Nautical Thurlows

"Nautical" is one of those words that gets tossed around so much, it's almost meaningless, and I kind of hate myself for even using it. In the sewing world, anything navy and white with gold accents seems to fit the bill. So "Nautical Thurlows" it is, even though I doubt they'll be on a boat any time soon.

These shorts are part of my Wardrobe Architect plans, as they fit my color scheme and my silhouettes. They fulfill my loose pledge to make more pants. And they almost didn't make it out of the UFO pile hidden behind lots of respectable sewing books.

I don't think you can see anything amiss with the two above photos, which is good. The detail shots will reveal plenty of flaws, but the reason these ended up angrily wadded in a ball was originally due to fit. I made my first pair of Thurlows this time last year, and since they still fit I decided to make the same size again. I glibly disregarded the fact that the first pair was made with a lightweight stretch denim instead of a heavy twill, and ignored the 15 lbs. I've put on since last year. I went back to the less-than-a-size-0 pattern pieces and cut away, figuring that if I needed any wiggle room I could take it from center-back as the pattern intends (more on my pattern changes from last year here).

Starting to look a bit questionable...

If you're familiar with this pattern, then you know that Sewaholic provides what's called a "center back extension" which allows for a customizable fit.

Center-back extension

When I got to the point where I could try these on and determine where to sew the center-back seam, it was quite ugly. They were WAY too tight around the waist and in the thighs. Much cursing and angry accusations followed. I asked my husband what to do and he wisely told me to put them aside and come back later.

The pockets aren't level with the ground.

A few weeks went by and these babies came back out. I'd had time to mentally process the extra weight that a life without breastfeeding has afforded me (seriously, I lost a lot of weight after giving birth solely due to nursing) and was no longer so emotional about fitting them. Miraculously, they fit much better. I have a sneaky suspicion that the first fitting was thwarted by a certain weight-inflating time of the month. Could this paragraph be any more TMI?

Anyway, I got the shorts finished and wore them out and about, and they're great! Very comfy, not too tight, and with a long shirt I'm able to ignore the flaws that abound in the fly and front closures. I never wear a tucked-in shirt, so I can easily hide the waistband issues. I love the cuffs, the piping I added to the pockets, and the gold topstitching. It helps to focus on those positives instead of the negatives.

Piping, topstitching

Cuffs

I even matched the stripes so well at the sides that you can't see the seams.

Inseam. Can you find the seam?

One negative that I can easily ignore, because it's behind me, is the patch pockets. I added them so that the stripes would match up, however that's not exactly level with the ground. Consequently, they look tilted. I was VERY frustrated when I realized what I'd done, but the only solution to correct the tilt was to misalign the stripes. A rock and a hard place, I tell ya what. However, now I know what to avoid if I ever make another pair of striped shorts. I should have cut them on the bias or just stuck with welt pockets as the pattern directs. I wanted these to be more casual which is why I went with patch pockets.

The outside row of topstitching is done with a triple stitch.

And since I have too many photos and too much to say, how about a photo dump with captions?

Center-back seam. Chevrons on my butt!

I added a jeans button instead of a bar hook and eye.

Here you can also see the waistband is two

different sizes where it overlaps.

This only required a hammer to install. Tutorial video here.

Jean tack from Wawak.

I had to hand-sew the buttonhole for the jeans button.

It looks terrible. This is WITH Fray Check.

Back of the terrible buttonhole.

This is a heavy-duty zipper and the pull tab is way too big

for how these pants are designed. Use a regular zipper!

Belt loops are easy with a coverstitch machine!

Inside view, front

Inside view, back

Please note, the inside of the shorts is not supposed to look like my photos. The waistband facing should fold down all the way around. I have no idea why, but I could NOT get these to fit right unless I sewed them "incorrectly". Check Lauren's sewalong if you want to see what I'm talking about.

