V2925 FBA again

Sewing today was mainly name tags, as my son starts school tomorrow. I also sewed some grosgrain ribbon on a hand towel and and zig-zagged a few badges and crocodiles from print fabrics on the same hand towel (for use at school). It was really high level sewing! This, I think today, is about the level of sewing I should stick to. I am struggling with the jacket. I read more today about adjustments and construction and am feeling a bit out of my depth. I did finish unpicking toile #2, and have slashed and pivoted in what might be the way people at the Stitcher's guild have suggested on a FBA for french darts thread in Anne's Purls of Wisdom. I hope this is what Debbie Cook meant, but am unsure. I have taken photographs, and will take more after I can get to the sewing machine and sew some fabric under my changes - maybe someone can tell me if I am heading in the right direction if I ask again with pictures.

FBA research, wrap top findings

Today was only a tiny sewing day. I marked all the seams on the V2925 jacket toile, unpicked a bit, then spent the evening reading old Australian Stitches articles, searching sewing sites and reading blogs to look for nice diagrams of a french dart full bust adjustment. I found several verbal descriptions but no nice pictures. I did, however, find out how to fix the FBA on the Butterick wrap top, at Sewing Divas, and also how to stabilize and press the french dart, also at the Sewing Divas (I was reading just a trifle off the topic, what a great blog)

http://thesewingdivas.wordpress.com/2007/03/09/adjusting-for-a-full-bust-on-a-wrap-top/.

I am reasonably pleased with my research. I think I may need to make the toile with a little more ease, particularly in the sleeves, so will adjust these as well as the french dart as my next step in the jacket. If this gets too much, I will make a trial of the mandarin collar top for my daughter's SWAP - it works quite well having 2 project streams.

Junior Swap January 28

This weekend is a long one for the Australia day holiday, but I have not spent nearly as much of it sewing as I thought I would. I extended my break from the V2925 jacket today, and kept sewing for my daughter. Here is the a vintage pattern, Butterick 435 which I made yesterday as a trial dress for my daughter's SWAP. This pattern was given to me by a elderly lady at church, who had used it for her daughters several decades ago. The fabric print does not show up very well in the photo - it is red/pink/white strawberries with green leaves on a variagated shade dark blue background. The dress is a princess line with a little shape to it, and is lovely and cool to wear in a cotton quilting weight print. I did not have any trouble with the pattern, although the facings seemed to have been drawn from another dress entirely - I made view D. I did not want to re draw the facings for this "trial" dress, so lowered the front and back neckline about 7 cm to accomodate the difference in the facing, and I think the neckline sits at a comfortable and flattering point. There were no finished garment measurements on the envelope or the tissue, so I made the dress up to the size 12 circumference, which fortunately happen to be the same as my daughter's measurements. I lengthened the dress by 10 cm to accomodate her tall figure and the longer length of current fashion. In fitting, I took the dress in 7cm on each side in the bodice, as it was very loose, but left this extra fabric below the waist to increase the flare of the skirt.

The second outfit is the pants from Simplicity 5220, with a shirred top made from a remnant of pink cheesecloth from my stash ( it was originally purchased from my local fabric shop, and most of it made into a Lizzie MacGuire top with bell sleeves). I used the corded buttonhole foot to do the shirring for the first time, and found it much easier than the bobbin elastic method. It also looks neater, and the shirring elastic did not break once - this is now my preferred method of shirring. I made a small folded hem for the top edge (I do not have a rolled hem foot), and trimmed the bottom with an on grain strip of the same grey and pink print used on the pants split hem. I folded the strip with my bias tape tool, making it easy to apply. This was a quick and easy top, and my daughter loves it.

More junior SWAP

I was tired of working on the toile for V2925 jacket today, so I worked on my daughter's Swap for a while. I made her a dress from a vintage Butterick pattern, I have taken a photo but will post it later. We were very pleased with it. It is a fitting plan for a chambray top with a smocked insert, but as I have used a navy print with red and pink strawberries, the dress can now be a reserve item for the SWAP, should I run out of things to sew. I have also started a shirred baby doll top for my DD in pale pink cheesecloth, I trimmed it with a quilting cotton print, which should give a bell curve to the top. I am using the button hole foot to do the shirring, which is a new attempt for me. Before I read the instruction book for my Husquavana sewing maching, I had been shirring by hand winding the bobbin with elastic. The c foot method seems much more successful already. My plan is to do some serious unpicking of the jacket tomorrow, as Debbie Cook has kindly given me some advice about adjusting the french dart. However, we have an Australia day long weekend party to attend tomorrow, and I have a feeling that this will significantly cut in to my sewing time.

