Off the Clock

When I bought the black and blue checked ponte to make a pair of pants I didn't have the pattern with me, so I bought over two meters because I know that's what I need for a pair of jeans.  Of course I wasn't thinking that denim usually comes 45" wide and the ponte was 60" wide.  Therefore I found I had enough fabric left over to get myself a second pair.  To be fair I considered saving it to make a pair for daughter post-pregnancy but with her long legs there wouldn't be quite enough fabric.  I have another length of ponte, a charcoal plaid, that I may be able to work a pair for each of us out of if I plan for that from the beginning. Anyway, I made a second pair of Lutterloh 282-249 with a couple of changes.  I am having a hard time seeing the fit on the first pair , because the fabric is dark and the lighting is not very good in my dressing room.  I changed the lightbulbs and saw that I have a fair bit of wrinkling under my butt, and that if I pull u

I had traced out the back of this pattern earlier this summer when I was comparing the shape and size of three different pants patterns .  I was initially going to use this black and navy checked ponte to make another pair of Simplicity 1696  but in a knit, but I'm still not convinced that that pattern is fitting as well as I would like.  I finally got around to tracing the front of this Lutterloh one as it is drafted for a knit fabric and I could have a go at my first Lutterloh pants pattern. I wanted to keep it simple so I eliminated the front pockets and I didn't include the fly zip figuring there was enough stretch in the fabric to make them as a pull-on pair.  I did topstitch the fly stitching but I used standard thread instead of topstitching thread, trying to keep it subtle.  It is subtle all right - you can barely see it! lol  I may go over it again with a topstitching thread, we will see.  I did make myself a little cardboard template for fly topstitching.

Waaaaay back in the day I had a pair of jeans that I hand-embroidered and embellished with love beads  and star studs.  Remember those?  Well fast forward about 40 years and I'm at it again.  I keep thinking that machine embroidering on jean pockets means making new jeans, but it occurred to me that I can just embroider on a pair of jeans I already own.  I have had these basic Gap jeans for years so I thought they would be a good pair to try on in case things go horribly wrong. This pattern is called Western Flair Pocket from Embroidery Library .  I just love the turquoise in it, although I want to do another pair replacing the turquoise with black.  I think White on white would work as well. I was a little concerned about taking off the pockets and then reattaching them without it looking like a "home" job, but I had just the right colour of jean top stitching thread on hand and I think it turned out alright. I hooped both pockets together in my larger hoop

Inspector 1 on the job This post is a continuation from here . I finished up my blazer the other morning.  I am quite happy with the final result.  It is definitely wearable.  I think the fit could have been a little more fine tuned but that is probably my perfectionism kicking in.  The length of the sleeves and the bodice are perfect, so I am glad I trusted my instincts and lengthened the sleeves that half inch. I did really struggle getting this jacket finished because I was trying to add sleeve heads and shoulder pads with the lining already in place.  I was getting very frustrated and walked away from it more than once.  I initially bought some felt thinking it would give good support as a sleeve head, but as you can see in the pic it is too firm.  You could see the scalloped folds through the sleeves.  Of course I sewed them in place a couple of times before admitting they just won't work. I finally used a piece of flannel I had on hand (pattern side in so l