Speaking of Lauren's sewalong, I could not have sewn these shorts without it. Not last year, OR this year. Time to be blunt. I hate the Sewaholic directions with this pattern. Last year, I thought it was just me, my inexperience with pants, and that if I knew what I was doing the instructions would be sufficient. At this point, I have to say that it can't JUST be me. I've already made these once, yet I was still often confused unless I consulted the sewalong. Is the pattern nicely drafted, does it produce a great result? Yes. But you're going to need to know what you're doing, or consult some other resources.

I broke about 3 needles sewing these shorts, so I seriously need to re-evaluate my machine's ability to sew jeans/denim/twills. I had to hand-crank almost all of the topstitching. I've only had my machine for 2 years, and I like it a lot, so it bums me out to think about getting another one just for heavier fabrics. And because I haven't mentioned it yet, this fabric is a cotton twill from Mood, and the lining fabric is a quilting cotton from Blue Hill featuring elephants playing croquet (available in multiple colorways, here). It's left over from this dress for AB and it's so stinking adorable. The twill felt like cardboard when it arrived, but with a wash it softened considerably.

Despite their flaws, I like these shorts better than my coral ones from last year, and it feels awesome to have made pants that fit into my capsule wardrobe. I thought I was DONE with this pattern, but today I found myself daydreaming about making it again. Better the devil you know than the one you don't, especially with pants. Although I wouldn't mind getting my mitts on the new Jennifer City Shorts pattern by Style Arc...

Sewing Project: Thurlow Shorts part 3--completed!

It's about time I showed off these shorts! I feel like I spent a month on them. Uhhh...because I did! From start (prewashing fabric) to finish (post-completion wash where I check to see if anything fell apart) I'm pretty sure I spent close to 4 weeks making these. I hope they look like they were worth it!

For an insomnia-curing account of my muslin fitting and flat pattern alterations, check out part 1. It will be of interest to anyone else with chicken legs and no butt who might need tips on making a size 0 even smaller. If you're interested in my brutal admission of setbacks with this project, see part 2. If you want to know how I figured out my fit issues, see my post on pants fitting resources. But for more pretty photos, keep scrolling!

If you've missed my previous posts, then I'll recap the important details. The fabric I used is a lovely coral stretch denim from Hart's Fabrics (no longer available). The lining is a cotton batiste from Mood (also no longer available...I should sew things up faster!). Both fabrics were easy to sew, but I used a jeans needle and I KNOW that made all the difference. For reals. I even took the time to change the needle in my serger to a jeans needle.

The insides are not as pretty as I would like. I used my new serger for a lot of the finishing work, and as you might be able to see in the photos, I didn't rethread the machine. Yep, I used the color-coded thread that came with it (blue, green and yellow). It was more a case of "hey I don't want to buy 4 cones of coral thread" than a case of the Lazies. I used the sewing machine for finishing in places where I wasn't confident in my serger skillz. Read: anywhere that wasn't a straight seam. I'm pretty sure that's how I ended up needing two spools of thread. That overlock stitch eats up lots of thread! At least Jo-Ann's is right down the road from me...

Sewing machine overlock stitch.

Serger 3-thread overlock stitch.

Aside from the changes I made to the fit, I also topstitched in a few places where the instructions didn't call for it. I wanted these to be more jean than trouser (I don't visit a lot of trouser-worthy places!) so I thought the topstitching would be appropriate to help keep them casual.

Pocket topstitching.

Waistband topstitching.

The waistband sits a tad higher than I would like, but I doubt I'll tuck my shirt in (okay...I'll NEVER tuck my shirt in) so aesthetically it's not a big deal. It's not uncomfortable, either. I know they look preppy and stuffy, but I assure you that they are comfy and wonderful. The center-back extension, plus being able to sew buttons wherever you want, really helps get a great fit.

I opted for a wide hem instead of a cuff, partly because I couldn't figure out how to do a cuff. Again. Sigh. I obviously need more practice with pants. I'm sort of dreading making up a pair of long pants and tearing my hair out over an even hem. Actually, I think one of my legs is longer than the other. Better store that excuse away for later. Ha!