Another twist top

This is the twist top, Simplicity 3800, that I made for my Mum today. She and I are very pleased with it. So far this top looks great on a 12 and a 13 year old, me in my thirties and Mum in her sixties - what a great pattern! I used a not very expensive cotton interlock from my local fabric shop - this being the best knit available in town. I altered the pattern for a small bust, and gave her a bit more room in the lower bodice for a mature figure. I had vague thoughts of making Mum the top from V2925, but it looked absolutely terrible on her. She has narrow, slightly sloping shoulders, a petite frame, and a small bust. I have just reviewed V2925 as my new favourite top - I guess I take after my Dad.

Today I worked on the toile for the jacket from V2925, about 7 hours worth. I am finding the Timmel SWAP very motivating. I planned on doing the jacket as an "if I'm feeling ambitious at the end of the SWAP" project, but after seeing all of the marvellous work of other participants I feel like jumping in to these projects with both feet. I am now happy with the waist, peplum, back fit, after taking in the back darts and central seam and raising the waist seam, but need to work out how to alter a french dart as a FBA. I was getting tired when I put on the collar and lapel, and need to try this again tomorrow to see if I need to lower the back neck. The sleeve is also a bit tricky - I need more stitching ease at the front shoulder seam, and less at the back. I am also not sure how much overall garment ease I will need. I plan on wearing the jacket over a t shirt or light blouse only, but as the toile is not interfaced or lined, I know I will need ease for these fabric layers in the real garment. This pattern is rated easy, the jacket has nine outer pieces and 3 lining pieces, I think it needs a rating like knitting patterns - achievable by intermediate sewer with patience, or something like that.

Re the junior SWAP, I had planned on making a simple, shirred baby doll top for my daughter today, as a relief from the jacket toile, but I am glad to get away from my sewing machine for a while. I will try the shirred top in the morning after I go to the farmer's market.

smocking on a gorgeous girl

Here is a photograph of my niece in one of the smocked outfits I made her for her Christmas present. This is her play outfit - it has ruffles on the pants back for when she is crawling ( she is 6 months old, so any day now). Her other outfit is being saved for her Christening, according to my sister- in - law, so she must like it. My Mum brought me up this photo today, and I couldn't resist posting it.

Simplicity 5220 pants

I finished the pants from Simplicity 522o today. My daughter is quite pleased with them. Here they are with a purchased top. I have made the pants a bit shorter, due to fabric restrictions. The splits in the leg seams are finished with pink/grey/green/metallic gold quilting fabric.
Regarding my SWAP, I have worked a little more on #2 V2925 pants. I cut out the lining (short) this morning, then this evening after work, sewed the lining, and finished the pants except for the hems. I was a bit anxious about the fit, and sewed the outside leg seams with a 1cm allowance, and when I tried them on for the hems, I need to take them in about another 1cm - I have left this until tomorrow, as my son really needed to go to sleep.

Pants, Simplicity 5220

I sewed quite a bit today, but not entirely on the SWAPs. My daughter had a friend over to spend the day, and wore her twist top and denim shorts (they may be worn out before the SWAP is done). The first words out of Friend's mouth, after the polite salutations - "Your outfit is so cool, where did you get it?" Daughter and I feel very clever as the answer returns "Mum made it for me". I pass the teenager test (friend passed this Rubicon 3 weeks ago and is 13). Friend has gone home with her own new twist top in the remains of the fabric - one more completely out of my stash ( I hope her Mum likes the top as well, I would also like to pass the other mothers' test). It is so nice to be able to whip up a nice top. I think I am a knit convert.

I worked a very little on my V2925 #2 pants. I did some stay stitching, sewed inner leg seams, put in the invisible zip with my new zipper foot - so easy, then finished the crotch seam. That's it. My excuse was that I want to make a short lining for these pants. I had forgotten to pre-wash the lining fabric, and after I hand washed it in very hot water, it had to dry, and I thought I could work a little on the Junior SWAP. The rest of my sewing was on the Junior SWAP. I traced and tissue adjusted all the pieces we will need from her wardrobe pattern Simplicity 5220.

