Another pair of pants

I finished these pants today like I was hoping I would. In fact, I was able to wear them out to dinner. I'm really happy with these. One problem I had with the last pair was a little sagging under the seat. I was so excited when I saw the latest issue of Threads, as they had an article on how to fix this very problem. It seems I have a "tilted pelvis" or low seat because this alteration worked for me.







Here is a picture of the "fix."









And the result:










So, I'm pretty happy with these. They fit, they're comfortable, and they look pretty good. Not only that, they are a poly suiting, so I can throw them into the wash. Can't beat that.

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We just had the family and one of DDs friends, but it was lots of fun. Brother and SO came over earlier and we ate quiche (Marie Callendar's), cranberry scones and lattes and played games. It was a nice way to start the day. That's cranberry butter you're seeing on the plate, and it's really yummy. This recipe made about 16 scones.



We have been spending a lot of time lately working on cakes, and we've been making lots of flowers. I can't tell you how many hours we spent making all these flowers, but it was really fun.





This only represents half of the flowers we made. We made roses, rose buds, apple blossoms, chrysanthemums, pansies, african daisies, primroses, violets, and daffodils.









My favorite are the pansies.


















I found a recipe for a pumpkin cake and did that. And here is the finished product!





We're pretty proud of our cakes :-)

Today I am planning on finishing another pair of pants. I would have finished them last night, but I could not find the back yoke facings. The time I spent looking for those things, I could have cut out another pair. I am doing that this morning and finishing the pants. I always get a little wrinkle under the butt on pants, and this months Threads magazine had an article on how to fix that. I can't wait to try them on completely finished and take a picture to see if it really fixed the problem. I'll keep you posted!

Black Pants

My cat likes to sleep on the ironing board. Because of this, I seem to have a lot of golden hairs on my new black pants! I must invest in more pet hair removers :-)

I finally finished these black pants. I think I really like them after making some adjustments. I lowered the crotch seam about 3/4", let out the seam at the butt for more room, and narrowed the legs about 4" in circumference on both! I think they would still benefit from taking them in a little more at the knees. I started these pants with a size 16 to cover my 40+" hips, but maybe I would have been better of to start with a 14 and then just let out a little at the hip.

I would definitely make these again. I'm wearing them today, so we'll see how much I love them by the end of the day. Here are some pix:







It's hard to see in black, but the fit is pretty good in the back. I lengthened the darts about 3/8" because I have a low butt. I like the fit of the wider waistband/yoke













These pants have a separate "yoke" piece sewn on the pocket so that you can use thinner fabric for the pocket and still have the right look on the front of your pants.








Here is the inside construction. I really like the look you get with the separate fly

Pants Fitting - or "Why Do I Always Wear Black Underwear When I'm Making a Muslin?"

This muslin has taken me a little longer, but I'm really happy with it so far. I am having to do very little tweaking to get an "average" fit. Unfortunately, I probably won't be happy with "average" so I hope I don't make this into more of a major issue than it needs to be! When I looked in the mirror, I was pretty happy with the fit. Now that I"m looking at the pictures, I can see a lot more detail

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly:



The Good: This view doesn't look too bad. If I really look at this, it looks like I might need to take a little out of the front side seam above the hip and add a little to the back side seams to get the side seam to perfectly perpendicular to the floor. It seems to pull toward the back because of my butt. I told you I was a "curvy" figure.






















The Bad: Actually, the fit isn't that bad. It's what's inside the pants that I wish I could change!

And why must I always be wearing black underwear when I am making these muslins?


















OK, the ugly. This doesn't look so hot - but again, who wears pants made out of muslin!? Actually, I think the fit is pretty good, and I think most of those wrinkles will disappear in a bit heavier fabric.
I had to take in the CB seam from about the bottom of the darts up, but it looks like I may need to let out the CB seam at the fullest part of the butt because there seems to be a lot of pulling there.


I'm not going to do any more tonight - but will get a fresh look at these tomorrow. And, it's Veteran's day. So I'm thanking the veterans for giving us a holiday so I can stay home and sew! Which is pretty meaningless considering what our veterans really have done for us.

Plain and Simple Bootcut - Not so Hot

Well, I did get to that muslin yesterday, and thank goodness I made a muslin! I used a size 12, which according to the measurements on the Hot Patterns envelope would have been right for me, but I could not even get those things half way up my thighs! I let out the seams to 1/4 inch sas and could still barely get them up my legs. They fit fine in the hips, except for the fact that the back didn't even come up to the top of my bikini-high underwear! I could have spent hours trying to make this muslin/pattern fit, or choose another pattern. I decided on the latter.


Now I am going to make a muslin for S2700. I bought this a while ago, but when I tried to use their formula to decide which pattern type (slim/average/ curvy) none of their ratios lined up with mine. Now, why did I even try to figure this out? I'm curvy and that's all there is to it! I cut out a muslin on these last night, and we'll see what happens. I do like that they have automatically built in 1" side seams all around. I also added an additional inch at the waist incase I need to raise the waist seam or lengthen the crotch curve. I hope I can get to it today. I have put off my school work long enough, and now I must get to that.


Oh, BTW, we went and saw This is it last night and I loved it.

Saturday musings

Even though I have a lot of school work to do this weekend, I am hoping to get some sewing done. Have any of you made the HP boot cut pants? I looked at Pattern Review, and could not find any reviews for them. I have this pattern in my stash and am hoping to do a muslin today.

Grace and I have our second cake decorating course starting today. Fortunately, we do not have to bring cakes until the last week, but you can bet we will be making cakes at home to "practice" I think my thighs cannot handle any more cakes right now, but it doesn't seem to be stopping me. I am having fun trying new cake recipes, but Grace prefers to stick with the box mixes. We are both experimenting with different frostings (and Nancy K, if you're reading this, I would still love to try your recipe.)

This afternoon, DH and I have a date to go see "This is it" Let's see, class from 11 - 1, movie at 4, report card comments to finish... I am still determined to get some sewing in!

And, on a sadder note, PotPie got into a little fight when he sneaked out of the house last week and ended up having surgery. You can see more pictures here, but be warned, some of them are gross. He seems to be handling it well and is being so sweet about having to wear that collar!

It's about time I finished something!

McCalls 5884
This blouse should have taken an afternoon or so, but I think it took me more like 3 weeks! First of all, I laid this out 3 times before finally settling on this fabric. The blouse is a bit of a fabric hog, and my first two choices did not have enough fabric. I do like the blouse, but I hate doing single layer cutting, which you do have to do on this blouse since the neck scarf is cut on the bias. I'm happy with the end result though. I've never made this kind of sleeve before, but I like the way it looks. There is an inner piece and an outer piece. There are a few modifications I would make to this blouse if I make it again and I've outlined them on my review at Pattern Review. I'd really like to be sewing more, so I'm hoping that I will start forcing myself to make time to do it. Too many other things seem to be getting in the way. Speaking of which, DD and I have been making a lot of cakes and trying different cake and frosting recipes. Nancy K, if you're reading this I'd love to try your recipe you referred to. I looked on the internet and found many variations, so would love to try the one you like. Our cakes are still fairly primitive looking, but we're having fun and learning.








































































You can see more cakes here. We feel pretty proud of our cakes for just having had 4 classes.