But back to the shorts. If you feel confident with pants, you'll enjoy making this pattern. If you've never made a pair, I encourage you to take a shot at some pajama pants first. At least something with a waistband. Have you made a pair of Thurlows yet? Or spent a month on one project? And can someone tell me how to do a dang cuff!?

Make sure to check out the sidebar and vote in my poll about Friday posts in June!

Sewing Project: Thurlow Shorts part 2--troubles

Is it blasphemous of me to say I don't like Sewaholic Patterns? Probably. It's especially unfair since this is the only one I've ever tried! I don't know how long it should take someone to make a pair of shorts (see my week of muslin fitting and flat pattern alterations here) but it took me two weeks to get these finished. I made approximately 1,354 mistakes along the way, but I hope that by sharing them, I can help someone else avoid the same swearing screaming hair pulling frustration!

Pattern

First of all, if you haven't bookmarked Lauren at Lladybird's Thurlow tutorials, do it. Now. I'll wait. That leads me to my first issue, the pattern instructions will NOT teach you how to make a pair of pants. Okay, I guess that's not really the job of a pattern company. You'll probably need a book to help you with fit (I reviewed what I used here), or prior experience with pants will help, but don't expect the pattern instructions to do much for you. Lauren's tutorials are worlds better. The skimpy instructions put me off from wanting another Sewaholic anytime soon. If I buy another (and YES I love them all, okay?!) I'll do it knowing that I may need outside assistance if I need help.

Welt Pockets

In particular, the welt pockets were a challenge. I've never made them before, but I have read about them and watched videos online. None of that knowledge helped me make the Thurlow welt pockets, which are constructed differently than I've seen before. Here's a photo of the pattern piece:

In simple terms, the instructions tell you to sew the top welt piece on, between the red line and the dart. What?? Then you cut on the red line and flip the top and bottom welts to the inside.

What's supposed to happen here is that the ends of these two welt pieces are supposed to neatly butt up against one another. Did. Not. Happen. They totally overlapped. Honestly, I thought it was supposed to be that way until I studied Lauren's photos more closely. To me, it seems like the only way these will work properly is to sew on top of the dart. I've never heard of any such thing. Am I missing something??

Anyway, I ripped them all back out and had to sew them again (yes, both sides, I was working on them in tandem). It was difficult, since I had already cut my opening. Here's the finished result:

Notice anything wrong? Yeah...my left-hand welt ended up slanted. That was the first one I redid, so then I was faced with the dilemma of whether or not to purposefully slant the second one! Haha. As you can see, I didn't.

If you still have your muslin sitting around, I recommend doing a practice run with the welt pockets on your muslin. In the future, I'm almost positive that I won't do the pockets this way again. IF I do a welt pocket at all, I'll use a different method.

Waistband

Ohhhhh the waistband. It's a good thing that this was towards the end of the project, or I might have bundled up the whole thing and buried it in my closet behind my prom dress and my bag of old purses. I mentioned in my muslin fitting post that one waistband piece was too short.

This is my finished pair of pants (by the way, I sewed this incorrectly, so this part looks different than it's "supposed" to). I don't know how it ended up too short. Thank goodness I didn't need the full length of the waistband, otherwise...okay, fine, otherwise I would have had to cut another piece. But seriously, I can't be troubled to cut extra pieces! Oh wait...I did! The other awful bit is that this is my second waistband! I managed to cut my pieces, apply my interfacing, sew my waistband to my lining, understitch, and THEN notice that the pieces were backwards (but NOT notice that one was too short). I followed the cutting diagram! Ugh. I still haven't figured out how it happened. Thank goodness I had extra fabric and interfacing!

One last bit about the waistband. I think I used too small of a seam allowance when I attached it to my pants (to be honest, by that point I was SO over this project and just flying through it to get it DONE). For some reason, I didn't try on the pants until my waistband was all the way done, and then I noticed that the rise was sort of high. Higher than most other pants I own. If I had used the proper seam allowance, the rise would probably be fine. It's fine now, really, it's just higher than I'm used to.