1. capri pants
2. sleeveless woven top
3. cheongsang top with mandarin collar
4. straight skirt

I cut out capri pants in navy blue cotton spandex stretch woven. This is a 70 cm x 150cm remnant from the stash, bought on sale at Lindcraft before the crash, and at least 5 years old. I think I had vague ideas of making a skirt from it. It is a medium weight and quite stretchy. I think there must also be some synthetic in it, although it is not labeled as a blend. I took a lesson from my previous cotton lycra pants experience and cut to her measurements with no ease, according to the finished garment measurements printed on the pattern. I stabilized the crotch seam with selvage, and will also do this for the waist seam when I attach the facing. I cut the facing with the stretch vertically, and bound the edge with bias binding - see the picture. All going well with inner seam, invisible zip (interfaced underneath), even edges etc. I then fitted the pants - this pattern is a weird cut.
You can see from the photo that I still had to take in a lot on the sides. The blue chalk mark shows the edges of the front pants pieces. The strange thing to me is that it is mostly the back that needs taking in. My daughter is not hard to fit in pants. Usually I can just sew them straight up with no changes. She does not have a flat backside or skinny legs which might explain all the extra fabric at the back. I checked that I had traced the pattern correctly, and I had. This will be an interesting pattern to review.
I have sewn up the side seams and put a little trim on the split bottom legs - this is not on the pattern, but an added extra. I will post a photo of this when the pants are finished.

SWAP items completed (not including 2 possibles made before jan 1)- 2 definite tops, 3 further possible tops, one definite pants, one possible pants - 7 items (and one in the pipeline)

Junior items completed (including 2 items made before Jan1) 3, (and one in the pipeline)

Simplicity 3800 bodice adjustment

When I reviewed Simplicty 3800 on patternreview, I was asked in the comments how I adjusted the pattern for a small bust. Here is a picture of my unorthodox method. I know that I should have folded over a dart, then redrawn the tissue, but I was in a hurry. This worked very well for the fit of my daughter's top, and also in a larger size for the top I made her 13 year old friend.

Construction details

I'm behind myself with my pictures. These are pictures of Vogue 2925, tops and pants. I described the alterations to the pants a few days ago and have edited that post to add pictures of the alterations. My alterations to the top were very minimal - I scaled down to a size 10, curving out towards a 12 below the waist. I stabilized the shoulder seam with selvage, the dark brown with a lime green strip and the caramel with a green batik strip. I also used swimsuit elastic in the neck finish. I overlocked the edge, then folded it over the elastic once, stretching the elastic very slightly as I sewed. I finished the arm in the same way without the elastic, and finished the bottom hem with wide zig-zag stitch. I am very pleased with both the tops and pants. My little extra for the pants was using a brown/yellow and metallic gold quilting fabric selvage for the waist facing instead of grosgrain ribbon.

I will definitely use the pants and at least one V2925 for my SWAP. I probably wouldn't wear the top to work, unless it was under the jacket for giving a talk or going to a meeting as bare upper arms don't seem very business- like to me. I need the top to complete 3 pieces from the wardrobe pattern, should I use V2925 for the pattern, as I am not making any skirts for my SWAP - this is a self inflicted rule to make sure I use the SWAP to make work pants.

I have some red/brown fabric that I will use to make another of these tops, and that may end up being the inclusion, as I really like the colour.

Today I was in the local fabric shop again, buying the green invisible zip for pants V2925 #2, and also bought some probably not very good quality, but quite thick interlock in a neutral sandy colour. I will not use it for my SWAP, as it isn't a great match for the caramel pants, but it will look good with the green ones, or be a good top to wear with a denim skirt. I bought 1.7m, all there was, so that I can try making a top for my mother when she comes to stay with us for the Australia Day long weekend that is only 3 days away. This is a cunning plan to keep sewing whilst she is here. I will bring the machine into the living room, sew her top, which I really think will suit her, then keep working on my SWAP without her feeling in the least bit neglected. I may also work on my daughter's SWAP, as Mum will enjoy being consulted in the planning stages. I am so keen to sew at the moment that I think I would have withdrawal symptoms if I didn't sit down at my sewing machine for 3 days running.

