Butterick 6142 - The Pants

I need new pants. It's getting colder here on the East Coast and the pants I presently own are too big. I also want a skinnier leg pant than I've presently been wearing.  The worse thing a "fat girl" can do is wear too big clothing and 80% of my wardrobe is too big now.

So during my hiatus from the blog, I decided to try and alter a new pants pattern. I chose Butterick 6142 as the pants pattern for two reasons. One for the elastic waist and the slimmer legs of the pants and two because it will work in a ponte.

Extensive alterations to the pants pattern to make it fit my new measurements means I did a lot of pattern work. However, the pattern did have an interesting alteration line on the pants pattern front ~ a crotch alteration line.  Is this a new thing?  I haven't used a new pants pattern in quite some time and was pleasantly thrilled at finding the line on the pattern piece.  Even though it was there I didn't use it to make my changes, though I may in the future.

Instead I used the lengthen/shorten line in the abdomen area of the pants front and back to adjust the crotch line to match the one on my TNT pants.  I figured that and the actual pants length of each leg are the only things that still work for me.

Here are my alterations ~
My daughter and I took new measurements at the beginnning of the year since along with the weight loss there have been some inches lost too. I used those as the basis for the flat pattern measurements.

Because I didn't know where to actually start, I did make the alterations so that they would fit the waistline and butt measurement of my current pants pattern. Hey I needed to start somewhere and I did end up with a wearable muslin pair of pants. I know don't say it...

So the alterations first ~

1. The first and easiest was to add length to the front and back pattern pieces. I added it at the shorten/lengthen line that appears farther down the pants leg.

2. The second alteration was to use the crotch curve from my TNT pants pattern front & back pieces.

3.  Then I had to determine how wide to make the back and front pieces. Honestly I got a little confused here. See I know what my new measurements are - I wrote them down and posted them to my bulletin board.  But something in my brain would just not let me make a pattern piece that small. In my twisted mind, I kept thinking at least I could cut/serge away whatever fabric was too big...IF it was too big! You know I had to serge some additional fabric off the front and back, right! *LOL*

4.  The front and back pattern pieces were altered to reflect that change. I also took a wedge out of the pants front curve. Ummm, yeah if you don't have extra fat there, the crotch curve droops.  See all that extra fabric there...fine for a wearable muslin pair but not for my "real" pants.

5.  Final alteration was to add an inch to the center back merging into nothing into the side seam. The pants dipped a little low in the center back when I stood and sat.

I'm glad I made a wearable muslin because after wearing them I've determined that I have a few more changes to make to my pattern.

• When I made the original pants pattern alterations, I didn't take into consideration that the waistband had a large foldover for the elastic insertion or that I used up a good 2" with my pulled elastic application. So the pants fit best when I turned the waistband down once and wore them that way. I've since made that change to my pattern piece.
• I also had an extra amount of fabric in the front equal to the wedge that I removed from the pattern - so my next pair should work & fit better.
• I was going to cut off some of the length that I added to the pattern legs but the length is perfect. They work well with my sneakers which I wear to walk to work and my wedges or a heeled shoe.

Sewing Observations ~
It's been awhile (at least a decade) since I used anything other than my TNT pants pattern to make a pair of pants.  So I have my own construction order that I use, as well as, my own elastic application.  Hey what ain't broke didn't need fixing especially since my goal was to get clothes to wear - not try out a lot of techniques.

So the way this pattern has you attach the elastic was totally new to me. First there's a pattern piece to tell you how much elastic to cut. As an aside after I made the pants, I've decided that guide is gold! It's so awesome! 

I cut my 1" elastic using the guide and followed the pattern instructions to sew it into a circle.

Then I pinned it to the edge of the pants waistline at the four points.  You had to stretch the elastic to sew it to the edge.  

Finally, you fold it over and use the same stretch technique to encase the elastic.  Here's a pic of the finished waistline.

I'm sure that this is not a new technique. However, I was thrilled with the outcome because you know that I was bugging since Dritz discontinued the elastic I'd used for the last decade in my pants. This technique is just so friggin' cool!

The seams were primarily sewn using my serger ONLY after I stitched the pants together using my sewing machine and checked the fit on my body.

Some more pictures ~ 

This is how I wore the pants last January...

Pants with turtleneck and the artsy vest.

Back view

My next version of these pants were made in a woven here.  There will be more of these pants sewn especially since I pulled the wearable muslin pants out and wore them today. The look of them fit really well in my new reality. Now to go through the fabric collection and pick some more ponte out to make a well-fitted pair of pants. They will go so well with my new Butterick 5678 tunic!

...as always more later!

