totchipanda

My current ball and chain...

Only had a couple hours yesterday, in between playing with the kittens and visiting friends. But I closed up the leg seam that didn't get finished when the sewing machine's likely-antique drive band broke, pressed and hemmed it, and then made a waistband with interfacing to test it with (that's part of the method but... I was feeling v lazy. And then tried to use a faced waistband instead of the proper one, and let's just say it was less work to do the proper one lol.

One change I had to make: taking out like THREE AND A HALF INCHES in the back. The size 18 spanned my waist from side to side with no issues! The size 16 back, the same size that my mock-up was cut to, was MASSIVE. Correspoindingly, the legs also needed to be taken in quite a bit on the side.

I pinched and pinned and released and sat (or bent over to simulate sitting) and analyzed... I think I need a bit more depth through the front crotch. I kept having weird puddles around my knees. I tried to take up length at the thigh -- nope that didn't work. I tried (A) to find that (B) became worse (like attempting to raise the sides, to find that the CF/CB pulled too much. What is the solution!

Turns out... maybe too much height in the rise/outer hip. I YANKED the legs up high to get them to lay nicely (and so that I didn't need to pull them up when sitting), and with the waist in place, I had huge folds in the leg joint. Pinched that out and... oh. Oh. Maybe that's the solution.

I made my pattern adjustment and I'd like to cut one more mock up just to be sure since it changed the grainlines, particularly on the back. Further thoughts to follow.

PS: the kittens have discovered they have LEGS and BALANCE (mostly) and they are boing boing boing! Until they get too tired, and then they nap just as hard as they were playing. Smallest of the bunch Calcifer tires out soonest, and then Sophie was playing in my lap before taking a nap there (MY HEAAAAART) and after she left for lunch at the milk bar, I was laying on the floor. Calcifer woke up and came to join me, playing with my shirt, and then Sophie and Chihiro came to join him and for a little bit Wrestlemania was happening right under my chin! (Chihiro then leapt at my face to play and actually drew blood with her needle claws) They are just the cutest!

I DID THE THING. Pattern purchased, printed, taped together Saturday morning (after a whopping 10 hours of sleep -- who am i?!) and first mock up sewn before I left the house to pick up my workwife.

I don't know WHAT I was thinking. I made an unmodified size 22 and it was hilariously oversized on me. I stood there holding it up and looking at enough space around my waist to see down to my hips for a moment, thinking -- nothing really, it was... interesting lol. Then I had to get ready to go, so I left it for a few hours. Once I got back I took it in down to a mostly even size 18 (ish), decided that was good enough and traced off a new copy of the pattern so I could make a few modifications to the back. I thought I'd make a wearable mock-up then, but I couldn't decide on fabric, and since it was nearly 9pm by then, decided it could wait another day.

Sunday I decided to make another mock up with the changes I'd made. And that was an excellent idea, because there's still more I need to do!

Current pattern:

Unmodified 18
Shortened 1" in the leg from the thigh-area shortening line
1/2" extra taken in each dart
Sides from waist to crotch level straightened (the pattern is rounded, which gives far too much fabric pooch)
Back also taken in 1/4" at side and CB

In the mock up, the leg could possibly be shortened another 1/2" or so, but I don't hate how long it is (covers my ankle!!) so I might just take that up in hemming. And the back needs to be pulled in SO MUCH MORE at the waist. I think I took out another 2" at the CB.

I did not, however, notice much twisting of the leg as shown in many of the sample photos. The fabric I used has a very even print, which really highlighted the back too (and I noticed it when I looked at mock-up photos of the shorts I made this summer, it has the same narrow V at CB). I even measured across the legs to put a straight line through the center, as shown in the early drafting manuals I was reading this year, and the grainline marking was true. So not sure what was going on there!

My plan today is to print off the upper back at size 14 (because if I take just my back waist measurement, it would put me at that size) and blend it with the current pattern, and see how that goes.

Also do the view B waistband. I did not consider that when printing off view A, that one uses a flex waistband with an elastic and I had no idea how it was supposed to fit lol.