Reinventing the Wheel, I Mean Pants

I never did find my TNT pants pattern for the pants I want to make for my new red/black twin set. As soon as I get the pants made, I will show you my new outfit. Over the weekend, in honor of the pants fitting class I was teaching at an American Sewing Guild meeting last Monday night, I decided to pattern fit a new pattern. I won't bore you with all the horrid details here, but you can find my journey to pants that fit on a thread I posted on patternreview.com. You will probably have to be a registered PR member to read the thread, however. The short version of this story is that I used several different alterations including the wedge alteration, the Fish-eye dart alteration and the Minott alteration that Debbie Cook discussed on her blog and wrote a tutorial for. The pattern I chose was Simplicity 4068, View C which happens to be Debbie's TNT pants pattern. It's the rust colored pants in the lower corner.


Four muslins, yes! four muslins, and many, many alterations later I got this:


That's my TNT jeans pattern under my altered slacks pattern. They are almost identical! I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Of course they were identical, they were made to fit the exactly same body. The only difference is the waist treatment. My jeans have a back yoke and the slacks have a contoured yoke/waistband. For the last alteration, I moved the back dart to sit on my high hip fluff and straightened out the waistband. Before I cut them from my fashion fabric, I'm going to make one more muslin to see if the pattern is as perfect as I think it is. I just want to be sure. OK, it would be alright if I ruined by fashion fabric since it only cost $1.50/yd but I really like it and I have a stashed lining that will work perfectly. And, I'm pretty good at sewing pant muslins now. Later tonight or tomorrow I'll cut and sew muslin #5 and if it's good to go, I'l get started on my pants.

My next several projects will be part of the Endless Combinations Contest on patternreview. I've chosen several fabrics from my stash with colors that work great for fall including black, brown, olive, and a splash of teal. You have to click on the photo to see all the fabrics, the whole basket isn't showing on the blog.


I have in my mind to make three twin sets, 6 knit tops, two blouses, two jackets, and 6 pants. Between now and New Year's Even when the contest is over I have 17 workdays off and all my weekends and evenings to sew. I might be able to also squeeze in house cleaning and cooking and some time for Thanksgiving and Christmas with my family. In reality, I don't know what I'll really get done, but I'm going to try.

Before I stop, I just wanted to say how thrilled and honored I am that Barrack Obama was elected to serve as my president for the next four years. It is time for a change and I'm very excited that hope won. I truly feel hope for my country which I haven't felt for a very long time.