I spent a lot of hours (and yards of fabric) sewing pants last year and at the end of all that work I had one semi-wearable pair of pants. I have to be honest though: since then, they have spent a lot of time in my closet, and not a lot of time on my body. They are not the pants I reach for. The vintage pattern I used was for non-stretch wovens, so the are stretch-free and not as comfortable as my ready to wear pants. Overall, I was proud to have made wearable pants, but knew I could do better.
Enter: Gertie\’s pants pattern for Butterick. This isn\’t a new pattern; I bought it when it came out a few years ago. I\’m definitely less precious with my new patterns–I cut them up and everything. Sorry, sewers a half-century from now! This pair was a trial but I think they look pretty good though! These might be a little tight for some people, but this is how I like to wear my pants–I usually wear them with boxier tops to balance it out.
I eliminated the pockets and moved the zip to the side to match my vintage patterns. I also did a lapped zipper, and lengthened them to be more of an ankle length. I would like them to be long enough to wear with boots, and we can wear \”crop pants\” but not \”capris\” at work. yayyy dress codessss
Things I really liked about this pattern:
- The fit was really good for me. My only modification so far was to scoop out the front curve. I have never said the word \”cameltoe\” in my life until the past week when I said it about 50 times. (The things sewists talk about, y\’all. Honestly!) The good fit is probably mostly due to negative ease, however, I can\’t give stretchy fabric all the credit since I know Colette\’s Clovers are stretch and people hate fitting them.
Problems with this pattern:
- What kind of pants pattern tells you to use either stretch or non-stretch fabrics??? This seems crazy to me. They are totally different.
- Do not go by body measurements! Especially since they say you can use stretch or non-stretch wovens, you should definitely go by completed garment measurements. I already complained about this on facebook and twitter but my measurements put me in a 14, and I made an 8. An eight. If I made it with non-stretch fabric, I would make a 12 maybe.
Those look very sharp. I made a pair of these for my daughter and had the same sizing issue. Thankfully I read all the reviews before making them and ignored the sizing they give. Glad you found a pair you like- too bad about those claw holes! :/
I've Mage gerties trousers and thought it was a good pattern, haven't got it completely right though. Yours look great and the puppy …. Gorgeous.
Awesome! I've been tackling pants lately too. I'm almost there, but the last pair I made ended up shorter than I intended due to alterations haha but they're still nice. I got the pattern from a Burda magazine at my city library (so amazing that the stock them!). I've found that finding the right fabric has soooo much to do with getting them to fit nicely!
Once you figure out sizing, simple pants like these are pretty quick to sew up and they don't eat up that much fabric, so I'm not too terribly sad about the loss. It's good to know they fit and I could always \”distress\” them, I suppose!
He steals the spotlight, doesn't he? My husband suggested I sew a bunch of little neckerchiefs and then just post lots of pictures of the puppy!
I'm super jealous that your library stocks Burdas!!! What a great resource. I'm a librarian so I'm happy to hear about people using the library in unique ways 🙂 Unfortunately, our periodicals budget drops year after year or else I would be lobbying for Burdas hardcore!