Perfect Pants Odyssey

This is a story of ups and downs, obstacles and fast tracks, creation and destruction. 

A few weeks back I have blogged about my interest in pattern drafting software and a little about pattern drafting methods, particularly Il Modellismo- Italian style.  I also talked about numerous options of using CAD software in place of traditional pencil and paper combo. 

My drafting journey started with drafting a pattern of a simple pencil skirt, which is the easiest of all garments, and it was indeed very easy-  after the muslin was done, it fit perfectly, but I decided to leave using the pattern for the future project as there was no need for another skirt for me at the time. So I moved on to the more challenging part- drafting trousers. 

The most valuable lesson I learned is that pattern drafting is not the perfect solution for great looking garments. It is a hard enough process of trials and failings,  frustrating at times. And although it is very rewarding when the best result is achieved, it does take serious commitment, and can be exhausting too. 

The main reason is quite obvious- every human's body is unique and it requires taking all measurements meticulously and accounting for every bump and curve when drafting: the depth and width of darts, for instance cannot really be predicted by a formula if the body shape is very different from standard. I, for instance, never even suspected that I do have a protruding tummy until I had to deal with designing the crotch. And that made an impact on the width of the darts in the front too - using the suggested instructions simply didn't work. 

Overall, my journey consisted of around 10 drafts. I used my CAD program for drafting, but I resorted on the old pencil to mark the needed adjustments on the current draft. I then transferred the adjustments onto the virtual draft and printed it again. One could argue that all this printing out A4, sticking it together and cutting out business is a waste of time, you could draft everything on paper in half the time. Yes, I agree, but to start with I have no paper large enough for drafting, and secondly I learned a little trick how to compile A4's into a pattern sheet in a very little time, I will post a tutorial a tutorial on this sometime soon. So it was good enough for me.

sloper number 1

My first sloper was very loose, I was looking for something much more contemporary looking than that, so I tried to create something more tight, which resulted in the following, quite strange looking sloper. I called it: "a message to J-Lo".  Impressive waist-hips ratio, huh? And there it is- my protruding tum too. 

A message to J-Lo - sloper number 2

I was lucky- I had some help from my fellow seamstresses, who was able to analyse the photos and give me lots of valuable advice me along the way. Here is an example of such help I got:

Julia's (Sewing Galaxy) suggestions regarding the first sloper

However I stopped posting photos after the second one as I was getting to understand the basics and looking at other people's slopers too. I took pictures and was able to analyse them myself too.

One very important tip I took on board is pinning technique. Basically you wear the garment( sloper) inside out and pin it into the best possible fit. There is a great series of books I found out about called "for real people" - where this method is wisely applied. And it is about commercial patterns too.  I got my hands on Pants for Real People , that a friend of mine was able to lend me for a bit, and I am sure it made a massive difference to my project.

One draft after the other, the better fit was achieved and the mistakes (mostly) eliminated (I hope). So when the sloper looked very acceptable, it was the time to put it all to work for real!

And here they are- my perfect pants. Yes, I am not afraid of the "P" word- according to my husband, they are the best pair I have ever owned, and I value his opinion a lot. 

I lowered the waist line quite a bit and added a wide yoke, just above the hips to try and not look like J-lo in the bum department as little as possible. The wide yoke really makes a difference- I believe it looks very flattering. 

There are a few elements I would love to expand on, for example the zipper insertion technique, but I think I will keep it for another post, and as I am planning to use this pattern in future, the photo tutorial mightbe a better idea.

I used just over 1.20m of Stretch Gabardine Manci bought at myfabrics.co.uk - my favourite fabric site for online shopping.   The yoke is faced by simple polyester lining, which I cut along the grain- great tip for those cheap lining fabrics that break easily along the seams in no time. It worked well- I had no issues with my seams this time. The front features 4 shank navy buttons with silver braiding, however, they are only decoration as I used snaps underneath instead. I don't like the buttonholes my sewing machine produces, so I wanted to find an alternative and it worked!

back view

Overall the weeks spent sweating over the pants patterns paid off, I have a great one to use for most my future tight pants- perfect fit guaranteed! I just need to come up with a good name for it!

©2012 copyright Sewing And Style.
All rights reserved.
All images and copied text must have a link back or reference to Sewing and Style Den

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Il Modellismo Adventure, Part 1 -Skirt

Happy Monday, everyone! I have been neglecting my blog a little bit recently- so much work in my day-time job, and all the time at home I was absolutely swamped with learning material for my new pattern making program. I have finally learned the use of basic tools of the software, so I can move on and learn as I draft something more pro-active than tutorial provided pattern blocks. 

The first dilemma that stood before me was "What drafting method should I start with?" I researched a few of them and noticed that some involve more calculations and measurements needed than others (eg.: Muller and Sons vs Japanese methods). My seamstress friend Julia, from Sewing Galaxy (blog is in German, but you can catch up with her on Burdastyle.com), has become my great muse on the subject. She has been learning pattern drafting for a while now and all her new projects are a great work. She basically ends up re-drafting commercial patterns a lot of the times, so I asked where to turn for a good advice to.