Butterick 6142 - A Pleather and Wool Version

When the Butterick 6142 pattern was released, it reminded me of this top I'd pinned to one of my boards on Pinterest:



At the time I started working on the pants, I thought I would get both pieces finished prior to Christmas week, well that didn't happen!  As you can see since it's the middle of February! *LOL* When I finally cut the pattern pieces out I changed a few of my original ideas for this outfit. Some were design changes and some were added after the top was a little too tight.

• I omitted the lace because the stash didn't yield up anything that wouldn't make the outfit look like eveningwear.
• I changed the fabric from black ponte to a black poly/wool crepe suiting I purchased from Fabric Mart during one of the 50% off sales. Please note this probably added to some of my challenges since the pattern clearly states that you should use a knit fabric for the pieces.
• Pleather accents were added also to the top and the pants.
• A lining was also added to both the top and pants by underlining the fashion fabric.

Here's my finished garment:

Pattern Alterations  Design Changes:

The Shaped Hem Tunic ~
I made minimal changes to the pattern pieces. Again there is a little buggin' out going on here because I'm not use to NOT making huge changes to the pattern pieces. Here are the pattern alterations and design changes I made.

First - the back and front pattern pieces are single pieces.  Two large pieces that you lay on the fabric and cut out!  Of course, I couldn't leave well enough alone and I put a center back seam in the top's back.  

I marked the center back, cut it from top to bottom and added 5/8" seam allowances to both pieces. I decided to go this way because I wanted to add sleeves to the top. This top with sleeves was just not slipping over my head without some assistance.  I took it even further and added a 9" black invisible zipper to the neckline also.

Since I used a woven, I added a little to the center front of the top to gently glide over my abdomen and hips by simply slicing up to the waistline marking and spreading the pattern pieces.

If I make this pattern again, I'm going to cut the front apart and add space that way. If...I...ever...make...this...pattern...again! *LOL*

The Sleeve ~
The sleeve pattern from the dress was used for the top...although I still needed to make changes to the biceps...cause I haven't managed to lose any weight there! Again I started with an older sleeve pattern to make the alterations.  And that's when this started to go south and head there so quickly. *sigh* I put those dayum sleeves in three times...and removed them three times. I just couldn't get them in without a multitude of wrinkles down the length of the sleeve or way too much fabric in the sleeve cap. Then I just got disgusted and threw them in the garbage. My top is sleeveless...I couldn't take any more.

Then I tried the top on and disaster...it was too tight. Peoples, annoyed was an understatement for how I felt at that point. But I put my thinking cap on and decided to add a pleather triangle on the other side of the top to match the one on the top front. BTW the pleather piece ended up on the front because I wasn't paying attention when sewing the front and back together. So I improvised ~ yet again. 

Miracles of miracles this last improvisation worked...except it made a funny wrinkle on the back. Now I really was done...seriously done...turned everything off and went upstairs and read a book.  Pick this up six weeks later, I've lost another five pounds, so I try on the top and mercy me, it fits. Well actually the triangle stuck out because the top was loose, so I altered where the fabric and pleather triangle met and wallah...top fits.

I know I've talked about slow sewing lately and using the best techniques BUT I just wanted this done!  So I turned under all the edges at the neckline, the armholes and the hemline, topstitched, pressed and it was finished. Thank you God ~ it's no longer a wadder! 

The Pants ~
I originally made the pants out of a jersey ponte during the blogging hiatus. Based upon that make, I altered the pants pattern for a better fit. To make this version I went with the currently altered pattern because I wanted to see how they'd wear in a woven fabric. Well that was wrong!  Those suckers were so tight they wouldn't go over my thighs. So I decided that sewing for my new shape wasn't working and I put the pants to the side.

But once the top fit, I was inspired to figure out how to make the pants work. I decided to add a 3" pleather strip to the side of each pants leg and use 1/2" seam allowances to attach them to the pants. Since there are pleather accents on the top, I thought this would work well with the pants.  This meant taking the pants apart but I was fine with that, as long as the pants became wearable.

The strip did work so I added the elastic to the waistline (more on it's application in a future post), ripped the inner leg seams and made them a little smaller, then hemmed the pants. Outfit complete.

Conclusion ~
This is not a work outfit. I've been going out a lot more after work and I would definitely wear this out and about in NYC.  Also, both the top and pants are a closer fitting silhouette than I've been accustomed to wearing. Honestly, this is taking some getting use to but baggy garments lately have just made me look like I'm wearing someone else's clothes...not a good look!

Finally, I'm a huge fan of the mixed materials look in garments. I love mixing pleather with wools and pontes. I have a few ideas for a couple more garments using pleather - don't know if they will make it out of my sewing machine before spring comes - but as long as the trend continues I will be making more versions of it.