Hello everyone!

As we are now well into the back half of July, and I’m still at the muslin stage of my pants project, I’ve decided to abandon the idea of competing in the Pattern Review Mini-Wardrobe contest.

Ideally, all the muslin work would have been completed before July 1, leaving me to focus just on creating the final garments.  To get the pants pattern to a point where I’m happy with it, I have to do more muslins.  It would be sad to investment enormous time and effort into something that doesn’t fit, just to meet an arbitrary deadline.

And this month has been bad for me in terms of free time, with a big deadline to meet at work. I already have enough stress from job-related deadlines, I don’t need self-imposed deadlines for sewing projects as well.

So out the contest goes.

The Project Expands

That doesn’t mean the project is over. In fact, freed from the contest rule limitations it’s expanding to three pairs of pants and three shirts. Fabric Outlet, as expected, began their 40% off sale and I picked up a cut of the brown twill I had passed over for the platinum grey.  It goes great with the shirt fabrics, and as a side benefit will take this summer wardrobe into the fall months. (September and most of October are traditionally the best “summer” months in San Francisco, because they have less fog and more sun).

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The days grow fewer, but the work to be done on this project seems to grow and grow!

This past week I focused on modifying the pants pattern. Some of the grunt work I did sitting in the living room while watching the drama of the Tour de France unfold on TV.

Measurements

Thread Theory’s instructions for the Jedediah Pants pattern have the following (abridged) table for body measurements:

My waist measures closer to 36, so that’s why I went with the 36 pattern for my first muslin.

On that muslin, I pinned out two inches of waistline and discovered it fits perfectly as a 34.  I measure 39″ at the hips, so my new plan is to start with the size 34 pattern at the waist, then grade to size 32 at the hips all the way down.

Based on my thigh and knee measurements, I could even consider grading down from 32 to 30 beneath the crotch area, but I want to see how this single change from 36 down to 34/32 works before doing more alterations. Continue reading →

My goal was to get out of muslin-land by the time this 4th of July weekend was through. I almost made that goal; while I got a shirt and a pants muslin made, I think there’s at least one more to do.

The Shirt Muslin: Print It

I’m pleased with the alterations to the shirt pattern.

First, I like the look better with the shoulder seam relocated farther back.  Now that I look at the photo, I notice some pull lines across the collarbone area, especially on the left, but wonder if that’s due to the use of pins rather than actual buttons.

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