Sewn: Grey Pants

Finally I was able to get some photos to show off the item that I have been most proud of so far on my sewing journey.

The pattern is Burda Magazine 11/2012 no. 107C. After making 2 muslins, I was pretty sure that the fit on these would be ok. I've read so much about how trouser fitting and sewing can be scary, I honestly didnt have too much of a hard time with these. I could probably still make some adjustment to them, the back waistband is a little too low and I guess that's an easy fix by adding in a wedge to the pattern at centre back seam.

Looking at the pictures now, I would probably also like to take some width out of the legs so they are more slim fitting. I think a combo of losing a little weight and the fabric has made them stretch out a bit. The fabric is a lovely cotton sateen which was courtesy of Spotlight. It comes in a lovely range of colors, I spied a lovely green in there but I would love to do these in a printed version.

I added a few more sewing skills in construction of these. I tackled faux welt pockets and zip fly, I think next time I would also like to add some belt loops.

This was supposed to be for the Burda Sew Along which ran for the month of May, better late than never I guess. Here's a sneaky close up of the scarf I wore, it's got little butterflies all over it.

Sewing: Burda Sew Along Pants and Blouse

I would love to tell you that I have sewed up a storm for the Sew Along, truth is that I have had the last 3 weekends in May away from home so I have done almost nothing.

I did start a pair of pants in April which were from Burda Magazine 11/2012 107C. Thankfully these are now finished but the weather has been crappy this weekend so I have no good photos to show just yet. Anyway here is a sneak peak of my faux welt pocket which I am super proud for conquering. 

 I did also manage to start cutting out Burda 7188 which is a paper pattern, this one was on my planned list which you can see here. One of my wardrobe holes are tunics or shirts (who knows what the correct name is!), something that is of a nice enough fabric that can be worn during the day or dressed up for something more fancy. 

The fabric I am using is some poly rayon mystery fabric which came from Spotlight ages ago. It is sort of a zebra stripe with a border print on it, I am hoping it will be a wearable muslin. Here's hoping!

My sewing these days is all about getting maximum wear out of everything, it may not be as flashy or challenging as a cute little cocktail frock but the reality is that I don't have the occasion to wear these things. I want to be able to show things off that I have made and if that's by making the everyday kind of knit tops, shirts and casual pants then that's the way it has to be.

Pants

So I have finally started on my pants making journey. Borrowed some Burda magazines from my local library and decided on this pattern. Lucky for me one of the other Burda mag's I borrowed had one of their Sewing Courses in it for pants that are very similar.

Get ready with your sunglasses.....

So I did a muslin first as all good girls should but the major mistake I made was to make it out of not stretch fabric. I was pretty smug with myself and thought the fit was pretty excellent so dove straight into the stretch muslin version. What I did not even consider was the difference between the two fabrics so this version is about 2 sizes too big.

Luckily the fabric was super cheap (almost free thanks to a  gift card from from Spotty) so I was happy just to go through the process of putting it all together. Plus (cue drumroll) I inserted a fly front zipper.

Standback and admire the awesomeness. All in all I didnt find the process too painful and these came together well. I have now traced off 2 sizes smaller and have that ready to go to be hopefully my final version which is going to be in a dark grey. 

By the by, Spotlight has some lovely quality cotton sateen at the moment in some really cool colors and I also managed to some some lovely Japanese stretch jersey from there too. Slowly there are getting better choices, who would have thought!