhhh?' even though someone else is telling me it looks great!