Sewing jeans: Muslin 3

Before I show you what muslin 3 looks like I first want to show how I adapted muslin 2 into muslin 2.1 to determine how to change the pattern.

I started with a very simple alteration. Muslin 2 showed a lot of fabric being pulled into the crotch indicating the crotch length was not long enough. The trousers were also very tight across my thighs indicating I needed some more room there. I solved both issues by doing what “The Perfect Fit” one of the fitting books I own, calls a full thigh adjustment. The pattern is extended both at the side- and inseam which lengthens the crotch seam and increases thigh circumference. The red lines in the schematic below indicate how I re-sewed the seams in muslin 2 and changed the pattern for muslin 3. I also removed the gaping I had at the yoke.

These 2 changes already made a huge difference to the fit as you can see below.

Notice how the straight of grain lines have become much straighter and more horizontal.

 

Wrinkles at the knee have disappeared. Straight of grain lines are straighter and more horizontal. Yoke lies nicely against my back. It no longer looks like I am about to burst out of these.

Wrinkles at the knee have mostly disappeared. Side seam has become straighter. There appears to be less strain on the fabic on my butt.

After I changed this I noticed I could remove some of the wrinkles I still had at the front by pinning out 2 darts. I made this alteration in the pattern by slicing the pattern open and overlapping the edges to simulate the dart I had pinned out. This does not change the side seam.

At the back I thought I probably still needed to add some more length to the crotch seam so I sliced the muslin open horizontally and inserted some fabric. This did seem to improve the fit at the back and the muslin became more comfortable to wear so I made this alteration in the pattern as well. This is done by slicing the pattern open and creating a hinge point at the side seam. You can then add a wedge to the pattern by sliding the center back upwards. The side seam does not change.

After I had made all these changes I decided it was time to make muslin 3 to check whether the changes I made on the pattern were correct. Unfortunately I ran out of muslin fabric (why did I ever think 3 meters would be enough???) and had to use something a bit lighter weight than ideal but I didn’t want to wait until I had the opportunity to get some new fabric. The fit is still not perfect but I think you’ll agree this is definitely an improvement over where I started with muslin 2!

Still not 100% happy with the crotch, but overall I don’t think this looks too bad. Side seam at the thigh is perhaps still a bit too much to the front.

 

I still need to add more lenght to the back crotch seam because fabric is still being pulled in. My alterations at center back caused the center back seam to be a bit strangely shaped and it sticks out so I’ll need to reshape it.

Side seam still not completely straight. Center back seam sticks out.

How many muslins do you think I’ll end up making before I dare cut into my denim?

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Sewing jeans: Muslin 2

If you are now wondering whether you missed a post about muslin 1. You didn’t. I had originally planned to blog the whole fitting process but muslin 1 was unfortunately not suitable for public display due to indecent exposure of underwear.

I am attempting to sew myself a pair of well-fitting jeans. I’ve wanted to do so for years because I am never completely happy with the fit of RTW jeans, yet jeans are what I wear most days. In summer I am a jeans and t-shirt girl, the rest of the year I’m a jeans, t-shirt and cardigan girl. With my RTW fast the need to finally make these self-made jeans happen is getting more urgent. Sewbusylizzy organised a Jeans in June and July challenge and this was the final push I needed to get started. Not sure whether I’ll actually manage to finish an actual pair in July since August is already looming on the horizon and I have to work all remaining July days except for today but if I finish the muslin process in July I’m happy (and if not, I’m probably still happy).

