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Sunday, August 16, 2009

paper pants.



since my last 2 sewing projects are 100% complete (i still need to take some photos of the lavender jumper), i'm moving on to the Eva Dress 1945 trousers pattern that my mom got me for christmas last year.

this pattern is a size 20 (32" waist, 41" hip) , so i was prepared to grade the pattern down 1-2 sizes to fit me. i figured i'd probably massacre the pattern pieces during the grading process, so i decided to do a pre-muslin with swedish tracing paper.

first i sewed the pants together to check the sizing prior to grading. the waistband (& this is without the additional facing to build it up) was at my bustline. also, the crotch was hanging too low and the pants were ridiculously long.

before doing an overall pattern grade, i decided to try to get rid of some vertical inches at the top of the pants. using the pants front & back diagrams from the threads chart below, i removed 2" from the upper part of the pants at lines 30 and 36.


image source: threads

to do this, i measured 10.5" up from the crotch & drew a line across. then i drew another line 2" above the first, folded over the excess tracing paper, reblended the lines on the sides & sewed the pants back together.

&-- it was a pretty good fit!

DSC00006

DSC00009

now i'm ready to create a muslin out of fabric, using these newly-sized pattern pieces. i'm sure there will be more alterations once i get working with fabric, but hopefully this initial grading took care of the biggest problem.

about the swedish tracing paper- this stuff is great. there's no drape obviously, but the paper is pretty strong. it withstood multiple pulls of basting threads & 2 rounds of sewing.