I like Style Arc's design and drafting. They are on my $hit-list for their crap instructions now. I'm not sure I'll be in a hurry to buy more patterns from them and certainly nothing too complex.
1. - The illustration shows a pleat that's just folded out and basted but the instructions say to stitch the pleat.
2. - The way the front is constructed is really bulky and this fabric was *just* barely opaque and had a lot of drape. If I decide to sew this pattern again, I may eliminate the pockets. I could reduce the height so they are caught in the foldover band but not also folded over. However, they are VERY narrow - deep but narrow so I'm not sure how useful they'd be.
3. - Why would you stitch through the elastic?? If I decided to sew it again, I'd just make a casing and keep the gathering to the side front and back. Oh, and my pattern says to use elastic that is 1 1/5" :sideeye: I don't know if they intended 1 1/4" or 1 1/2" but the fold-down waistband is just under 2" so I went with 1.5" elastic.
I've been going back on forth on sloper drafting. I am lazy and not super interested in drafting, but I NEED a sloper for my upper body and of course it would be super helpful for the lower.
Oh, this fabric? atrocious. That's what moved it from garment to wearable muslin. It's a poly suiting from Fabric Mart. I'm not anti-polyester entirely but this stuff just SHRED the moment I cut it.
Anyway, I then decided to go for it by matching the crotch curve of the pattern to my "fishbowl" exactly. (I talked about that here). So I matched the curve of my body to the stitch line of the back pant piece.
(poorly) annotated below so you can see the changes
I lined up my crotch point with the patterns and I would have needed to go SO deep into the pattern and knowing I need more crotch extension and room through the inner thigh, I split the difference and extended the crotch point 1" and scooped/reshaped the crotch curve. As you can see, this takes away a lot of width so I've added back at the side seam.
BUT otherwise... IT WORKED!!!!!! Woohoo!
My addition at the side seam isn't quite right. It's too curvy too soon -- which is obvious now! On my body, the side seam pulls just a bit at the fullest part of my butt (look at the wavy butt lines!). and there's excess fabric up top.
I hadn't pressed my seams because - full muslin at this point
The difference between left and right here is that I have the front rolled over the full width of the elastic. I need to shorten the front rise considerably if I make them again! :-p This is totally my natural stance, unfortunately! LOL!! But the good thing is...no weird fabric collapsing at the back thigh.
I cut out the back pattern piece even though it looked "weird". Remember all that L vs J crotch curve stuff from back in the day?
Well...all that and I went right and cut the front out! Without adjusting it to my fishbowl. DOH!. So the front is way, way too long.
Red - my body vs. black - the pattern crotch curve
What I hadn't noticed is how similar this pattern was to Burda 2/2017. I swear pretty much everything exists as a Burda!!!
Oh well...I got the pattern during a sale and paid about $6 so...maybe I should give them another go since I know what to do. And maybe this time I'll use linen ;-)
Don't forget we're going to be starting our Tops That Pop! challenge as of June 1. See this post for more information! Also, I realized after the fact that I labeled it a summer challenge - really, it's a challenge to make new tops so friends down under, please feel free to sew along and make some new tops for the upcoming winter months!
Currently, there is a Style Arc sale of 20% off (yes, I know, I don't take back my ragging on their instructions but the patterns tend to work out!). Mimi G has pdf patterns on sale for $3. Style Sew Me has select patterns available for $5. I am also in contact with some other Indie pattern brands to see if they're willing to sponsor the challenge and offer discounts on top patterns. More soon!