Saturday, August 9, 2014

Stashbusting: the blue ponte pants




Sometimes I get carried away and buy a length of fabric that I later realize is not what I had hoped. (Am I alone in this?) So it was with two yards of blue ponte knit, poly/rayon blend, bought from Fabric Mart almost three years ago. I had received a swatch in the mail, so I knew exactly how very blue it was, and how poly-blend looking, and yet I tumbled. Why? I cannot answer that question.

The best I could do was to decide finally to get that fabric out from clogging up my stash by making it into something. Using a fabric I do not appreciate, with a pattern that I suspect is not going to be ideal for me, may sound like a thoroughly unrewarding enterprise, and yet there is something about moving that fabric through the pipeline and trying out that unpromising pattern that pleases me and makes me feel more free to move forward with projects I do have high hopes for.

From now on, projects of this type (yeah, this is not the only one) will carry the label "stashbusting."

The pattern is Vogue 8712, Marcy Tilton pants, view C. Nothing wrong with the pattern––it's just something that might look better on a svelter person than I am. On me these pants look a little, um, wide.



This photo shows the color of the fabric better than the ones above, and in fact it's more what the pants look like in real life:



You may be wondering: Must I keep my hands in my pockets at all times while wearing these pants? Why, yes! Yes, I must. I used the remnants of a woven fabric that I had on hand for the contrast pockets, waist facing, fly, etc., just because it was the exact same shade of blue, and it made the edges of the pockets stand out a bit from my hips. Which I can disguise by jamming my hands in my pockets.

This pattern has a fly front, which does not seem strictly necessary with knit fabric, but I went ahead and included it for the practice. It came out just fine. However, I don't get how the waist facing is supposed to interact with the zipper. A couple of reviewers on Pattern Review had mentioned this, but I didn't quite know what they were referring to until I got there. As the instructions are written, the facing would fold down over the top of the zipper. I got around it by folding the facing at an angle above the zipper top, and then using a combination of topstitching and hand slipstitching to keep everything in place. Here's how it looks on the wrong side:



Rear view:




A note on something to do in the northeastern U.S.:

Last weekend after picking our son up from a robotics engineering camp in Connecticut, we made a spontaneous visit to Mystic Seaport. To be honest, I wasn't expecting much: rainy day, tired from driving, have seen other reenactment sites, blah blah. But it was great. If you have any interest in boats, seafaring, New England life in the olden days, go and visit. Don't miss the forge or the printer's shop.

10 comments:

  1. I can definitely relate to this post! I have a few choice pieces in my stash that I was going to reserve for muslins, but I like the idea of trying a pattern that is out of my comfort zone instead. Thanks for the inspiration!

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    1. Yes, give it a try, Maggie! You may find it liberating, as I do.

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  2. I think they look both fun and comfy, and your zip solution is very elegant. I love seeing the inner workings. Your work is beautiful :)

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    1. Thanks, Carolyn. Fun and comfy is the best way to look at it--ideal for around the house.

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  3. I'm with you on using fabric you don't care about on patterns that may not work. It takes the pressure off, so you can get going. I think those pants look really cute and not "wide" at all. Eileen Fisher sells something similar for maybe $150 so think of all the money you "saved"! (This is why I refuse to go on Fabric Mart's website...too tempting!)

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    1. So true, Julie. It feels good to get those less-than-perfect fabric acquisitions out of the stash, plus one gets a test run of the pattern. Wondering how your Martha's Vineyard sewing has gone . . .

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  4. Golly! They are very blue.... It's good to try things that you would not usually do as sometimes you can be pleasantly surprised! The dress in the post below is stunning and suits you very well. The fit looks quite perfect :-) It's a pain when you can't get a needle fine enough to not make those darn holes... But only you will notice this, anyone else who you show the dress to will go "oooh and ahhh" at the pretiness.

    My sewing is going very slowly. We have other things that take our time at the moment. Mainly DIY to the house before Tarquin/Lucretia arrives in December. However I have made a few bibs and will do some burping cloths as well. Have also cut out the pattern for a changing bag. And bought a pattern for some dungarees as I have found a local shop that stocks (seconds) Liberty prints at half price!! I bought some cute couderouy that will work if we have a boy or girl. This weekend I need to do some curtains though; dull sewing, but necessary. Hey-ho.

    Enjoy the sewing! What is next on your easy-summer-sewing-to-do-list?

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    1. I did not know you were pregnant, Claire! Congratulations! That is very exciting. When is your little sweet one due to arrive?

      The pants are not quite as eye-poppingly blue as in those first two photos, but very blue nonetheless. What's up next is a couple of iterations of a woven T-shirt: utterly simple, and very wearable.

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  5. Hi Patricia, I have been looking for this pattern for ages and just cant find it. Marcy Tilton patterns are a little quirky, which I like. Would you be interested in selling the pattern? Thanks

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  6. Hi Patricia, I have been looking for this pattern for ages and just cant find it. Marcy Tilton patterns are a little quirky, which I like. Would you be interested in selling the pattern? Thanks

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