The duct tape dress form is looking pretty good. I have to reshape one arm a little and I may have a few more soft areas to fill with the expanding foam insulation. Right now, it’s in the LR and it’s upside down on it’s stand so we could add foam in the hip area and draft a template for the plywood base. This has turned out so well that I’m thinking I will by the My Twin kit and do a pants form eventually.
I’m working on a pair of pants for the older DD. This is the first pants I’ve made since she was a baby! I’m using Simplicity 4135 (threads collection). I’m doing a practice pair in muslin and right now I’m in the process of figuring out all the stuff about the front yoke/pocket section. It looks like the waist might be a little higher than she wanted, but hopefully I can change that.
I wish that pattern companies would make patterns on CD or DVD so you could actually see and hear the construction and you could pause and zoom in on critical areas of a picture. Is there anyone who does that?
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I like to tape the sewing shows on public television. Anything I don't understand, I just rewind and play it again until it sinks in. I learn better visually, anyway. If those patterns didn't have diagrams, I would be in trouble.
Have you ever seen the instructions for adjusting a pants pattern going by the crotch length total, (front length and back length) and the crotch depth? Those were the best instructions, but I lost them. I can't remember if one adjusts the depth first or the length. I think it was in one of the pattern magazines some years back.
Thanks for reminding me of that! I have the book put out by Palmer-Pletsch(sp?) on fitting pants and it has those specific instructions. The pants were looking o.k. but a little baggy in the crotch. I pinned out a horizontal pleat in the specific area and... Voila! Pants look much better already. I've had the book for quite a while and had tried fitting pants for myself. Couldn't really do it. I might try to enlist DD's help when I get hers finished.
I have a question: I've made some significant changes in this first muslin, in the crotch and in the fit of the waist. Would it be better to use the first muslin and draw a second one to test the changes I've made?
I would either do that, or measure and re-measure before cutting out new fabric. I usually put changes on the pattern, so I'm not the best to ask that question. Does anyone else have an opinion on this?
I would make another muslin. Then the good fabric won't become an expensive muslin! Pants are so difficult to fit well that more than 1 muslin isn't unusual.
Nancy
Hello Lilah I would make a second pair and when you have them exactly as you want them use them a your pattern. I do this woth things that I have labvoured over and it works very well . I actually cut the seam allowances off and then mark with a chalk wheel around the pattern itself and use wide seam allowances down the sides and normal ones else where . This makes sewing them together really quick
Thanks for the advice. I hope to get the second muslin done today!
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