Today I woke full of fortitude, and revisited my overstretchy cotton lyra woven stretch pants, V8305. I used all the tips from the sewers at artisianssquare, and there was a definite improvement. I will keep working on them. I also sewed and pressed the darts for pants V2925#2. I also went to work, washed the floor, ironed a bit (only because ironing a minimum of 3 items when I get the iron out for my sewing is another self inflicted rule), made a tiger striped vegemite sandwich like the one my son saw on playschool this morning, cleaned the kitchen, made the beds, did 2 loads of washing and 3 rows of knitting so that my sister might get her socks on time for her birthday..... I am not sure how much my SWAP will slow down once the children are back at school and I have all the after school activities transport to do-but the knitting rate will improve.

Junior SWAP

Here is a photograph of the twist top that set us off on a second SWAP. It is O.K. to do two, Julie from Timmel Fabrics posted that some people do 3 - 33 garments in 12 weeks is a lot. My daughter spent a lot of time today playing with fabric - I wonder where she gets that from? She wore her new top with the denim shorts I made her before Christmas. We were out all day shopping for the start of school next week - school shoes, covers for books, music books, groceries, the post office (it wasn't all for school), and the library. I didn't sew at all until after dinner, and then I only cut out a pair of pants, all set to sew, when I realized that I have only white invisible zippers, no dark colours and definitely not dark green. I will get stuck into something else tomorrow, and buy another zip on my way to work.

Another SWAP?

I had a very productive sewing day today, although the fan does tend to blow all my pattern pieces down the hall whenever I stop using my scissors as a paper weight - at least every 10 minutes. I played with knits. I had not used up 100% after all, there was a bit more under the bed, I so like my stash. I made several tops from my wardrobe pattern V2925 (pictured above), then moved on to Simplicity 3800 (pictured even further above), and while I was gleefully whipping up twist tops and making knickers with the scraps (inspired by lauralo's lingerie ( her blog is on her posts at artisianssquare) , but definitely not to the same standard) my older daughter came to sit with me in my sewing room, also known spuriously as her brother's bedroom (His bed,- yes, his room, - not quite yet.)
DD " You are making a lot of new things for yourself. I like all these new tops."
Me "I'm enjoying doing SWAP, it's great"
DD" I really like all the new clothes you made me before Christmas"
Me "I like them too."
DD " That twist top looks really nice, Mum, do you think I could have one?"
Me (thinking of Marji posting at artianssquare making a whole SWAP for her sister and feeling a bit guilty) "Sure" (thinking, that last top only took 30 minutes, this will be a snap). from further under the bed I pulled out some hot pink cotton knit with navy blue polka dots, courtesy of my mother's quilting group (i.e. the result of someone else clearing out their stash).

I made the short sleeved twist top from Simplicity 3800, scaled down to a size 4 and with a small bust adjustment for the 12 year old figure. It looked great, and I said so, as did her Dad, and her sister, who now wants one too. (Her brother was too busy playing with his truck to comment).

DD, reading the SWAP requirements ( in prime position behind my sewing machine) whilst I snipped off a few threads "You know Mum, if you put in my Christmas dress and the denim shorts you made me and this new top, it would be easy for you to do a SWAP for me too". Well you can't blame the girl, it is at least 3 weeks since I made her anything other than dinner.

This may be a good idea. We pulled out a lot of fabric, none in my colours, and mostly remnants that are much more likely to permit a garment for a slim 12 year old than they are to stretch around me. I truly want to reduce my stash, although mainly in order to make space for delicious new fabrics. At the moment we are thinking Simplicity Lizzie McGuire 5220 for the wardrobe pattern. I have just looked this up on the Simplicity website, but it is no longer in print, or available out of print, so I can't include a picture. This pattern has a Asian influence with a chongsang style top, a sleeveless top, capri pants, a skirt, a kimono style top/jacket and a handbag. The colours so far are denim and navy blue for the bottoms, and pink and white for the tops, possibly with a white knitted cardigan, for which I have the wool. I have already ordered some shirting fabric from Julie at Timmels Fabric that should fit in to the very preliminary plan, so I think this meets my qualifying purchase.

I have asked if doing two SWAPs is permissible, I have read that someone completed 2 in a previous year, so if the rules have not changed, I think it may be. I also am not sure if I can include a purchased item (I am thinking jeans, as DD fits nicely into RTW jeans) and a knitted item - a cardigan as a jacket. I will make up my mind when I get a reply. If I can enter the competition for DD, this means I have already completed 4 of 11 items for her, and there are still more than 2 months to go, so it is possible timewise.

