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.

Sew Anything

Hmmm, come to think of it, Lloyd Dobler's jacket
reminds me of a Marcy Tilton pattern.  Another project?

I am at long last back to sewing.  My bathroom renovation is complete, and as soon as the Christmas decorations were put away, I started sewing with a vengeance. What's on my table?  What's not on my table is a better question!

I was so excited to get my "sewing room" back, that I really didn't know where to start.  The yellow and pink flannel is my daughter's Christmas break project.  They remain her WIP, as much as I'd love to just finish them myself before they turn into a UFO.  It is nice to see her interested in sewing, though.

The marsala ponte is another pair of Vogue 1378 pants for me.  As soon as I started laying out the tissue, I remembered that I had not finished lining the black dress, so that became my priority (top left of picture above, as well as the black thread and silk bias strips).  It took quite a while to hand stitch the lining and cover the armscye seams with silk bias binding, but the inside is now almost as pretty as the outside.

Thread's Fancy Fabrics Finalist!

Speaking of my daughter's black dress, it is a finalist in Threads(R) Magazine's Fancy Fabric contest.  What a thrill!  I am in awe to be a nominee, as there were many beautiful entries.  I would love your vote.  Link to the contest here.

At the end of the table, my husband's new cords that he ordered un-hemmed.  Normally, I wouldn't be too excited about these, but it was nice just to sew anything.

Thread and drapery weights for curtains in my daughter's bedroom.  We had to order the fabric, as Joann's doesn't keep enough home dec fabric in store inventory.

Even my kitchen sink overflows with sewing projects: attempting to darken a cotton/poly blend from cherry red to cardinal. It was fairly successful and now waits patiently to be cut.

What you can't see: a lot of PolarTec(R) from MillYardage.com that I ordered one cold winter day.  Idle hands really can be the devil's atelier.

Finally, I am sharing before and after photos of the DIY project that took most of my time in fall 2015.  I love the end result, but have decided that, at my age, sewing is a much more suitable hobby than laying tile on my hands and knees.  I repeated that mantra many times a day for many weeks.

Hint: the purple fish theme is "before." It dates back to my daughter's choice when she was 5 (she also had an "I Dream of Jeannie" bedroom theme).  The earth tones are so much nicer. We converted the basic builder's tub/shower to a tiled walk-in shower, among many other changes (it was a complete overhaul).

Vogue 1378 or my "Next Generation" pants

This is the closest I will ever get to a Star Fleet uniform, and I love them! They were fun and easy to sew, and fit me perfectly without any alterations whatsoever. 

Vogue 1378, view B

I do not have the proportions that are flattered by wearing leggings or skinny jeans, but the flare at the hem gave me hope that this style would work for me, and I'm generally satisfied with the result.

Need to adjust my camera -- not sure why it's so grainy.

Unfortunately, the pictures are all rather grainy, and the black fabric doesn't help show the fun details.  Outdoor photos would be better, but the weather hasn't been cooperative.

Opening on outside of leg results in a bit of a flare.
Top stitching detail is even more pronounced here.

These slacks can be dressed up or worn with a casual top (I'm wearing it with a long sleeved yoga pullover & moccasins today, all super comfortable).  I will definitely make at least one more pair, maybe six.  

I used a heavy ponte (poly/rayon/spandex) from Hancock's that comes only in black.  The weight is perfect, and it seems to have more stretch than the ponte fabric in other colors.  I would love to find it in chocolate brown or charcoal or maybe even an olive drab.  No need for a serger, although the two seams that were not lapped, I sewed with a slight zig-zag.

My only gripe with the pattern is that there were no measurements for the finished garment, and no markings for where body landmarks were expected to fall (other than the 1" below waist at the top).  I spent more time fiddling with the tissue, trying to figure out what size to make than I actually spent sewing them.  I finally gave up, and went with Shams' method of going down two sizes from what Vogue's size chart indicated for my body measurements.  I think it worked out fine for me -- any larger, and the pants would bag.  However, if the fabric had any less stretch, I may have to increase some areas.

My attempt to estimate the measurements failed...lucky for me, the pants fit perfectly.

Since there are no side seams, I was worried about how I would handle it if they did not fit.  Luckily, I didn't have to worry about alterations, other than making the elastic at the waist a few inches shorter.  I cut 2" off the bottom when I hemmed, as the pants were a bit to long for my 5'5" frame (I rarely wear heels).

Lapped & Top stitched Seams

Trimming the seam edges gave me some grief.  Nearly ever seam is lapped, and top stitched at least twice per seam, then fabric is trimmed close to the stitching.  My hand was just not steady enough to cut perfectly, but the black hides most of those issues.  The crazy piecing ends up making some nice design lines in the finished product.

One leg stitched and trimmed before sewing the inseam.