I already had a pair of jeans stashed away that I had started copying using the method from Kenneth D. Kings Craftsy class. I started that project ages ago but got distracted and was also a bit scared to continue because my first ever attempt at trousers years ago failed horribly and caused a bit of a trauma.

copying jeans

The original jeans were copied by thread tracing the seams and straight of grain lines and then transferring these markings to silk organza. If you want to get a better idea of how this method works have a look at this post by Cindy from cationdesigns, she posted about this process in more detail earlier this week. The pattern was then transferred from silk organza onto Swedish tracing paper (my favourite type of tracing paper ever). The pattern was trued (which means making sure that all seams have the correct shape and that seams that are supposed to match up, do in fact match up) and I made a muslin. I made my muslin using regular muslin fabric without stretch, because this is what Angela Wolff recommends even if your fashion fabric contains lycra. I’m really hoping this will work out ok when I do sew my final pair in denim that contains some lycra and is, therefore, somewhat stretchy…

Anyway, as you may have guessed after reading the first paragraph of this post, they did not fit. In fact, they were super tight and couldn’t close (to be honest the original jeans are also a bit on the tight side). I made 3 changes to the pattern. 1. An adjustment for full inner thighs. 2. More room at center back. 3. More room at side seam of back. I probably could have tried to change more but worried that it would get so messy that transferring my changes to the pattern would become a nightmare.

After making these changes to the pattern I made muslin 2 from the same muslin fabric hoping I would now have something approaching wearable. Note that this muslin does not yet have a waistband. I’ve used waxed tracing paper to indicate the straight of grain lines. I’ve also added some horizontal lines that help to diagnose fit issues. These are definitely not the most flattering pictures I have ever posted of myself but I think I am now at a point that it seems likely I can get to a fitting pair at some point. Remember, it’s always the garment that is causing the horrible fit, your body is just fine! After all, I can change the garment to adjust for my shape but I can hardly adjust my shape to fit the garment. Well, I suppose I could get a surgeon to shave some flesh of my thighs but that doesn’t really seem like a workable approach to use for each new garment I want to make…

Do you notice how the fabric is pulled into the crotch causing distortions?

Again fabric is pulled into the crotch. It’s also pulled towards the sides. I will also need to change the placement of the back pockets at the end of the process to make sure they end up more centered.

Eventually the side seam should end up perpendicular to the floor. Right now there is too much strain because fabric is being pulled to areas where there isn’t enough fabric causing a wave-like shape

Obviously they are still too tight but at least I can close them now. I believe most of the issues are caused by a too short crotch length that is causing the fabric to be pulled into the crotch both at the front and back. I think I will also need to add some more room in the thigh area as they are still very tight. My previous adjustments at center back now causes some gaping at the yoke (something I nearly always get in RTW jeans) so I’ll fix that too.

Do you have any other suggestions for adjustments that I could make to get a better fit?

I made a clapper

This post is completely sewing related yet doesn’t contain any actual sewing. I ventured into woodworking and made myself a clapper! Perhaps you now wonder what a clapper is? It is a wooden pressing tool. It is used to give seams or folds an additional press immediately after pressing with a steam iron. This helps to make things even flatter. It is apparently very useful for sewing jeans because all those layers of denim can get quite thick and the flatter you get a seam before topstitching the easier it will be.

Some of the tools and supplies I used, I forgot to add the drill and screwdriver. The orange plastic thingy is used for spacing drilling holes.

I looked around for clappers but couldn’t find any in the Netherlands (I am not even sure what it is called in Dutch, so that probably didn’t help my search) and buying one abroad would probably cost me at least €30-40 including shipping. That is just too much for something that is in essence a simple block of hardwood. I figured I would make one myself and went to a hardware store.

Check out how similar those 2 pieces are in size!

My first idea was to buy a piece of hardwood and shape that into a clapper. That would probably have worked well and I still think this is the easiest option if you would like to make a clapper yourself. However, they only sold really long pieces and to get one the width and thickness I wanted I would have had to spend €30+ euro on a single piece of wood of which I would only use maybe a tenth, which seemed a bit of a waste (and not really cheaper than buying a ready made clapper). I also didn’t really see myself getting home safely on my bike while carrying a more than 2 meter long piece of quite heavy wood.

I put a piece of laminate flooring underneath the door sill piece because I didn’t want to drill into the tiles.

So, I wandered a bit around the store looking for other items that I could potentially convert into a clapper. I found some solid beech wood door sills. Beech wood is hardwood but I’m not sure whether this is the best option for a clapper. Anyway, I was willing to give it a try, and at just over €5 it seemed a much better option than the ridiculously long piece of wood. A door sill isn’t really thick though so I decided to use two layers, glue those together and add a drawer handle on top that I could use to press my clapper down on my seams.