I don't want to sound like this pattern totally bombed for me. It was just HARD. I've been sewing for a year now and had gotten a tad...smug? These shorts brought me back down to Earth. They're not perfect, they challenged me in more ways than one, but dang if I'm not happy with them! I'm wearing them now as I write this post, and they are comfortable, flattering, and fit well. I think they look as close to RTW as anything I've ever made. I KNOW that during round two, if/when that happens, the next pair will be improved greatly.

Next week: a short and sweet (maybe??) post of the completed shorts!

Ready for Thrift Thursday at Peek-A-Boo Pattern Shop? Today only, the Lazy Days Romper is on sale for only $4! I may have to snatch that one up, I've had my eye on it for a while. Rompers are so cute and practical!

What I'm Reading: pants fitting resources

As soon as I finished the muslin for my Thurlows I realized I'd need some help making pattern alterations. I browsed Amazon for the most popular fitting books, then sped off to the library to see what I could find. I ended up with the following:

The Complete Photo Guide to Perfect Fitting

Easy Guide to Sewing Pants

How to Use, Adapt, and Design Sewing Patterns

All three of these books offered something unique. Why is it that there's never ONE book that covers everything haha? I also used this post at A Fashionable Stitch to assist me. And while I didn't personally use the information, The Colette Patterns blog has an awesome pants fitting guide as well.

The first book shown above, The Complete Photo Guide to Perfect Fitting, by Sarah Veblen, is an excellent resource. I only read the portion about pants, but there are sections on all other types of garments as well. It's one of those books that I could buy and study for ages. When explaining alterations, the directions are precise and helpful. Where this book excels is with all the photos. If you're a visual learner, you'll appreciate all the steps shown clearly in photos of the alterations. The only part I found a tad impractical (at least in the pants section) was the use of two or more muslin fittings. For my own home sewing, I'm unlikely to make that many muslins. Sorry world! But I could see where it makes sense for a sewing business. Who knows, maybe someday...!

Easy Guide to Sewing Pants, by Lynn MacIntyre, also had lots of pictures and clear instructions, but of course this book was aimed towards pants sewing only. The difference here is that this book also contained information on constructing pants, including zippers, waistbands, and fly fronts. Unfortunately, there wasn't any help on welt pockets, which I desperately needed while making my Thurlows! This was a handy little book and I'm kind of sad to have to take it back to the library.

The last book, by Lee Hollahan, didn't help me at all with pants. The only alteration it covered was lengthening or shortening pants. It's just not that kind of book. Now that I'm writing about it, though, I think I may keep it a bit longer and read it more in-depth, because it has some cool ideas for altering patterns I already have. More to come on this title, I'm sure!

Any other great pants fitting resources out there? I know Pants for Real People is a popular one. What do you use?

Sewing Project: Thurlow Shorts part 1--muslin

If you've read even one previous review of mine, then you know that I'm not a fan of muslins (practice garments). I prefer using a cheaper fabric and practicing by making something I can wear. But it only took sewing one pair of sweatpants for me to know that muslins are pretty much required if you want your pants to fit right (and you do, right?).

I've had the Thurlow Trouser pattern for a few months, and two different versions planned since February. First up is a pair of shorts in this lovely coral stretch denim (from Hart's Fabrics, but I can't find it anymore so they must have sold out!):

And for the lining, I planned to use a crazy looking cotton batiste from Mood:

I promise it didn't look that bright and tropical on my computer screen! Also, I can't find it anymore so I guess they sold out as well.

But before my scissors got anywhere near that fabric, I made a simpler pair of shorts, Simplicity 1879. Thankfully, those shorts fit right out of the box, which helped me choose a size for my Thurlows. Not surprisingly to me, size 0 fit my measurements the closest. I have no curves.

