Hello friends and welcome to part two in my series all about S8701 . In my previous post I wrote about the design of the pattern and attempting to fit in in a trousers sewing class. For this post I want to focus more on what alterations I made to the pattern after the original fitting method didn’t work, what features I added, and what new techniques I learned in the process. I am a lot happier with this pair of trousers and feel so accomplished in all I learned making them. But these additions wouldn’t have been possible without the teacher’s help. As I mentioned before, our teacher for the class was extremely knowledgeable and she didn’t at all mind guiding me through more advanced techniques!
Having decided to give up on the class’ method of fitting the pattern, I traced it again from scratch. I’m also starting to get into the habit of tracing the top part of pants patterns in pencil, knowing that I will often need to make changes in that area. Powering through some toiles, I decided to grade from an 18 in the waist to a 20 in the hips. As I wrote in the last post, I don’t like to grade more than one or two sizes at a time at the side seams if I can help it. This make the shape too balloon-like. Adding a dart to the front pattern piece both shaped it better over the stomach and reduced the waist further. I also added a second dart to the back piece, and scooped in the centre back seam. Overall, this reduced the waist to around size 16, but didn’t change the fit of the hips. I also extended the fly front several inches to accommodate a 9″ zipper.
To ensure comfort in that region, I copied the crotch curve of the Loretta Shorts onto this pattern. Having previously altered and fitted the Loretta Shorts to me I knew the rise would be perfect, and would allow the waistband to sit at my natural waist instead of below it. S8701 seemed to want to bulge a bit over the front of my pelvis, so I also did a round pubis adjustment to compensate for this. A round pubis adjustment means scooping out the front crotch curve a little more in order to reduce the amount of fabric sitting there. Lastly, I tapered the legs from the hips several inches and reduced the hem length to 1″. This reduced excess fabric and lengthened the legs of the pants to cover my ankles better when sitting.
I was very proud of how these alterations worked out. The base pattern did require a fair bit of finagling, but I felt that with each change I was getting ever closer to a pattern I might be able to reuse. However, I did make a couple of errors with the waistband which resulted in it’s odd shape, and the zipper being a little more exposed than it should be. This is because I disregarded the fabric layout instructions. A bad habit, I know. But as someone who purchases fabric secondhand, I often wouldn’t be able to get a wearable garment out of the yardage I find if I’m not creative in pattern placement. I’d been fortunate not to run into problems until now. For this pattern the waistband comes in several pieces and it matters which direction they’re placed – face up, or face down. Because I was using a different lining fabric for the inner waistband it’s final assembly didn’t work out. I also didn’t catch the problems until I had trimmed and graded the seams, which made unpicking it impossible!
What I love more than anything about these trousers is the welt pockets. I have tried to understand this form of pocket for quite some time with limited success. There were videos out there, but none that seemed to give me simple measurements. The teacher came to my rescue with this as I was so keen to do them in the wool trousers for a more tailored, formal look. She gave me quite a simple breakdown of their design features, showing me how they maneuver at each step. Some of her fabulous advice included using brightly coloured basting thread to outline not only the welt opening – but to extend several inches beyond it for full visibility, and why you don’t want the welt opening to be too wide if it’s on an angle as it might gape. Professor Pincushion’s tutorial for welt pockets is a fantastic resource if you want to make your own!
Despite the warning, I decided to do these pockets on an angle. I knew it would gape but a horizontal pocket was not going to be accessible or comfortable. I settled on a 5″ wide opening (so the welt was 6 1/4″ long – 5″ plus 2 x 5/8″ seams), and 1″ wide welts. My teacher taught me to make the actual welt piece four times the width of the pocket opening for easier calculating. Then, instead of lining it up with the centre of the welt, she showed me how to line it up with the far side, baste, and then trim it down until it aligned with the centre. To make the pocket bag, I traced a chunk of the top of the trousers, wide enough to cover the welt opening and to align with the side and waist seams of the trousers. Cutting the pocket pieces with a fold at the bottom meant that I I didn’t have a seam rubbing against my leg through the lining too.
The lining was a difficult creature, but one worth the wrangling. I cut it out using the same pattern as the pants, however, I didn’t give it the fly front extensions. Using french seams stopping it from fraying, and I then slipped it inside the trousers wrong sides together. To prevent bulk at the waist, all I did was pleat the excess out of the lining’s waist in places where the pants were flat. Then I folded under the front crotch seam a little, finished the raw edges of the fly front of the actual trousers, and when I stitched the fly front zipper, the wool pieces folded out over the top of the lining which held them in place. I hand-stitched the lining closed below the zipper fly. The lining refused to stay put at the hems, and didn’t line up, causing quite a lot of grief. In the end I had to awkwardly pleat the hems in some places to get it all to sit flat. Yet even so, I’m so proud of my first fully lined pants!
I certainly learned a lot in this class, and I feel that I’m not done with this pattern yet. But it’s perhaps something to revisit when the weather is colder!
Time Taken: 30+ hours
Estimated Cost of Materials: $100+
Stitch Sessions 