Vogue 1378, an Encore

I loved my first pair of Vogue 1378 pants, and can't believe it took me a full year to find fabric for a second pair.  If not for my very stringent fabric selection criteria*, I may have a dozen of these by now!  I like my second pair even better than the first. 

The wonderful design lines of these pants are achieved through lapped seams that are top stitched with a straight stitch.  Yes, a straight stitch. I had my doubts about that straight stitch the first time around. Those doubts were confirmed after wearing the pants a few times.  Pulling them over my hips resulted in several popped stitches.  Perhaps I should have made them looser ;-).  So in round two, I used a twin needle to stitch the lapped seams.  I really love the result.

There is no pivoting with a twin needle, so the turns are taken s-l-o-w-l-y.

I actually like the tunneling created by the twin needle.  It adds dimension. However, I did reduce the bobbin tension slightly so they are not too pronounced.  Watching the tunnels appear while I sewed was so much fun, that I sewed extra lines of stitching.  

View of the side slit and tunnels.  Color is off in the inside shots.  It's really a burgundy. 

Honestly, I don't know how many of these I need, but they are fun to make and wear. And they meet my comfort requirement.  I'm always on the lookout for a stable knit for another pair.

And now an even different color appears!  Back of lower leg.

I do love the color -- it plays nicely with many of my jackets, including my faux-Chanel and my wool S2153.  Unfortunately, I don't have many tops that coordinate, but that just means more sewing opportunities.  The fabric is a mostly-Rayon ponte from Hancock.  It is very comfortable, and - so far -  has not pilled as severely as the first ponte did (also mostly-Rayon).  

Here we go -- this is the real color.
They even work well for walking the dogs in hiking boots!

It was easy to sew, but very difficult to cut.  It just refused to lay flat, even after removing the selvages. I washed it twice, pressed it several times and almost gave up entirely before I decided to just cut it unfolded.  A bit high maintenance for a ponte, don't you think?

Nasty winter weather = bad indoor photos

Last year's pair was a bit too low-rise for me, and the pattern description does mention "one inch below the waist", so I lengthened the rise by one inch all around.  That was a bit too high, especially in the front.  I almost feel like Urkel.

Knees are little stretched out.
Maybe it's not the perfect fabric.

I did forget to shorten the leg length this time.  I'm about average height and rarely wear heels higher than a hiking boot.  (My personal style revolves around comfort.)  So once again, I chopped the length from the hemline at the end of the project, leaving them long enough to wear with my Dansko clogs, but a tad long for my everyday stomping around shoes.  It would look and feel better if I took it out of the lower thigh, instead.  It is slightly more complicated to shorten/lengthen, due to the multiple angled seams, but not impossible.

So maybe I do need to make it again -- at least if I'm going to achieve the perfect fit. (1) Lengthen the back rise by 3/4", leave the front as-is or maybe add 1/4". (2) Shorten leg length by about 1"-1.5".  It is pretty quick to sew, after all.  There is the difficulty in finding the right fabric, however!  

*My very stringent criteria for fabric = low poly content, nice color and a "nice" weight.