I have completed 4 definite and 3 possible items for myself, without using a purchased or a knitted item, so my main problem for my own SWAP is finding pants fabric, and whether or not to attempt a jacket. I do have vague ideas of including a dress in my SWAP, even though I will not wear it to work, as I would love to copy a "smocked" linen Jag dress I bought in Melbourne. My version will have beautiful hand smocking and embroidery (at the moment, it is a vision in my head, and looks perfect, hence "beautiful"). I have the ideal fabric, but I will need at least a month to work on such a big project. I will see how I go. I have just looked at the Jag website to see if I could include a picture of my inspiration dress, but it is not there. I bought it in the January sales so it is probably very last season. Fortunately I am not at all fashionable.

I will look for the scanner programme disc tomorrow to see if I can get it working. I photographed my fabrics, but the camera has real trouble with the solid colours. My chocolate brown fabric looks a grey-white colour, and the camel fabric is almost green. I would like to make up digital storyboards for the plans.

Pants, Vogue 2925

Here are my alterations to the pants from V2925.

I have just managed to post my first attempt at a storyboard, which has been cancelled by the failure of the stretch woven pants from V8305 to remain even semi fitted after 3 hours wear. Today I did not work on rescuing the V8035 pants with refitting and stay tape, because they were in the wash. This was just as well, because I was not at all inspired to attempt this sure- to- be- difficult project. Instead, I revisited the woven pants from V2925. That's right, a different sure- to-be - difficult project, these being the pants I sewed the wrong way multiple times last night, thus eventually ensuring that they would not fit by sewing drastically inside the seam allowance in several places. Everything looks better in the morning. This morning I could not believe I'd experienced any difficulty in sewing these pants. There could not be an easier pair of trousers to construct (elastic waistbands are not found on trousers, just pants). It did take me until 10am to work up the fortitude to unpick the sewn and overlocked seams. The fabric is a very loose weave linen/viscose/silk that looks a bit like soft, finer hessian bag and frays incredibly, so the unpicking was not entirely stress free, and I ended up losing some precious seam allowance. However, the pants fit. In fact the pants fit pretty well, even though they are more snug than originally planned. I have started a review of the pants on patternreview.com, but have not pressed the pants or taken any pictures, so it is still in draft mode.I worked very hard on the fit of these pants. I made 2 toiles. My final alterations were :
1. Redraw side seam for size 12 waist, size 16 hip
2. Add another dart at the back and widen dart at the front to fit from hip to waist.
3. Lower waistline by 2.5cm, front and back.
4. Slash at back centre seam to add about 5 cm to this seam without altering side seam.
5. Redraw crotch curve at back to deepen, as shown in Morzel's review of this pattern.
6. Add 1.5cm to inner front leg seam at crotch.
7. Add 2 cm to inner back leg seam at crotch.
8. Taper outside leg seam ( The straight leg would have been fine for wearing fitted or tucked in tops, but I want to wear these pants with a semi fitted blouse outside the waistband, and the quite wide leg made me look big(ger) all over)
9. Shorten legs a little. (I have short legs, and these pants are to wear to work with flats.
10. I also used an invisible zip at the back, rather than a regular zip.
I have taken some pictures to show these changes, but they are still on the camera.
After this hard work on the pants, I had great fun making knit shirts. I had a few metres of chocolate cotton lycra knit that I bought on ebay from Fabric Warehouse Sydney. I played with this with great success. I made the camisole/almost t shirt from V2925. It went together in about 30 minutes including cutting out and drawing the pattern on to interfacing. It looks great and took hardly any fabric, definitely not the 80cm it calls for on the back of the pattern. I made the size 12, which should have been a good fit from the high bust measurement and ease, but was actually a bit big. I have redrawn it to size 10 to try tomorrow. I will use this t for my SWAP, even though I am unlikely to wear it by itself for work. It will look good under the jacket if I can achieve one. I bought small amounts of gorgeous camel brown and a deep red knit from Kerryn's fabric World last week for this item. They were very pricey, but have washed really well and are lovely colours.
After this I escaped from the SWAP for a while. Yesterday I went to my local fabric shop to buy an invisible zip, and check out woven fabric for pants now that I have scrapped the camel and the chocolate stretch woven pants. There was nothing unless I want Navy Blue drill (school uniform fabric). There were a few possibilities for shirts, but shirt fabric is a fruitful area of my stash and does not need attention. To cut a long story short there is a 50% off sale on Simplicity. I could not resist and bought Simplicity 3800 in order to try a twist top. This was fun and easy. Again, the 12 was too big, but I can wear it with a camisole underneath if it ever cools down enough. I will make this again tomorrow in a 10 if there is sufficient chocolate knit left. This is my only knit fabric other than some terrible, cheap looking white and blue interlock that my mother gave me because her quilt group couldn't use it. I must learn to throw out these fabrics as soon as she finishes her visit. Once it is in my cupboard I seem to be incapable putting fabric in the bin. At least I am using lots of rubbish fabric for all these toiles.

