Thurlow Shorts! PR Sewing Bee Round #1

Long ago, I made a pair of Sewaholic Thurlow shorts.  They were not great:

I thought I'd still wear them but I never did.  I thought I had donated them before I moved.  Lo and behold, I found them in my refashion bin and was able to assess what went wrong last time.

I have put on a little weight since I made the first pair and they were a little small in the hips.  The waistband also fell on an odd spot which made my stomach poof out over the top.  No good.  I started my new attempt by cutting a muslin one size larger, a 14.  I raised the front 1", and I raised the center back up 3/4" increasing to 1" at the side seams to match the front.  The fit was good through the hips but very large at the waist.  I needed to take it in quite a bit at the center back seam.   Rather than just adjusting the center back seam, I took a little off  the side seams at the waistline and about 1/2" off at the center back.  I didn't want the back pockets to appear too close to the center seam so I shifted them and the back dart outward by 1/2".

I am not a fan of double welt pockets.  They look like lips to me.  Not the look I'm going for for my back pockets.  So I switched them to single welt pockets.  I used this excellent tutorial by poppykettle to make for single welt pockets.

When I first had them assembled, there were some butt-flossing issues in the back.

I scooped out the CB seam at the seat and it made a big difference.  I've never had to do this adjustment before, and was very happy with the result.

Seriously...that is a great view.

See?  Impressive!

One thing I did with these shorts that was unusual for me was to hem them much shorter than I normally do.  I was talking with a friend who has a similar shape as me, (although she is MUCH taller) and she told me that a stylist once told her to wear shorter shorts. That gave me the confidence to hem these with a 3.5" inseam rather than my typical 9".  I really like how it looks and I feel young!

Apart from scooping out the CB seam and raising the waisband, I made only minor changes.  I cut a size 14 with a slight decrease at the waist and a slight adjustment on the front pieces for athletic thighs. 

I skipped the belt loops...one reason I sew is to have bottoms that fit--no belt needed.

A note to future Thurlow sewists:  check the length of the left waistband. Mine was about 1.25" too short.  The pointed end of my waistband did not cover the entire fly extension. Some online research revealed that this has happened to other people as well. I didn't have enough of the gray denim to cut a new waistband on the correct grain-line, so I had to be creative. I wanted the pointed end of the waistband to completely cover the fly extension. I cut my waistband just to the inside of the zipper and cut a small piece of denim 1.75" long and the width of the waistband and waistband facing. I used 1/4" seam allowances to sew this piece to the main waistband and also to the pointed end. I pressed the seams open to minimize bulk. This little extension stays hidden behind the front closure.  Not everyone has has this issue but there are definitely some of us.  Save yourself a headache and measure the waistband and compare it to the left front, back, and fly extension.

  I am happy to report that I made it on to Round #2 in the Sewing Bee with these Thurlows!

My Red Threads

For some inexplicable reason I have been sewing a lot of red garments lately.  Remember my Polka dot tankini?  Red.  Back in May I whipped out a pair of red twill Jalie 2908 shorts.  I know...Jalie 2908 is the jeans pattern that I have made 4 times already.  Well, the shorts make it 5 times.  Since making them, I have lost a little weight and they are now loose.  I will continue to wear them and bask in my weight loss.  :)

For Father's Day, I made my husband 2 new Hawaiian shirts (to be blogged about sometime in the future).  When ordering his fabric from Hawaiianfabric.com I ordered myself some fabric too with the intention of making myself a Hawaiian shirt.  Last week's swim meet had a "Red" theme, so I took that opportunity to sew up my Red Hawaiian Shirt.

Big thanks to my 7yo photographer!

 

 

 I used New Look 6197 which has both a men's and a woman's version of the classic Hawaiian (aka casual) shirt. 

 

 

The woman's version has a shirt-tail hem and bust darts.  I made a size 14 which had a finished bust measurement of 43" and did a 1" FBA. Thank goodness I did...it would have been too tight otherwise.   I learned my lesson from this top:  remember to ignore the ease across the back when considering whether or not it will fit over your chest.

My major complaint was that there was too much ease at the sleeve cap.  I could tell right from the pattern piece and followed this tutorial to remove the excess.    Unfortunately I chickened out and didn't remove the entire 1" of extra ease, so I wound up having to do the basting stitches and ease the sleeve into the armhole.  I will be brave and bold next time and remove it all :)  FYI: The men's version doesn't have nearly that much ease.

My final observation: shirt-tail hems are not the easiest thing to hem.  Seriously.  I'm going to straighten it out next time.

So while there is still some red fabric in my stash, next up is blue...Stay tuned :)

 

Completed Thurlows and some Ponderings

My Thurlow shorts are finished!  I had an uninterrupted chunk of time today where I just sewed and sewed.

They are finished.  They fit, they don't ride up and they don't fall down.  I don't need to wear a belt (yay!).   My welt pockets came out well.  Yay!  But are they the most amazing looking things?  Nah.  Are there some weird wrinkles?  Yup.  Did I try and try and TRY to fix them?  Yup.  Did I finally give up?  Yup.

Here they are:

Front View:  Not bad.  

Side View:  Not terrible.  The side seam swings to the front.  My butt looks a little more pointy than it should

Back view: Legs apart and legs together.  Very odd V shaped wrinkle at CB...gack!  

Other wrinkles point to outer thigh/full hip

Am I being too critical?  Are we as sewists overly critical with the things we make?  Do we accept less that perfect fit with RTW, but not with our own creations?  I remember making my first Renfrew top and being annoyed at the armpit wrinkles I had.  Yet when I tried on every one of my RTW tees, there were armpit wrinkles there too.  Shouldn't we as sewists give ourselves a break?  Don't we deserve it?  I should really take a few photos of the back view of my RTW shorts that I wear all the time, then I might be happier with the look of these.  

