Friday 19 April 2013

Snip, snip, snippety-snip!  The toile stage approaches this weekend, so hopefully everyone has the basics of their pattern sorted and their test fabric washed and ready to go.

I cut out my Ottobre jeans pattern earlier this week and made some style adjustments as I went.  I was following some of the very helpful advice that Morgan provided for the style pages, re. rise, yoke and pockets.  The front pockets on the pattern are quite horizontal - not a good look for me as it points directly outwards to my distant outer perimeter, as it were.  I've changed them to be more diagonal instead, deepening them on the side seam.  I've recut the pocket facing and pocket bag pieces to reflect the new shape.  Also, note on the side seam of the front leg the slightly different lines for left and right legs - my right leg is 1" larger than my left at the very top of my thigh, enough that I need to make an allowance for this in the garment.  If, like me, you have large or prominent thighs, it's worth measuring just in case you aren't symmetrical either.


Here's a shot of the alteration I made to the back yoke - it doesn't look like much on the toile, but it should be sufficient to give a more flattering line for me at the back.


I haven't cut my back pockets yet as I want to concentrate on the fit of my jeans first.  Once I'm happy with that, then I'll think about where to slap the pockets.  I'll be adding a page to the blog shortly with some more super advice from Morgan on pocket styles and positioning.

A couple of final things.  When you're transferring markings to your toile from the paper pattern, don't forget to transfer your grainlines and make them longer, if possible.  Seems obvious, but it's a mistake that I've made a few times in the past and although you can guess where the straight grain is, it's just easier to get it done at the start.  The other one is about metal jeans zips.  If you haven't used these before, I'll be adding some handy hints on them as they are disastrous to sew over and will break your needle, unlike a forgiving nylon zip.  You won't need pliers or any special implements for dealing with them, just a slightly different method for shortening them if you need to do so.

8 comments:

  1. Nicely made adjustments there Vivien. This afternoon I shall make a start on my pattern. First the trace off and then as an experiment I want to tackle the crotch curve with both the goldfish bown method and tissue fitting. I just want to compare which gives me the better outcome and if the same which is easier.

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  2. What is the goldfish bown method? The method that works best for me is: tie something (elastic, tape measure) around my waist then measure from centre back waist, under legs and up to centre front waist. I then measure from centre front to where the crotch curve meets the leg inseams, which also gives the measurement for my bottom. I've found it's pretty reliable and any remaining adjustments can be made by altering the depth of the inseams. I'll post some pics later.

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  3. Watch the two videos then go the blog on how to line it up and adjust the pattern http://www.thesewingforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=47029&highlight=crotch

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  4. I'm ready to roll with my toile now. I'm happy with the fit everywhere, having taken a little off the top of the yoke which was riding a little high for some reason (it's usually the other way around for me - I was quite surprised when I saw this). I also had a crease of fabric under my bum cheeks, so I took about 1.5cm in from the back inseams and this has taken care of that. I still haven't decided on final placement for the back pockets, but will get around to that. I'm also going to plan my embellishment on the back pockets to make sure that all that careful figure flattery I've built in isn't ruined with poor pocket embellishment. I want all the lines going in the right way.

    Oh, and I've lost my rivets and jeans buttons, so I'll probably have to spend the toile stage time searching for them. Drat!

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  5. thanks for the pictures of the alternations. Really helps to see the difference it makes.

    Hope you find your metal bits and pieces soon....have a mental image of you patrolling the house with a big magnet....:-)

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  6. thanks for the pictures of the alternations. Really helps to see the difference it makes.

    Hope you find your metal bits and pieces soon....have a mental image of you patrolling the house with a big magnet....:-)

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  7. Oooooh! A big magnet - now why didn't I think of that???

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  8. Got my fabric,thread, zip buttons and rivets. Cut out mockup and draw on alteration lines, now have to make adjustments and take pictures.

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