Summer Sewing 2021: West End Pants

I am so behind on blogging!!  This spring was spent on moving and setting up my new home and sewing space (see previous post for sewing space photos!) The later spring and early summer were spent on getting my knee fixed and sewing some clothes that actually fit and enjoying getting to see people again, even if it only lasted for a little while. I really made a decision to put blogging aside just for a little while. I have a feeling that with this new Delta variant that there will be plenty of time now to catch up on the solitary indoor activities… like blogging!

Earlier this spring I made the decision to do a make nine suduko style SWAP (sewing with a purpose) and these pants were a part of that plan.

Pattern: The Sewing Workshop West End Pants. I started with a muslin, right now there are muslins and/or wearable muslins being made for almost everything due to all the weight loss from last winter. The Sewing Workshop has a variety if sizes with the regular sizing being XS to XXL max hip of 47.5 inches and the Plus size collection goin up to a 5X or max hip of 61 inches. 

The pattern that I have is a paper pattern that only goes up to XXL. I ended up cutting a M or size 14.

Fit Changes:  I made some adjustments to the waist  placement/ shape and I scooped out the back crotch to give me a little more length/room in the back crotch due to my booty shape.

Design Changes: None! Other than those small fit changes mentioned above, I made the pattern as is and I am very happy with it! These are super fun and comfortable wide leg, cropped, elastic waist linen pants and the color is just the best!! 

What I really like about these pants: the elasticized waist is done just right, enough to be comfortable and pull on pants but not too much that it feels overly bulky. I made mine so that the pants just slip over my hips and then gathered in the rest from my hip to waist with a nice wide elastic. They also have pockets!! For me pockets are a must and every time I make a garment that does not have pockets i am mad at myself for not adding them. These pockets are nice and big and they do not gape open. Last but not least, I like my butt fit in them, after i did a little scooping they looked perfect and got rid of the dipping HBLS in the back (Sorry- did not take a picture in the muslin, was just quite in the sewing zone!)

Fabric: The fabric is a Merchant and Mills linen from Oak Fabrics. Excellent weight for pants and a dream to work with. I did wash and dry the fabric twice before I cut into it. Linen just likes to shrink and I like how linen just softens up with washing. Since making these I wash them and damp dry them in the machine and then hang to finish drying. If I do it this way then there is no need for ironing and then they also last much longer. The fabric was a bit on the expensive side but it was well worth it, such an excellent bottom weight, dress weight (no need to line) or a light jacket. 

The pattern was brought to my attention by my roommate from the American Sewing Guild Hong Kong trip that I took in 2018. She wore the West End top and i really liked her version so purchased the pattern when I got back home and finally got around to making it! More on the West End top in a later post.

Construction notes: Nothing special! These are a very straightforward pair of pants with a nice drafted pocket and separate waistband. for the most part pants construction is straightforward, the challenge lies with the fitting. 

The top that I am wearing in these photos is a self drafted t-shirt pattern that I use as my TNT knit master, also a part of my SWAP.

I have worn these pants several times already this summer and I really am loving having them. A lovely bright and fun pair of summer pants and they are highly reflective of me and my personality. I bring that up because I have been trying very hard to be intentional in what i am making and adding to my wardrobe or refashioning to fit my new body shape. There has been a lot of reflecting on how my lifestyle has changed right now due to the ongoing pandemic. As many people i am dressing a little more casually but I refuse to be sloppy! I love color and i love to look nice and I love to create so changing gears a little bit to creating fun and high quality clothing for a more work from home life has been interesting. 

These pants fit right into that plan. I can dress them up or down and I can wear them out for lunch with the ladies or wear them while sewing and walking my little dog, They are quite versatile and i feel good in them. I suppose in the end that is all that counts!!

This is definitely a pants pattern that I will make again. I am thinking another pair in linen or maybe a wool lined pair to wear with tall boots in the fall and spring. They could also easily be lengthened into full length for a very dramatic pair of viscose/rayon fluid pair! So many possibilities:) 

Happy Sewing!!

Below are a couple photos from my pants in action, they worked great for a girls family outing on the Chicago river. 

Summertime Linen Tunic Dress

I am totally blogging things out of order! That’s my prerogative as this is my blog :)

Today I share with you a Tunic Dress that I have made using Blackbird Fabrics Lightweight Washed Linen. This linen is just so lovely and soft and has that lived in wonderful feeling of linen that has been worn and loved. 

 

The base pattern for this dress is the Style Arc Daisy Designer Tunic. Although, I must tell you that I have made MANY alterations to this pattern. There is a long story behind this and it all stems back to my now rescheduled Morocco trip and the fact that I wanted a good base woven tunic top. 

As with the rest of the world so many plans, activities and normal day to day things have drastically changed over the past 5 months that it is sometimes a bit hard to even take stock of it all! I feel like I have come to terms with the changes, for the most part anyway. And like my adjusting of life to the new normal, my sewing plans also had to adjust. Instead of planning, designing and making clothing for events and outings, I have made the slow adjustment to designing, planning and creating clothes that just make me happy and take me down a creative route that I just want to explore.

That’s where this dress comes in. It all started with me playing on the Procreate drawing app on my iPad. I have been playing around with the app and slowly working through a UDEMY course on Procreate. I decided to design a whole bunch of different styles and types of tunics. All based off the basic Daisy Designer Tunic Pattern and sketched over my croqui. I had already made the muslins and made several changes to the pattern to make it fit exactly how I wanted so I knew that now I could take that base pattern and make any changes to it that I want. 

One of those sketches that I made was for this tunic dress. I also used fabric in the sketch that I already have in my collection, this is a great way for me to play and visualize and if I really like the sketch I know I have the fabric at hand.

This is a sleeveless pull on dress with a contrasting rolled collar and hem band. It has a bit of a cocoon shape (also a design element that I have been exploring through sketching for a long time now) and of course pockets.

This was something that I knew I wanted to make immediately! I fell in love :) 

Popping on the original muslin that I made earlier this year of the pattern I did some measuring and decided on length and neckline depth. I traced off a copy of my now Master Tunic pattern and lengthened and reshaped it slightly and drafted the large rolled collar. I constructed the entire dress except for the collar. This I first made out of muslin and basted onto the dress to see how it looked. Once I was happy with it I cut it out of fashion fabric and finished up the dress.

I have been having fun adding in labels from Kylie and The Machine. I have my own labels with Siouxzeegirl Designs woven on them but the Kylie labels are just fun and make me smile when I use them.

This linen is so lovely and lightweight but the deep hem facings give the bottom just enough weight for this dress to hang properly.

The fabric and the cut make this dress a real pleasure to wear and because I designed it off a master pattern the construction was a breeze and I knew the fit would be really darn close to spot on. If this had been a fitted garment then I would have made a new muslin to test but for a wonderfully loose and cool summer dress I decided to forgo the new muslin, except for the collar as described above. 

I also made a matching face mask. I think it is really important for the safety of everyone to be responsible and wear a face mask when outside of the home. It has been proven to be effective and it is such a small inconvenience to help keep everyone safe. It only takes a few minutes to make them so adding matching ones for my garments is easy and fun. I always get lots of thumbs up and fun compliments from strangers when I wear matching masks to my garments.

I still have more ideas sketched out for other garments to make based off this new master pattern. This is actually my third… I haven’t blogged the other 2 yet but you may have seen them on my IG account.

It sure has been fun exploring different ideas and taking my sewing in a different direction that’s what I normally do.

Has the pandemic changed how you sew?

Happy Sewing!!