Vogue 8305

SWAP January 17th

I have been inspired by the sewers at Artisianssquare to start a blog about my participation in Timmel Fabric's Sewing With A Plan (SWAP) 2008. I have been working on this since the start of January, and given my frequent challenges with the process I have decided to write about my progress in the hope that I will learn something when it is all written down.
The goal of SWAP is to sew 11 co-ordinating garments, this year there are to be 4 bottoms (pants or skirts), 6 tops, at least one to be a blouse rather than a t-shirt, and one jacket. Every top must co-ordinate with every bottom, and the jacket must go with every top and bottom. There is an option to substitute 2 dresses for 2 of the tops. I was inspired to participate after spending one weekend in December making 6 pirate shirts and 2 cow costumes for my childrens' dance concert, and wondering why I couldn't produce that many items for myself in a limited time. My plan has been to make myself a wardrobe for work. Just to make things difficult for myself, I have several simultaneous goals underlying this plan.
1. Use up some stash. My son is now 5, and needs a bedroom that is not packed to the hilt with fabric, patterns, yarn and embroidery materials. I have cleaned out one measly cupboard in which I need to fit all my project materials, so I need to reduce, reduce, reduce.
2. Learn how to fit pants. I hate wearing pants. I don't like sewing pants. I cannot wear RTW pants without extensive re-fitting. I have to wear pants for work. I really need to sew some pants, and possibly the SWAP will provide some motivation to achieve this skill.
3. Learn how to sew with knits. I have tried a few simple projects with knits, mainly children's t- shirts and tracksuit pants/leggings, but would like to make more sophisticated garments.
4. Possibly make my first ever successful jacket. I did try to make a tailored jacket 5 years ago, but gave up when I discovered that my meticulous construction techniques had been applied to a jacket that was too long in the body, and too small across the behind. I have learned more about fitting since then, and would like to have another try if I have time at the end of the SWAP (April). I am unlikely to wear a jacket very often, so it is not terribly high on my list of priorities.
5. Make better use of my sewing machine special stitches and feet.

So far, I am doing better with goal 5 than any other. I have read my instruction manual and put a little machine embroidery on one shirt. For goal 2, I am struggling. I started with stretch woven pants Vogue 8305, and after muslin fitting, involving taking in the waist, cutting a deeper crotch and varying the side seams, sewed in cotton with 5% spandex. These fitted O.K., until I wore them for a few hours, when they became really baggy. Apparently (SWAP 2008 posts) this is not uncommon with stretch woven fabrics, and I have added to my pants fitting difficulties by choosing a tricky fabric to work with. I was happy to learn this, although I will now have to re plan my SWAP to eliminate stretch woven pants (previously 2 pairs) and this means I will need to purchase more fabric (goal 1 is suffering). Today I worked on woven pants, Vogue 2925. I spent 6 hours on measuring, tissue fitting, reading web sites and fitting books, cutting out, sewing and adjusting my muslin (old calico tablecloth). I was pretty happy with the fit at this point. In fact I had an epiphany - there is a certain amount of horizontal protusion in the backside, that requires more fabric in the same way that horizontal protusion at the bust requires more fabric! I have been making a FBA in shirts and dress bodices for years without even thinking about it, and am astounded that I had not transferred this understanding to the problem of fitting my behind until now. (Thank you to Marji, who offered her pants as critique category at Artisianssquare, leading to very helpful comments and this revelation)
After all this work, I was expecting my trial fabric pants to sew like a dream. No. I somehow managed to sew darts on the wrong side, repeatedly, leading to the unpicking and re- sewing 8 times. I then managed to sew 2x R legs, and could not bear to unpick overlocking and seams and darts again. Of course they did not fit after I turned the wrong side into French seams. I will have to start again tomorrow.