Pedal Pushers

A few weeks ago I took the plunge and bought some 11 oz dark wash denim from Joann.com, and when it arrived, I took one look at it, got scared, and threw the whole package into the closet, still in the plastic wrapping.  (Please tell me I'm not the only one who gets scared of projects).  I was washing some other fabric a day or two ago, and decided I might as well wash the stuff, just in case the urge to cut jeans hits me.  And hit me it did!  I was planning to do full length pants, but the weather has gotten significantly warmer in the last few days, and I realized that pedal pushers would do better for this season.  Any jeans I'd make right now would likely have to sit and wait until fall!  I decided to have a go at Gertie's Butterick pattern, 5895.  I knew the waist wasn't going to be high enough because I'd measured the rise once before, and I'd read reviews that there is a bit too much ease in the bigger sizes, so I decided to adjust the pattern as I went and hope it turned out okay.  I cut an 18, but added enough inches to make the rise 15" on both the back and front (for some reason, I only needed an inch in the back, but almost three in the front--what is up with that??)  I also significantly shortened the length because the finished length was a whooping 33"!!  For pedal pushers!!  That is the industry standard for full length pants.  Plus my legs, as we've discussed previously, are just short.  

I'll say that I really like sewing with denim, but there are a few things I should have done differently with this pattern.  I moved the zip to the side because I prefer that, but with the pocket placement, it ended up having a lot of thickness on the side right at the bottom of the zipper.  So I probably should have left the zip in the center back.  The extra rise worked out okay, and the denim I bought has no spandex in it, so I imagine they will get more comfortable as I wear them.  The sizing is good, although I could have stood to make the back darts a wee bit deeper as there is a small 1/2" gap at the waist in the hollow of my back.  Unfortunately, when I tried the pants on before putting on the waist band, this gap wasn't really that obvious.  And now I can't really fix it without starting over on the waist band.  I also wish the pockets were deeper--the drafted pockets are very shallow--I can't get my whole hand into them comfortably, but at least the pants have pockets!  I left the bottoms unfinished since I knew I'd be rolling them up anyway.  I finished all the seams with zig-zag--it worked great!

About the blouse.  Last summer I got a big fabric haul from my mom and grandma's stash, and I can't remember if this fabric was my mom's or my gram's, but I do have distinct memories of making Barbie clothes with this fabric at some point.  I decided I really wanted to make something with it, but since it was a remnant, and probably about a yard and a half, but not in one continuous go, so I had to get a little creative in cutting it out. I decided to use my hacked Simplicity 1590 pattern, with the square neckline, which went fine, but then I made some dumb mistakes.  

I decided to try and make the sleeves a little more offset from the side seams, but I goofed, and in order to fix it, I had to take a little bit of fabric off the side seams.  Oops.  So this blouse ended up a bit narrower than expected, so I left off the back darts and made the front waist darts very narrow.  I probably could have left them off too.  I also didn't think about the fact that I would need to match the plaid when I did the button placket, so there is a little bit of wonkiness on the front bottom edge as a result.  I finished the bottom with rayon seam binding, and ended up doing flat felled seams on the sides because of my cutting error, and I had to zig-zag every pinked seam edge to keep it from unraveling, so there were some frustrations.  Also, the button placket gave me a few headaches, but it is done now.  I just need to go back and redraw the pattern again, and fix a few things on the original redraft to make the pattern neater and less problem-prone, because I think it basically works.  

Anyway, this blouse is a nice lightweight addition for summer, and I'm quite pleased with the whole outfit!

My husband calls these my Pippi braids