 The communities I am currently on are more oriented on a ready made pattern users (Burdastyle.com, Sew Weekly Sewing Circle, Burda Fashion (Russian) and although there is a massive amount of books and articles online on pattern drafting, choosing the simpler one to start with seems to be a sensible thing to do.


Julia speaks very highly of Japanese method, and I know a lot of people fascinated with the likes of Pattern Magic or Drape Drape techniques. I do own both of those titles, but somehow, I didn't find them very comprehensive for a novice like me, particularly due to the language issues too. I do like things explained in plain English ( or Russian- I am bilingual after all). So after Julia mentioned the Japanese, she also advised me to join СЕЗОН, which is a huge Russian sewing website and community, which enormous forum discussions on pattern drafting methods. 

Before I continue, I have to point out that in general, Russian seamstresses seem to be at a much higher average level than their western collegues. Partially due to the history of the poorer economical situation, partially the strong tradition of sewing skills.

I learned to sew as a part of compulsory home economics subject in school, which one would take every year from the age of 10 to 16-ish. I am not sure what is the system like now, but we are talking late 80's-early 90's. The dressmaking discussions on Russian sewing forums are on a different planet sometimes, the standards are so high, it is purely intimidating, even for an attention seeker (LOL) like me. And though I never have an issue of entering a discussion, it took all my confidence to even ask a simple question at first, as it felt like a junior infant standing before a university professor. All I have is a huge gratitude that I speak the language, to someday be able to communicate sewing matters on that level myself.

 I don't want to rub it in too much for those who do not speak Russian, which is perhaps 90% of my readers, but I think, I must share my discoveries here as I go deeper into my pattern drafting adventure. I believe in spreading the knowledge!

One of the simpler methods our Russian seamstress community suggests actually comes from Italy. 

It is wonderfully presented in  Il Modellismo:  a book on italian pattern drafting method plus fashion sketches and corresponding pattern alteration for Women, Children and Men. The book is bilingual, Italian and English, with a thorough description of sizes, taking measurements, ease charts and pattern drafting illustrations for each sketch. It really reads easily enough and simply a beautiful book- simply Italian! 

To start with here are a few pages with basic information and charts needed to use the method. (Click to zoom)

My first attempt, naturally, was a skirt sloper. With skirts I have been avoiding pencil styles recently, as they do not flatter my wider thighs, making my bottom look much bigger than it probably is. 

While taking my measurements, I never thought that the widest part of my hips, which determines the measurement, should include the bulges on the thighs too, therefore, narrow style skirts would always pull across just below the hips. ( Hey, I do realise this is baby talk, but it might be helpful for some too- I am going to share all my concerns as they arise- regardless of complexity)

This time I measured the widest point over the thighs and it happened to be the larger circumference to measuring the hips over the buttocks widest point. So there are that 2cm difference pulling across my skirts. And it was much lower than the buttocks too, (oh, the human body is so strange!) After I drafted the skirt sloper using that low hip depth, the pulling stopped and it was absolutely perfect. Ready to play with the styles! 

Now piece of advice with the darts using this method: (for skirts and trousers) 

Il Modellismo does not give custom calculations for the dart, they just add fixed dart measurements of 2cm on the front and 3 at the back. As every body is different, the implementation of this method is not ideal. Basically, if the stomach is flat- no dart might be needed at all, and if there is a prominent tummy and flat buttocks, there might be no need for the dart at the back either. So everyone has to still adjust the fixed numbers offered by the method using, I suppose, some common sense and trying the pattern out on the muslin. And here is this old fact of sewing again- muslins are invaluable for achieving the perfect fit! 

Overall, the skirt pattern drafting using Il Modellismo method was very easy and seemed to produce good results too. I will try to whip up something based on this draft soon to showcase my work. 

I hope this was helpful. All information and guidelines are here if you want to join me in learning this pattern drafting method. I will be posting more about it in future. And I would love to hear your thoughts on this subject, so do not be shy to comment.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           

©2012 copyright Sewing And Style.
All rights reserved.
All images and copied text must have a link back or reference to Sewing and Style Den

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The Wind of Change

The new Giveaway seems to attract some attention, I promise that La Mia Boutique issue will not disappoint. I reduced the giveaway period to 2 weeks, it seems there is a lot of freebees I have to give to my lovely readers, that monthly draw is just not often enough! Good for you ))))

ENTER HERE

My affair with Pattern Master Boutique has ended.

I returned it for a refund, after the simple peplum top pattern I designed (using their presets) came out with different side seams length and the armhole 2.5 inches larger than a sleeve cap (???)

I just used standard Burda measurements for size 34 to test it, so it wasn't me taking wrong measurements, it was a programming issue. I mean, it is an over $200 piece of software- this is a lot of money for a faulty fit like that. I just have no intention of going back to it, and it is off my Recommended list for good.

I didn't even expect that I will have to re-measure these settings and I even cut out and started my peplum top, and when it came to side seams- well, I was seriously ticked off by that. Luckily it is still possible to fix the muslin ( as it looks ok to actually wear in public), but I have been spending a lot of hours learning CAD pattern drafting instead.

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