Vogue 1059: a very wearable muslin

As the next piece of my Fall Wardrobe, I plan to make the trouser jeans, using Vogue 1059.

Before I went to all of the trouble of makig rear welt pockets in denim, I wanted to make sure the pattern would be a good fit. I went back and forth - fit muslin vs. "wearable" muslin. I finally decided on a wearable muslin for a couple of reasons, the primary one being that I have had pants that did fine in the 5 minute try on for fit and then didn't wear well throughout the day, so I wanted to really see how this pattern held up over the long haul.

The fabric I used here is a polyester gabardine. It has a bit more drape than my denim, but otherwise is pretty similar in terms of stretch and weight.

In front, there is a tine bit of wrinkling in the upper hip area, but I think that is due to the pockets gaping a little. Crotch whiskers are almost nonexistant, so I'm pretty happy with the shape there. The only changes I made from the basic pattern were to lengthen the crotch seam 1/2 inch both in front and back and to scoop out the curves slightly, about 1/8 inch both front and back.

The side seams fall nice and straight, but you can see my pocket is gaping just a wee bit. The pockets on this pattern are a single piece for the facing and hip piece, so there is no way to extend the facing out to the center front as I typically do to ameliorate the gaposis there. I plan to redraft the pocket bag so that I can do that. It really gives a smoother line in front.

And the rear - y'all, I am so happy with the fit back here! You can't even tell my butt ain't as perky as it used to be! I'm thrilled with how well this fits at the waist as well. I often have to reshape the center back seam to take in the back waist gaposis, but that wasn't a problem in this pattern.

Inside, the facings and pocket bags are made of a polka dot print cotton. The pattern treats this as a true facing for the yoke rather than a waistband, so rather than topstitching it down, I catchstitched the facings to the pockets and seam allowances. It looks very nice in here.

So, other than redrafting the pockets, I am totally excited about sewing up this pattern! The fit is great and they are super comfortable. I'm glad I made these as a wearable muslin too, because I am going to wear the heck out of these!

For those who have been around a while, you may have noticed that my Liz blouse has survived its stint in the Magic Closet. I'm glad I didn't just toss it. With a bit of perspective, I like it pretty darn well.