But not so fast! I compared the finished garment measurements of the Thurlows to the Simplicity pattern, and I noticed that in the hip, there was a difference of 1 1/2". Sad face. I know from experience that nothing makes my skinny bow legs look worse than a baggy pair of shorts. Not to mention that my fabric choice, the coral denim, has Lycra for stretch, so I can get away with even less ease if I want (which I do). So as much as it pained me, I forged ahead with a muslin. I don't know why I was being such a baby about it, it only took me about a day to cut out and assemble. Oh, and for my muslin, I used some cotton fabric that my mom gave me. She said she wasn't sure what she originally bought it for...I have 5 yards of it, so there's plenty more if I find a use for it!

For a muslin of the shorts, I used pattern pieces 4, 5, 6, and 9. I did not cut out the waistband pieces. I was confused by Lauren at Lladybird's post about her muslin (and if you're going to make Thurlows, you NEED the tutorials from her Sew-Along). She said to cut out the waistband, but then in the photos I didn't see one. Having finished my shorts...yeah, I wish I would have cut out waistband pieces! Check back Thursday for more details...

Right off the bat, my most obvious issue with the muslin was my pockets. Gape city. The instructions say it's okay for your pocket bag to not lie flat...but this was too much. Note to self #1: make sure pocket bags lie flat.

Second, the shorts were obviously too big, as I feared. I knew I'd be okay in the waist area due to the center back extension built into the pattern, which allows for a precise waist fit. The problem was in the hips and thigh. The crotch fit great (there's a phrase you don't use everyday), which was a relief since I didn't want to attempt corrections there.

An earlier version of me would have simply pinned out excess from the side seams and been done with it, but somehow I knew this wasn't the "right" way to fix this problem. I sped off to the library and picked up some books on fitting and on pants specifically, but I ended up finding the most help from the blog A Fashionable Stitch (with images from the book Pants for Real People).

The muslin went on again, inside out, and I pinned out from the sides as shown in the link above. I always pin with safety pins when I'm wearing a garment, and then once I take it off I can even things out with regular pins.

Yes, I was basting with chartreuse thread.

I measured the extra fabric and it actually varied from 1/4" at the hip to 1/2" around the leg opening. I decided to split the difference and remove 3/8". But rather than shaving off the extra on the side seam of the pattern piece, I marked through the inside of it as suggested. If these photos are hard to see, clicking should help you enlarge them. Here are the two front pattern pieces:

The red marks show where I removed excess. I simply cut along the lines and then taped the pattern pieces back together.

For the back, I did take the extra from the side. I didn't want to interfere with the center back extension or the welt pocket. I kept it easy on myself and removed 3/8" from the side seam.

You'll notice that I also changed the placement of the welt pocket ever so slightly. I moved it about an 1/8" down and 1/2" towards the side seam. There was no rhyme or reason to that decision, except that I tried on my muslin, with the welt placement marked, and visually decided I'd like them moved. I also double-checked the darts to make sure they looked okay. I decided to leave them as-is.

How flattering!

Anytime you alter one pattern piece, it's sort of a domino effect for all the others. I also needed to change the waistband pieces. The book Easy Guide to Sewing Pants had a graphic showing how to alter waistbands at the side seams, so that's what I did. I wasn't sure exactly where the side seam was in these pants (the waistband itself does not contain a side seam, only the center back seam) so I laid the waistband pattern pieces on top of the pant leg pieces to see where the side seam would be, roughly. Here are my alterations to these pieces, again marked in red:

Instead of removing 3/8" four times (two front pieces, two back pieces), I removed 3/4" twice (two waistband pieces). The total removed stays the same. Skip ahead two weeks and somehow the right waistband was too short (the left was perfect). How?? IDK man. It didn't even up mattering because of the back extension, but still...mysteries. Again, check back Thursday for a complete post of all my woes with this project. For now, I'm trying to concentrate on pattern alterations only!

I likely could have altered the pocket bag piece as well, but I opted to try it as-is. When I mimicked the effect in the paper pattern, it didn't look too bad:

So there you have it, my muslin fitting and my beginning steps for my Thurlows. I was a little nervous about starting on my REAL fabric, since it is a heavier weight and has more body than my muslin fabric, but (spoiler alert!) most of these adjustments worked out well in terms of fit. Stay tuned for more Thurlow posts as I recap this three-week project!