More on Skinny Pants

Well, my camera battery just died and I had 3 or 4 more photos to load........bah humbug.........and, of course, I have no more batteries on hand. So, I'll go with what I have for now.

Here is a Slim pant pattern comparison of the Sandra Betzina pattern from her "No Time to Sew" book with patterns. That pattern was sized in Sm/Med/Lg with hip measurements of: Sm = 32.5 - 36"; Med = 36.5 - 40.5"; and Lg = 41 - 46" and waist measurments of Sm = 23-27"; Med = 27.5 - 31" and Lg = 31.5 - 36. She gives various instructions for enlarging/altering the pattern for one's actual measurements. It is the the pattern on top in the photo.

The white pattern is her new Today's Fit Pattern, Vogue 1197, the pattern I used in my previous post. You can see, the newer pattern offers more size options, sizes A-J.

The obvious difference I noted right off the bat was the old pattern has a tilted waist; the new one does not. I had to make a tilted waist adjustment with the Vogue pattern. Also, the older pattern used a separate waist band (pattern not shown in this photo) and the newer one has the waist band included as the pant pattern (i.e. fold over waistband).




I had some "throw away polyester knit" so I decided to make up the old pattern. I cut a Lg at the waist and a Med at the hip for my measurements of W of 32.5 and H of 39. Here they are: well, the back view. The front view is still in my dead battery camera. There were some diagonal folds in the back as noted with the new pattern (in my previous post), but all, in all, looked OK. I didn't finish as I HATE the feel of this fabric and it's HOT to wear.


And here are the final pair of the black RPL ponte knit you saw in my last post. Sorry, the photo of the back of this pair is still in the camera. Still some vertical folds, but they are definitely better after they had been steamed. If I made this pattern again, I need to lengthen the legs, I think. I do think I'll be able to wear them with a tunic (cover the bum and some of the diagonal folds) and ballet flats.




From here I pulled out a pair of Denim and Co. (QVC brand) pair of denim leggins that I purchased at least 5 years ago. They keep shinking up as I wash them. I bought them in 2 colors, black and indigo. Although the same size, the blue ones were always baggy, but the black fit nice. Both said they were 96 cotton/4 lycra. Go figure...........

Anyhow, I gave the blue ones away long ago, but still have the black ones, so I copied them via masking tape and cut and sewed a test pair (photo also still in the dead camera). I lengthed them as they needed and they came out pretty darn good. They do need a small flat seat adjustment if the pattern gets used again, and it will likely. Based on these having a leg side seam vs. the Betzina's having no side seam, I do think the diagonal folds in the back legs are from the nature of the cut. I didn't have diagonals on the denim (just the wrinkle indicating the need for a flat seat adjustment).

Someone asked for more info on Sister's blue dress. The fabric is a knit - rayon I think. It was not a border print. The verticals on the fabric run the lenth of the fabric so I had to do some "fussy cutting" to get the verticals where I wanted. I think the fabric came from C&C Fabrics in Dallas.

Speaking of fabrics, someone also asked about fabric places. I buy most of my fabric from C&C Fabrics and Super Textiles on Perth Street in Dallas and Pursley's discount Fabrics in Duncanville. Of course, I haunt and buy from Fabric.com and Fabricmart.com.