Garden Update: Better Late Than Never

I finished planting my spring/summer vegetable garden on Saturday, almost a month late. I could have gone to the nursery and bought seedlings to catch up, but I had the seeds already, and I’m not one to spend extra money on basics when I’ve got “good enough” on hand. (Obviously this does not apply to fun items like shoes, books, and fabric – I’m more than willing to spend money on those!)

In spite of the help from these two, I managed to put in five types of squash, two pepper varieties, a couple of herbs, and okra. The okra is the only thing that grows effortlessly here, and it grows so tall and so quickly that I now plant it everywhere to shade the other plants.

The day after I finished the seeding, it started raining, and kept going for almost 24 hours! What a perfect benediction for the seeds.

Soon, though, the season of endless watering and weeding will begin. The only real nuisance weed here is the Bermuda grass, which comes up again and again, sometimes within a day of my pulling it out by the roots. When we moved to this house 14 years ago, the entire yard was covered with green lawns of Bermuda, which had probably been there since the mid-70s. We made several efforts to remove the grass before building the vegetable planters, but Bermuda is persistent. Even when you think you’ve finally got it beat, it always comes back.

I planted around the herbs which were still going strong from last year.

It was exhausting work. This is the scene later that afternoon.

I know we've all had a fairly mild winter this year. Have you started on your spring gardening?

Katrina

Pants Patterns Part 3

Are you sick of pants yet? I so appreciate everyone's comments and suggestions on the last couple of posts. I’m glad I set aside a whole month to work on this, otherwise I would have lost interest in the whole thing and started something else by now.

Good news, though, I think I’m getting very close to my goal of pants that fit.

First, the tapered pants. Last time we saw the black pair that had a saggy butt and were too large overall. It occurred to me that although the pique has no lycra, it may have a small amount of mechanical stretch simply due to the bumpy texture. That could have contributed to some of the bagginess. Anyway, based on the black pair, I made the following changes to the pattern:
• Cut one size smaller from the hips down
• Dropped the waist 1 inch
• Moved the zipper to center back

Here's the second pair, in a heavy twill with no stretch. These are a teensy bit too small.

Nice fit in front

Looks pretty good from the side, except that side seam is all over the place. It needs at least an inch moved from front to back.

Too much stress on zipper makes it gap open.

I can't believe how helpful it is to look at these photos!

I have the third pair cut and waiting to be stitched. It’s a stretch twill this time, with a fraction of an inch added to the side seams. I’m hoping for a Goldilocks ending: this pair will be juuuuuust right.

In the meantime, I’ve also been working on the wide-leg trousers.

Vogue 8718 line drawing

They don't look super-wide, but the bottom width is almost 30". That's pretty big.

The first muslin, out of actual muslin, had my improvised belly bubble, and they fit well enough to move on to heavier fabric. I also tried on several of my RTW trousers and noted that the excess fabric on the back of the legs could be adjusted by pinching the inseam, pulling the back forward. I decided to try it with the pattern, and made this change to it for my first wearable muslin.

This change removes almost an inch from the crotch seam and narrows the back of the pants just below the butt.

I drafted a completely new waistband.

I think someone at Vogue was having a bad day when they designed the pants for 8718. Or, maybe the band is meant to go up on the actual waist, not the low waist. In any case, the curved band works much better for me.

They’re not quite finished and I had to pin the back for photos, but I think they are nearly perfect.

This is a medium-weight "linen-look" poly-rayon suiting. (Now I'm very glad I collected so many miscellaneous pieces of fabric on my thrifting trips.)

Front looks good except for bumpy darts.

Side fits nicely.

(Uh-oh, another gapping zipper?) The back now has vertical folds but no horizontal folds of excess fabric. It would be funny if I actually adjusted it too far and had to add some back!

I am pleased with my progress so far: the month is half over and I have two patterns very nearly refined into potential TNTs. I just need to keep my momentum going so I can have a few more styles to choose from.


I hope you all have a wonderful weekend, and a Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Katrina

Pants Patterns Part 2

I have the first pair of completed pants with my adjusted pattern, and I am perplexed. Even with all the changes I made, the fit appears to be no better and no worse than any pair of RTW in my closet.

This is the pattern, B5614:

I made the full belly adjustment mentioned last week. After reading a few more fit guides, I decided on a fisheye adjustment for the back. The explanation is here. Due to my recent experience, I won’t post a picture of it, but the site is worth a visit.

This is what my pattern looked like after the adjustment: The overlapped areas are supposed to adjust for the fish eye (called that because the amount of material removed is slightly eye-shaped).

I apologize for the awful photo quality of the finished pants. I actually thought it would be better if I used the computer cam, but obviously these are much worse than my usual point and shoot. But I think we can at least see the general outlines from these photos.

Front: It looks like I needed more than the little ½ inch wedge adjustment I made for the full belly. According to most guides, vertical folds “point to fullness”, meaning the fullest part of the body.

Side: Oddly, the front looks like a good fit from this angle, but the back looks much too big. The excess fabric under my flat seat puffs out since it has nowhere to go.

Back: This is the source of my perplexity: the folds of excess fabric are in the exact location of my fisheye adjustment. Did I not remove enough of the pattern in this area, or was it the wrong alteration altogether?

Summary: I’m not disgusted with the pants, as they are a beautiful, comfortable cotton pique, and the fit isn’t any worse than I’m used to. So I will get some wear from them when I’m not using them as a study piece for the next set of adjustments.

What’s next? I think the pattern is slightly too large from the hips down, so I will shave it down one size in the legs, and increase both the belly and seat adjustments. If that doesn’t help I will at least know I’m moving in the wrong direction, and I’ll have to go back to the drawing board.

Any suggestions?

Katrina

Consulting the Croquis

My croquis took form one night when I didn’t feel like sleeping. Hello, miniature Katrina!

Boiling it down to a few lines really helps. The fact that the legs comprise half the figure's height accounts for my life-long struggle to find RTW pants that are long enough.

More importantly, the croquis’ waist is slowly being swallowed up by the rising hip and the sinking bust which are so common among ladies of a certain age.

Compared to the figure illustration in Vogue Pattern Magazine (not a real fit model, I hope, but helpful for illustration purposes), we can see that there are going to be some adjustments required in the chest/bust, the waist, the hip, and pretty much all points between. If I’d remembered to give the croquis a mouth, she would ask for a better-fitting bra, which might counteract the droop and make the waist slightly more visible.

In any case, my little figure has already been a great help in wardrobe planning. She says NO! to high-waisted pants. Here's why:

Remember this incredibly cute pants pattern? I love it!

Here is the line drawing:

Here is the line drawing on the croquis:

Oh, dear. Not good, unless I add underwires and cups to the top of the waistband and call it a jumpsuit.

It’s disappointing that I can’t wear this exact style, but what a relief that I didn’t put in hours of effort to make pants that would look bad.

This style of lower-waisted, wide leg trouser, on the other hand, works well with the figure’s short waist and slight pear shape (as long as she balances it on the top).

To my surprise, my little creation turned out to be well worth the effort. I recommend making yourself a croquis if, like me, you have trouble deciding on styles or visualizing what something will look like on you. (Or if you just want to try things on virtually. It's fun!)

For very good instructions on making a croquis from a photo, go to LladyBird(GIMPshop) or oonaballoona (Photoshop - see comments section). I have trouble following instructions, so I sort of winged it and ended up with the uneven lines, but I know others have made much neater (and more stylish!) versions of themselves.

Have fun!

Katrina