Sunday, February 2, 2014

StyleArc – Claudia pants

Work deadlines kept me from blogging the past few weeks. Too many hours at the computer already to do more than read the occasional blog post or review from others.
An important deadline was on January 31 and I must say I felt enormously relieved after the deadline was met, my customer was happy and I had a work-free weekend ahead of me.

On Friday night I started (and almost finished) StyleArc’s Claudia pants, intended for a woven stretch fabric.  Having read a lot of positive reviews on the fit of their pants patterns, have a few in my stash but never got round to making them, this was the moment to make this pattern, being too tired to do anything requiring more mental attention. I also need a few basic bottom garments. It’s been ages since I made pants.

The review on Pattern Review is here.

The fabric came from my stash and has a little bit of stretch, not a lot. In the photos below you will see these pants as I will never wear them. They are intended (for me) to be worn with a longer top. For review purposes these are better I think.

A few  wrinkles show in the back, they are different each time and result from the way I stand mainly. Also I’m a little tired of fitting and perhaps over-fitting. I do realize these are stretch pants, there is also the issue of ease of wearing etc. and compared to rtw these are so much better that I can live with it.

What did I change to this pattern? Almost nothing! I did take in an extra centimeter from the front seam at the waist and made one of the back darts a bit deeper. Other than that no changes. Which is better than any other pattern I’ve sewn before. To be sure I added extra width at hip height, but took that off again.

On the inside I serged the waistband on the side as well instead of folding it, reducing the bulk that way.

The top of the darts were trimmed for the same reason.

And the waistband edgestitched before turning and topstitching.

This is an easy pattern to make. StyleArc placed it in the category Medium/Challenging. I can’t see what is challenging about this pattern. Is an invisible zip challenging?

The instructions are a step by step description with a few drawings to clarify. If you’ve average sewing experience you won’t need these instructions, but there is one little thing that might confuse beginners: the drawing below suggests the side seams to be sewn completely, but you have to keep the left side open for the zipper. The written instructions are correct, the drawing isn’t. Very minor detail, but as only beginner sewers will probably use the instructions, the drawings should be correct.

I’ve worn these pants today and they are very, very comfortable. I’ll be sewing one or two more this week! It’s also easy to omit the front seam if you don’t want that. It’s only joining the two pattern pieces at the seam line. For me, after my little change in the waist, that will mean a dart at the front, which I don’t mind.

It’s a very good pattern and I’m definitely one of StyleArc’s fans by now. I wore my Marni and Marie jackets a few times in the past three weeks, this one is a success too.

There’s more to catch up to: Barb pants and the skirt from the fabric I’ve shown in my previous post. To be continued…

 

13 comments:

  1. these look good Sigrid - glad your workload has allowed you to do some sewing.

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  2. These look wonderful on you. You are lucky to be able to sew them up with so few adjustments and they look so good. Since I consider myself a petite clone of you (I imagine you're much taller than me but could be wrong)I may give these a try. We both seem to have the same hip to waist ratio and curves one of the reasons I follow you so closely. The waistband area is beautifully finished. Very nice work, Sigrid!

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  3. Wow! I am really impressed with the fit. I don't think I've ever sewn any pair of pants without a lot of changes. Only models in ads and magazines don't have any wrinkles in the back of skinny pants. Love the boots too.

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  4. What a great fit on these pants. I'll eventually jump on the Style Arc bandwagon. Thanks for sharing.

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  5. Those look like they fit really well and they look very nice on you. A total win!

    I've got a pant pattern ordered from Style Arc and am now even more looking forward to trying it out.

    Glad you have a bit of time for yourself now!

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  6. Nice trousers! I have just bought this pattern so I appreciate the tips. I might have gone ahead and sewn that side seam without thinking! Glad your deadline has passed and the customer was happy, always satisfying!

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  7. I think I'm right in saying that Style Arc are a proud Australian company!! Love your new pants.

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  8. I think these fit very well, so flattering on you! I will have to look at this pattern. I'm glad you now have some leisure time to what you like.

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  9. The pants look good. And comfortable as well, perfect!

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  10. The pants look really great on you! The fit is perfect IMO.
    Hugs

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  11. Fits like a glove really!! Great job!

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  12. I love these pants and all the details you shared. They are very similar to a pair of Burda slacks I made many, many years ago. Wear them in good health and keep up the great work.

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  13. What a great fit you've achieved on these! You definitely should make these up in a couple of colors/fabrics especially since they wore so well!

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