I made a size 12 in these shorts and took in the side seams about 1/2" at the waist tapering to nothing 4" down.  I took a small wedge out of the waistband pieces to accommodate this and it work perfectly! Once I had the shorts assembled enough to try on, I needed to let them out at the low hip (darn summer indulging).  

I am very grateful for LLadybird's tutorials, particularly the ones for the welt pockets and for the fly front. The instructions were clear but it was nice to have photos to follow as well.  I think my welt pockets came out very well, and there's no reason to panic about them in the future.  I did baste the welts together before sewing the sides of the welts, which held them centered in the openings.

The fabric was from an early purchase in India.  It was a slightly stiff "trouser fabric" (that's as specific as the Indian shopkeepers ever got).  Once I laid the fabric on my cutting table, I noticed this:

Yes, I bought some "Tessuti 2-ply Premium" fabric in some filthy alleyway in India for a steal.  I couldn't possibly have spent more than $5/yard for this!  Otherwise I would have balked and bargained for it.  I don't know what the fabric content is but it is machine washable.   The right side is a bit shiny and the wrong side has a twill weave.  I used the wrong side of the fabric for these shorts.  

Would I make these again?  Sure.  Next time I will use a less stiff fabric.

Here's a view of the insides:

Woo Hoo Fly Front!

I used a paisley cotton print (also purchased in India) for the lining.  It peeks out just a tiny bit on the front waistband at the trouser hook.  No matter, it's not often I tuck my shirts in.  :)

The final question regarding these shorts:  Will I wear them?  Yup.  I'm giving myself a break.  :)

Edited July 23:  I've decided that just because I got frustrated with the fit doesn't mean I should be finished.  I'm going to let the CB and side seams out a bit and give my bottom more room.  Then we'll see if some of the wrinkles diminish.  So...more to come!

In progress

Here's a little peek at what I have been working on:

Yup, that's a welt pocket.  My very first one!  Maybe you guessed, but that's going to be a pair of Sewaholic Thurlow shorts!  They have been cut out for some time and have been sitting patiently while I have been sewing swimwear.  I should really finish the shorts while it's still warm enough to wear them.  

Ok, back to the machine!

Black, White, and Embellished: Simplicity 2371

The summer is heating up and I have been anticipating some steamy evenings spent at swim meets.  The best thing to wear on steamy days in my opinion is a loose woven top with sleeves.  So I searched through the pattern stash and decided on Simplicity 2371, a woven, pull-over tunic.

Simplicity 2371

The interesting thing about this pattern is that it does not use a bust dart, but has 3 shoulder darts instead.  The pattern is designed with 6" of ease (I mean really?) so for my 38" bust measurement, the back of the envelope says that's a size 16.  Slide down to the finished garment measurements and the finished bust size for the 16 is 44"!  Gigantic!!  So I decided to cut out a size 14, which had a 42" finished bust size.  4" of ease seemed much more reasonable.

Most times with Big 4 patterns, the shoulders tend to be too wide for me when I cut out the right bust size but with the shoulder darts on this pattern, I figured that if were the case, I could always increase the shoulder darts to make the shoulders narrower (and trim down the back piece afterwards).

So...Stitch ON!

I did a little stash-busting and chose a very lightweight cotton with black outlined roses that I purchased in India back in April 2012.

The pattern went together very easily.  The back piece is not cut on the fold, but has a CB seam instead.  I decided to keep the CB seam to conserve fabric.  Ordinarily I would have omitted it.

To snazz things up a bit, I added purchased black piping to the sleeves and dug out the embroidery floss to dress up the neckline.  The shoulder darts (or are they pleats?) disappeared in the pattern of the fabric and I wanted to highlight them.  So I divided my embroidery floss and used 3 of the 6 strands, and did a running stitch down the seams and back up them again.  They look a little wobbly, but I think I'm ok with it.  Around the neckline I did the same kind of running stitches in a square U shape around the neckline notch.  Once done, I felt it wasn't thick enough and needed to be more noticeable.  So I took out the embroidery floss again, laid a full strand over my hand stitches, set my machine to a narrow and pretty dense zig-zag stitch.  I zig-zagged over the embroidery floss following my hand stitching.  I'm so pleased with how it turned out.

So the neckline was embellished well and in keeping with my Indian influences, needed to add something else near the hem.  I used some 1/8" grosgrain ribbon and stitched it down 1.25" from the bottom hem.  Then I added a second row 1/2" above the first.

Here is the finished top, and I made a belt to go with it not bothering with a pattern.

  

So what do you think, belt or no belt?  I kind of like the belt although I feel a little karate-esque when wearing it.  Or does the belt detract from the rest of the top?

The shorts I'm wearing are also a new make.  I bought some cheap quality black jersey knit at Jo-Ann's (ie the only kind they had) and made a short version of New Look 6110 View A.  They are elastic waist, not-quite leggings with side seams.  I had some full length black leggings that I could wear with this top in cooler weather, but for summer, they would be too warm.

I cut a size 20 based on my hip measurement and took in the waist quite a bit, almost an inch at each side seam.  Super easy, and super comfy.  I just hope people won't think they are pajama bottoms when I wear them out.  :)

Here is the back view (lightened up so you can see).  I have really good luck with New Look pants.  Granted I haven't made many pants/shorts but the NL crotch curve seems to work really well on this pear shaped girl.  Has anyone else had similar luck?

There we have it!  An entire outfit done!




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