Vogue 1059 - third time's a charm

I'm not usually one to remake patterns multiple times. I love the idea of a perfectly fit TNT, but I crave variety and so despite my best intentions, I always reach for the new and shiny. But I think I can finally call these pants an honest to goodness TNT for me.

The pattern is Vogue 1059, and this is my third make. The first two are here and here. Both of those pairs are in such frequent rotation in my wardrobe that I knew I needed a third. This time, I pulled out all the stops.

The fabric is a lovely lightweight wool blend from Trim Fabric. I wanted these to have a sleek line, so I moved the zipper to the side - invisible, of course. After sewing up the side seams (which I saved for the last so that I could insert the zip through the yoke) I tried them on, and ugh. I couldn't zip them! Seriously!! This is my third make!! I think that I must have trimmed too aggressively when I was serging the side seams. That and the fact that this fabric is non-stretch (which the first two were) combined to almost kill these pants. I Persevered though, and ripped out my perfect zipper so that I could resew the side seams with a smaller seam allowance. Whew. They are perfect.

I also fully lined them with Bemberg rayon. Oh, how I love a lined pant! You just can't get more luxe than sliding into a fully lined pant. The lining also nicely conceals all of the pocketing and flappy bits from the back welt pockets.

I wore my new pants with my burdastyle turtleneck and a new shrug that I haven't told you about yet. It is totally fabulous, but it deserves it's own post, so stay tuned. In the meantime, I am so pleased to have that holy grail for we sewists, the TNT pant pattern. That said, I think after three pairs, I'm ready for something shiny.

Vogue 1059 jeans

Jeans are such a wardrobe staple for me in Fall and Winter, and while I still find skinny jeans fun and I'll continue to wear them while they are still in, I'm ready to head back to my old favorite - wide legs and flares.

I've also really wanted a pair of trouser jeans for the longest time. I tried some on once at Express (their pants draft is wretched on me), and I loved them so much, except for the extremely poor fit. But I've always remembered them - dark denim, welt pockets and minimal topstitching. They were gorgeous.

So between me and Vogue 1059, we made some. And I love them. I did make some changes from the last time I made this pattern. Clearly, the most critical change was to use a lightweight stretch denim instead of suiting. I also redrafted the front pocket facings and bag so that the facing extends to center front and is captured in the fly construction. I did this one these jeans, and I love the way it stabilizes the pockets and provided a little tummy control.

I did the welt pockets on these. I made a few alterations to these as well. The pattern calls for a double welt, but a single welt is my personal preference. I used this tutorial, and I thought it was great.

I flew by the seat of my pants and did the pockets without any practice runs. I was lucky they both look awesome. And poppykettle's tutorial is fabulous. That helped a lot!! I also lengthened the pocket bag by 2 inches. As drafted it was insanely small. Like, my phone didn't even fit in there. The front pockets are drafted quite short as well, and I lengthened those about an inch and a half. Now I can fit my whole hand in.

I also hemmed them to be really long. I didn't lengthen the pattern any, but the hem allowance is 1 1/4 inches, and I only took a 1/2 inch hem. I wanted to be able to wear them with my tallest heels and still have them brush the ground. I also only prewashed this denim once, so if it shrinks any more, I have a little insurance.

I wore them today with my tie neck blouse, and I think with the blouse tucked in, they have a fun 40s vibe. I was hoping to get them done in time to wear to sewing summit, and I managed it! Of course, now I think I need to make a Meringue skirt to wear to the class I'm taking with Sarai...

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.