I learned from my dad that you can’t really start a project like this without first buying some new tools so I bought a wood saw. I needed to cut down my door sill into smaller pieces after all and for some strange reason we did own a metal saw but not a wood saw. I also considered getting a workmate but sadly couldn’t fit one on my bike… Some wood glue and fine grit sandpaper completed my purchases.

I put the piece of laminate flooring underneath and vinyl flooring on top to prevent indentations in the wood from the G-clamp.

I first sawed two pieces from the door sill. I was quite amazed at how straight and equally sized my two pieces ended up. I then drilled two holes into one of the pieces for the handle that would be large enough to fit the screws. Then I sanded both pieces first with 80, then 120, 240 and finally 320 grit sandpaper. Especially the sides needed to become a lot smoother after sawing. The handle was put in place with a screwdriver, and the holes were almost perfect! I got a little excited at this point. The wood glue was put on one of the pieces and the two pieces were held together with a G-clamp. I only used one because I could only find one (perhaps we only have one?) but two would probably have been better.

After successfully completing this project I am feeling competent on a whole new level. Perhaps I should take a woodworking course and learn how to make dovetails next?

Does a project like this scare you or are you quite handy with saws and power tools?

Pressing buddies, will they get me flatter seams in the future?

Completed: Shopping bag

My brain has been a little fried this week due to working too much and sleep deprivation caused by mosquitos in our bedroom (ok, and working at 2 am one night but that was for a good cause). I wanted to work on a simple project and decided to tackle something I’ve been thinking about for a while now.

I used to have a shopping bag that I could attach to my bike. Sadly it got a large tear in one of the sides when I, one time too many, overloaded it. I missed using it. It made grocery shopping a lot more enjoyable because I didn’t have to carry a heavy backpack on the way home but could simply click the bag onto my bike instead. The clips of this bag still looked pretty good so the thought occurred to me that perhaps I could salvage these and use them to make myself a new shopping bag.

If you now think that this doesn’t really sound like a simple project you should take into account that I have been making bags for ages and to me they’re just a couple of rectangles and straight lines of stitches with a little bit of easy maths involved to get the proportions right. Also, if your stitching is off by a couple of millimetres that’s usually not a big deal when you’re making a bag. In garment sewing a dart that is off by a couple of millimetres can already look really weird. I intended to match the pattern at the seams on the outside of this bag but it didn’t really work out that way and I don’t really care because it’s just a shopping bag.

I started by taking the old bag apart (I can’t find the pictures that I thought I had taken before deconstruction) and it turned out the clips are attached to a large firm plate that was sewn to the back of the bag. There was absolutely no way I was going to use my sewing machine to stitch it in place in my new bag. Really, it feels like plastic and I think you’d need a really sturdy industrial machine to make that work. Fortunately, the old stitching had left holes so I used those to attach the plate to the new bag with a running stitch (after I had made a couple of buttonholes to fit the clips through).

For the outside I used a piece of upholstery fabric I’ve had for years. I’m really curious whether someone has actually used this fabric to upholster their couch. Originally I had bought it to make a bag as well but thought it was probably a bit too much when I got home and only used a small piece to add an accent to that bag. Leaving me with a huge piece of left-over fabric that took up a lot of space. I already considered getting rid of it at some point because I couldn’t see what I would ever use it for. After making this bag I still have a huge piece left…

The top of the bag was made with black canvas left over from this bag. For the lining I used black Kona cotton and two fat quarters from Jane Sassaman’s Wild Child collection for Free Spirit. If I had had enough black fabric I’d probably have used only black for the lining but I think the print is a nice surprise when you open the bag. Everything was interfaced with a fusible woven interfacing.

I used a separating zipper for the top because I thought that would be easier during the construction and turned it into a non-separating one by adding a fabric tab at the end. The fabric tab actually caused me the most trouble. My first attempt at a different shape didn’t work at all. My second attempt was sewn wrong sides together and I didn’t even notice this until after I had trimmed the seams and tried to turn it right side out and surprisingly was met by the interfaced side… Luckily the third attempt worked out fine.

