WIP: Pants Muslin

I first made these pants in the early days of my blog. You can see my first version here, The pattern is Vogue 1986 by designer Isaac Mizrahi. It’s from Vogue’s Attitudes collection of sewing patterns. The pattern is circa 1997. Is that old enough for a pattern to be called vintage? I’m gonna say yes and call it that. There are no designated Views for any of the pieces, which is somewhat unusual. The pattern is a pantsuit (pants and jacket), and also includes a dress, both of which I’ve never yet made.

I decided to make these again. I wanted to sew a summer pantsuit, and I thought these pants would look good in an ensemble.

I had to alter the pattern. I’m not the same size as when I first made these, so changes had to be made. Luckily the pattern only consists of 3 pieces. I graded the pattern up to size 20 and made a full seat adjustment. Then I made a muslin to check the fit. It fits well, yet I thought the fit of the back wasn’t quite as good as it could be:

I then realized that I hadn’t trued the pattern after altering it., which would effect the fit. I also realized that the pants were too long, so it was back to the drawing board, literally:

I made 4 adjustments to the pants back after the muslin fitting:

1. trued the crotch seam line
2. trued the side seam line
3. used the misses petite adjustment offered on the pattern, which is above the knee, and
4. used the length adjustment offered on the pattern at approx 5″ (12.7 cm) above the hem.

I also made adjustments #s 3 & 4 to the front of the pants, for equal length on both pieces.

I think that should do it – I’m not making another muslin, just gonna wing it. I feel confident that the fit will be improved with the recent changes. I know this because I pinned the length changes to the muslin and saw how the changes would look. Obviously I couldn’t see the changes made by the trued lines, but I think the fit will be better. Here’s the look of the pants from the front, before the length changes described above:

I’m now going to go ahead and make the pants, Here’s the fabric I bought to make them up in:

This is 100% linen and was bought from Mood Fabrics. It was love at first sight when I saw it, and I’m so glad I bought it when I did, because it’s now out of stock.

Well, that’s what I’ve been up to, and I’ll be busy using this beautiful fabric to make my summer pantsuit.

Thanks for stopping by 🙂