More pants

But this time for me and without pictures. I don’t think the internet needs photos of my butt floating around.

I had already decided that 2014 would be the year I expand my sewing skills and start trying to make things I’ve been nervous about making in the past. That’s partly why I went ahead and made the coat I wrote about earlier this month. I’m also going to make a slip and panties in another sew along that Gertie will be hosting. In the same vein, I decided to make this pair of Burda pants, but without the appliques.

I’ve always avoided making pants because as someone else once commented about herself, I suspect my body was made by committee. It’s hard to find RWT pants that fit me properly. I am short waisted, have a butt with some tiny saddle bags, and am fairly slender through the front area. My waist to hip ratio means that buying pants that fit my hips generally results in a lot of gaping at the waistband. So I buy pants with a lower rise to help with both the gap issue and my short waist.

Before cutting out my pattern, I read all the reviews on Pattern Review, which is where I go every time I’m considering a pattern. Almost every reviewer said that you should make the size of pants indicated by your hip measurement, because this is a close fitting pant without a lot of wearing ease. So I traced out that size and did exactly that.

The pants mostly fit my hips (although they are a little big – based on the reviews, I expected a closer fit at the hip) but they are too big everywhere else. I took in three inches from the back center seam starting at the waist band and tapering down to my tailbone. That helped but the waistband still gaps a bit in back. I would need to do more altering with darts to get a better fit, but that would affect the pockets on the pants. The biggest fit issue is in the front of the pants. If I pull things up and together a bit, the crotch angle is good, but there’s just too much fabric there.  I almost think I need to make a full size smaller in front than in back – tried that on a skirt pattern once and it worked pretty well. I’m sure it’s not the proper solution, it’s more of a hack. Finally, these pants have a higher rise than I prefer.

I’m sure a lot of these fit issues are operator error, and I may also be asking this pattern to be something it isn’t. So my quest to make good pants continues. These are at least wearable. They just aren’t exactly what I’m looking for, and that’s a lot of the reason I sew.

Next up, I need to plan out which top I will make with the silk I showed you a few posts ago. Tomorrow is the day to cut into the fabric that scares me.