Sewing School 2: Couture pants

Thursday's Pant with Couture Fit session was not what I expected at all. In fact, I am not really sure what I expected. Essentially, the session was a seminar on making a sloper, which I did last summer.

First off, I should say that Connie Crawford is a proponent of taking industry best practices and applying them to home sewing. I like this approach. Some of the things she pointed out about commercial patterns and home sewing techniques are things I have noticed myself. Why make something that looks homespun? I want the things I make to look polished and high-end. So, philosophically, I like her brand of sewing.

However, I probably would have had a very different experience with the class if I wasn't such a hand-raiser. When Connie asked for a volunteer to use as a model for a sloper, my hand shot into the air. I was chosen. So, now I have a brand new sloper, made by a professional!!!

Sloper for yours truly by an industry expert.

I couldn't understand why more people didn't volunteer. Then I understood all too well. It was not just the making of the sloper that I volunteered for; it was Connie's running commentary on my figure and its uniqueness (read flaws). It really was enlightening. And horrifying. Definitely a bit nightmarish. Imagine your figure being discussed as an "example" for a whole class and having parts of your body being pointed out as flaws. (sigh. one word: jodhpurs) But I walked away with a clear sense of what my body is and is not. I though that I had a short crotch. Nope. Turns out I didn't really know where my waist is, and I have a high waist and long crotch. And my waist slopes. My problem, it would seem, is not about crotch length, it is about where I like my pants to sit.

That said, I now have a big dilemma: I don't know what to do with this information. Do I scrap my plans to make more Simplicity Amazing fit pants now that I have been clued in to many of the problems in pattern company designs? Should I make a muslin from the sloper instead and work on pants from that design? I've invested time in both potential projects at this point and this was supposed to be my weekend to work on pants.

But while I stew about this, I decided to make myself a summer top from this Butterick pattern in the white eyelet that I bought from Kashi at Metro Textiles.

Now that I know that I have a longer torso and I like my waist to be lower than it is, I went ahead and traced and cut out the pattern, lengthening it by 2 inches. I pinned the pattern pieces together to check the fit and then cut the fabric yesterday. I'll sew this afternoon.