pants – Sewtropolis

I made my first business suit this year. I used Butterick 6142 for the jacket and Simplicity 8056 for the pants. I usually purchase McCall patterns and know what modifications I need to make to get those patterns to fit correctly. I made the same modifications on both the Simplicity and Butterick pattern and seemed to get the fit close – but not quite right.

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I did make a muslin of the jacket and decided to go down a size based on the fit of that muslin. But, the jacket still doesn’t fit quite right in the shoulder area. I heard on one of my sewing podcast that a lot of people have fitting issues in the shoulder area due to our bad habit of hunching over our computers and phones. Good to know for future projects!

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I didn’t make a muslin for the pants, but I did make my usual modifications and cut the size I normally wear for McCall patterns… and ended up with pants that are a size too small. I can still wear them, but at the end of the day I can’t wait to take them off! (I’m not one for tight fitting clothes).

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I purchased the fabric for the suit at JoAnn Fabric… the good thing is I didn’t spend a lot on it, so I am considering this outfit my ‘wearable muslin’. This weekend I’ll be making a trip down to Portland with plans to stop in at a fabric store known for its large selection of fabrics. I’ll be on the look out for some nice suiting fabric for a fall/winter suit. Wish me luck!

I wish everyone a happy and safe 4th of July!

Nikol

This week I spent a LOT of time fixing up Athena! After our “storm” last week I discovered that moisture has been making its way into the trailer though a side hatch door. The storage area accessible by the hatch door is under one of the twin beds in the back Well, moisture had no where to go except up – into the mattress. (I discovered it looking for one of the dogs toys).

One of the renovations I’ve been wanting to do is pulling out one of the beds and adding in more storage – so that is what I did. I pulled that sucker right out of there and put in a portable closet so I have more room to hang my clothes and one of these days I’ll make it to Ikea or Target to see if I can find a dresser or some other storage unit that is tall enough (counter height) so I can cut out fabric. Right now if I want to cut out anything I either do it on the floor or go to the ‘TV room’.

Anyway, once I pulled everything out, I had enough energy left over to put in a new shower faucet. What a FIASCO!!!!! It took me forever to pull the old faucet out – I swear that thing was welded in! I ended up having to cut the plastic pipes and reassemble the whole thing with ‘up-to-date’ fixings. But, four hours and three trips to Home Depot later – I have a new shower faucet and shower head! BOOM!

So remember when I was telling you how I have been working on using up my fabric stash. Well, I had this knit fabric that was kinda heavy that I can’t remember what project I had in mind when I bought in. After weeks of thinking about it I decided to make slacks since I can always use work and weekend slacks. I used Kwik Sew pattern 3115 which I’ve made plenty of times before – so much so that I’ve already added length and widened the band. All I had to do was cut and sew.

Turns out that for years I thought this fabric was black when actually it’s a deep dark blue! Ha!! I normally wear either black or gray pants (minimalism technique) so adding blue gives me one more option – and it’s a deep enough blue that I won’t have to try and mix and match tops.

I am really happy with the way these slacks turned out. I widened the waist band so it sits a little higher on the waist… and work appropriate. I’m tempted now to find more of this fabric and make another pair… but I have so many OTHER projects I want to get to. More next week!!!

Nikol

Tag: pants

Let’s Talk Business Suits

New Slacks and New Shower Faucet!