The bottom of the bag contains a gridded bag bottom that is held in place by four metal bag feet and some hand stitches across the bottom seam. The plate that was already sewn in at the start did make the construction more difficult because it made the bag less flexible than it otherwise would have been. When I was trying to manoeuvre the bag so I could top stitch the top edge by machine I quickly realised that this really wasn’t going to work and used a hand sewn running stitch instead.

Bag bottom before it was attached.

I am really happy with my new bag, although I still need to actually use it to transport groceries. It already wins from my old bag in the looks department and I only used materials I already had on hand, which means I saved at least 20-30 euros that I might otherwise have spent on a new bag.

Sewing tip: Threading hand sewing needles

A lot of people really dislike hand sewing and I think this is often due to needle threading issues. If you have to spend 10 minutes each time trying to poke a thread end through a tiny hole it can get really frustrating. It doesn’t have to be though. I thread most of my needles on my first attempt without the use of any aids (but I’ll get to threading aids later on!).

One very important “rule” in hand sewing is that you shouldn’t use a long thread. I know it can be really tempting to just cut a meter of thread (I’ve been there too) because it will last for ages and it reduces the number of times you need to thread that needle right? It will also make the sewing part that more frustrating because each time you pull the needle through the fabric you’ll have to do some sort of gymnastics trying to pull the entire length of thread through as well. On top of that a long thread will knot much easier and you’ll spend ages untangling threadnests. So, how long should your thread ideally be? About the length of your forearm. If you sew with double thread, cut it about twice that length so it becomes that length once it is doubled up. It is also important that you choose a needle with an eye that is large enough to fit your thread easily but that is not so large that it slips out easily.

Threading by hand

Make sure the thread end doesn’t fray, if it does trim it before attempting any threading. Most people will try to push the thread through the needle, it is, however, much easier to slide the needle over the thread instead. I am right handed and, therefore, can execute fine movements much better with my right than with my left hand. When I thread a needle I hold the thread steady in my left hand with only a tiny piece of the thread end poking out from between my fingers. I will hold the needle in my right hand and slowly move the needle towards the thread. This way I find it very easy to exactly manoeuvre the eye of the needle over the thread. Once a small part of the thread has made it through the eye it is easy to pull the rest through.

Some people run their thread through beeswax. This supposedly reduces the chance that the thread tangles during sewing. I don’t have beeswax and I’ve never tried it so I don’t have an opinion on it. I do, however, always run the thread through my fingers a couple of times before I start sewing (after threading the needle). This reduces any tension in the thread caused by having been wound on a spool and I really do find that I get knots less often than I used to before I started using this trick.

Threading aids

If you keep on struggling with threading needles, for example because your eyesight isn’t what it used to be or the light in the room you’re working in isn’t very good you can buy needle threading aids that help make the job easier. I’ve got two different ones in my possession.

The first is the most basic one. It has a small metal handle with a thin wire extension that forms a loop. The wire is pushed through the eye of the needle; because it is quite firm this is much easier than pushing a thread through. The wire basically enlarges the eye of the needle. You put the thread through the wire loop and pull on the handle. This threads the needle. The most important drawback of this tool is that I tend to break them quite soon.

The second is more like a little machine. I believe I’ve had mine for over 20 years and I used it very often when I was a child. It says Witch on one side and the other side calls it a needle threader and says it was produced in Western Germany. So yes, it is quite old… It looks deceptively similar to what Prym nowadays sells as a needle fairy.

The needle is inserted with the eye facing down into a shank. The thread is draped over the machine behind the shank. Pushing a little handle pokes a small metal part through the shank and this pushes the thread through the eye of the needle. When you pull the needle out it is threaded. Drawbacks are that some of my needles are too wide to fit into the shank and that the eye of some of my needles is too small for the pokey thing to fit through. It will work just fine for most needles though.

Do you find threading hand needles a chore or do you never have much issues with it?