Monday 28 November 2016

VACC part 4: Thurlow

Yeah, it took me a while, but I got them done eventually.


At the beginning of the year I said I wanted to find my trouser pattern this year, and I pretty much assumed it was going to be this one. The Sewaholic Thurlows are designed for a small waist, larger hips and larger thighs, and they come with a special back extension gizmo to help get the fit right. There didn't seem to be any way this wouldn't work for me. And because of that, I was incredibly nervous about starting them and didn't get round to it until November.


I had never done a front fly zip before and my only previous attempt at welt pockets didn't go very well, so I followed Lladybird's Thurlow sewalong from 2012, which was incredibly helpful. Despite all the various bits and pieces of this pattern, with some in-depth instructions it was actually quite straightforward. I think my nerves probably helped here, because I was too anxious to marathon my way through making something like I usually do and split it over three or four days instead. I left off the belt loops because I have never owned a belt that goes through loops in my life, but I made up everything else as instructed.


I got this material in Fabric Land. It is a super soft suiting and was named "Cods Wallop Herringbone" so I don't see how I was supposed to resist buying any. It was great for a first attempt at these trousers - it behaved exactly as I wanted it to and gave me a finished pair of trousers that are incredibly comfortable to wear. Yay!



WELT POCKETS. Thanks to a super useful tutorial, my second attempt at these has gone from "they may not look like welt pockets, but they look like pockets" to "they may not look like perfect welt pockets, but they look like goddamn welt pockets". For my second ever attempt, I will cheerfully take these.



The front fly had a bunch of steps but was much less difficult than I was anticipating. Much to my surprise I didn't have to redo any of it. It's slightly more visible than it should be in these photos because my hook and bar needs shifting across a bit, but I can and will do that later. I switched out the inside button for a popper - I still haven't done buttonholes because I literally never wear anything with buttons and I wasn't prepared to learn for something that would be completely hidden, or mess up the whole thing at the last minute.


Having the back extension is a small piece of genius. My trousers are always too loose in the waist if they fit through the hips, and on both my Chataigne shorts and my Ultimate Trouser-shorts I had to take a big wedge out of the waistband to get them to fit properly. Having that built in as part of the pattern was amazing, and I don't know why more patterns don't use that. It's possibly my favourite part of the whole thing. This fit is straight out of the envelope with a bit of playing around with that back seam. I am thrilled.


(I'm sorry all my pictures cut the hem of the trousers off. I didn't notice my frame was wrong until I got back inside, and you couldn't have paid me to go back out and reshoot everything. My apologies.)


I consider these trousers one of my biggest accomplishments yet. They're not perfect, but for a year and a half of sewing experience I think they're pretty damn good. They feel very much like work trousers, though, so I'd love to make another pair for daywear, possibly in some kind of tartan. I'm also wondering how easy these are to make style adjustments to - I don't have a huge amount of call for flared-leg trousers in my non-work life, but these fit amazingly well and I'd much rather alter these than buy a different style and make eight million increasingly frustrating toiles. More research required. 


FINALLY.

4 comments:

  1. So here's the part where I move into creeper status on your blog. We were really slow at work yesterday and this morning and I've now read the entire thing up to this point. Well, if I'm being honest, I only skimmed the GBSB recaps. Anyway, you are awesome! It was amazing to see all the sewing and fitting progress you've made in just a short year-ish. I hope you are proud of yourself. Because wow.

    Your writing skills are a joy. I really enjoy reading your words and now I'm going to be sad that I'm caught up. Plus your sense of humor (I'm American, no U for that) is perfect.

    Now, two things I, in my more advanced age/sewing experience, want to share:

    1. It's relatively easy to alter flare pants into non-flare pants. Just don't expect skinnies. And feel free to email me if you want any help. This is why I'm replying to this blog post. I'm also challenging you to not wait a year to try it. Hah.

    2. Every time you've blamed yourself for a pattern problem, know that it probably was the pattern and NOT you. It's only been in the last ~year that anyone who sews primarily indies (and is closer to your age than mine) has been willing to say anything negative in any way about any of them, even if it's fair and well-deserved. This has done newb sewers a disservice in ways I'm sure you already know. It's another reason I'm loving your blog - you don't sugar-coat.

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    Replies
    1. You know, I've had a really horrendous day today and reading your comment has cheered me right up! Thank you so much. I now feel fully encouraged to start my winter coat experiment!

      I have bought fabric for a second pair of Thurlows and will be having a go at making some with narrower legs within the next couple of months (though I won't be making skinnies - those almost always look very strange on me). I may well take you up on your offer!

      The indie pattern thing is kind of fascinating. I've been following the Colette Rue debacle with interest and remembering the amount of reading between the lines I had to do last year to work out that the Dahlia pattern (which I really wanted) was terrible and didn't fit any actual humans. Honest reviews have done me so much good and I wanted to write the kind of posts I'd want to read, but it's definitely not encouraged among sewing bloggers. I was genuinely worried about my Seamwork post.

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    2. Sorry to read you've had a crap day but glad to see you cheered up a bit. I'm kind of a Scrooge so the holidays aren't my favorite time of year, but I've gotten better and hey ... in less than a week, they'll be over.

      Here's more encouragement to start that coat project! Did you find a new pattern? I think I remember you bought the Quart or Clare (or something that sounds like those names). I can't offer too much help on coat specific sewing since I live in Florida and it's still freakin' 80F degrees here right now (26C). Coat sewing would be so much of a waste of time for me, but I am sometimes jealous of sustained coat wearing weather. Sometimes.

      Speaking of Florida, how in the world does a palm tree actually survive in your garden? But how cool. I never thought of palms in London (and I've actually been to London!).

      Back from the tangent ... I wonder if you could find a style very similar to the Dahlia from Bootstrap (and for 1/4 of the price!)? I'm still slow at work so maybe I'll go have a look too. Or is that too much? I'm bored, not stalking. I swear.

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    3. I think I'm going for the Waffle Patterns Pepernoot coat. It's amazing how hard it was to find a zip-up coat with a hood that wasn't an anorak. I did buy the Clare last year, but London has been doing this thing where it's drizzling enough to be annoying but not quite enough to warrant an umbrella, so I need a pattern with a hood. Next step: finding coat fabric that doesn't cost an absolute fortune.

      We have no idea how the palm tree survives, but it's quite happy and seems to basically take care of itself. Possibly it's a species that really likes shade?

      I've found something vaguely similar to the Dahlia in Vogue 8685 - it's for a knit rather than a woven, but it has the bust tucks and waistband and raglan sleeves (a two piece raglan sleeve at that, so it doesn't have the stupid fitting issues Colette has) and I really like my trial version, which I'll post about once the Christmas holidays are over. I totally understand the boredom, don't worry - my last job was similar and I managed to read through hundreds of blog posts and forum pages trying to pass the time!

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