Pattern Review: Colette Clover Pants

*  I wrote most of this review prior to wearing the pants.  I've put my addendum first, because it explains the photos.

Sometimes you just can't anticipate the way a fabric will behave. I knew that my fabric was a little stretchier than I needed for these pants, and truthfully, I expected a little bagging in the seat and at the knees by the end of the day. However, the fabric had started to stretch by the time I got to work. The photos were taken on my lunch break, approximately 4 hours into the wearing of the pants. These pants did NOT fit like that when I left the house, especially the crotch area.


Overall, despite the somewhat disappointing photos, I'm going to declare these pants a fabric failure, not a pattern failure. And because I do like the pants generally (and because even with some sag the butt doesn't look too bad), I'm going to take in the inside leg seam and the center/crotch/seat seam and see what happens. Next time I'll start out with pants that are too tight which will relax into a nice fit by mid-morning. And I'll know better for the next pair. (There will still be a next pair).

Pattern Description: Beautifully simple slim pants that will go with practically anything! These pants close with a side zipper for a streamlined look and easy sewing. Version 1 is ankle length, with small in-seam pockets set into the waistband. Version 2 is cropped just below mid-calf.

The pattern is meant for bottom-weight fabrics with some stretch. 

Pattern Sizing:  0-18.  I made approximately a 10, with some adjustments where I deviated from the standard measurements.

Did it look like the photo/drawing on the pattern envelope once you were done sewing with it? The line drawing on the envelope is very basic, but I'd say I got a close resemblance.  Mine are longer, because I didn't want ankle-length pants.  Isn't that why we sew?

Were the instructions easy to follow? Absolutely.  More on that below.

What did you particularly like or dislike about the pattern?  I tend to like side zip pants better than fly front. Which is annoying, because from making jeans for myself and shorts for Mario, I can actually do a decent fly front these days.  But outside of jeans, I don't find fly-front pants all that flattering on me; I wear a lot of knit tops and I like the smoother line of a side zip, instead of the bunchiness of a zipper under the knit.

And I have a go-to Burda side zip pant that I've been making since 2007, but when Colette announced their new fall patterns I decided to give their pants a try - it never hurts to check out a new twist on an old favorite.  My Burda pants are darted, front and back, with a facing but no waistband; Colette's pants have a waistband and inseam pockets.  Since the waistband is more like a narrow yoke than a classic waistband, I thought it might work well on my lack-of-defined-waist.

As an aside, I thought the little pockets set in the seam between the pants and waistband were cute.  They'll never be seen, since most of my tops will cover them, but I know they're there. 

Fabric Used:  Tan stretch twill (very stretchy stretch twill).  Leftover Liberty lawn for the pockets. 

Pattern alterations or any design changes you made:  When I make a pattern for the first time, unless I find something ridiculously wrong (or in the case of Burda, unintelligible) in the instructions, I try to follow the pattern's order of construction. I assume there's a reason for what they do, and the order in which they do it.

So when I made my Clover pants (without having made a muslin, of course, because I couldn't find a fabric for the muslin with a similar stretch), I followed their instructions. I have to say that their instructions are some of the clearest I've ever come across and the illustrations are very well done. If I'd had to depend on Burda to explain how to do those little waistband pockets, I'd have pants without pockets.

That being said, next time I think I will change the order of construction just a bit, because even when I get a pattern altered to fit me, depending on the vagaries of the particular fabric I'm using, there might be tweaking involved.

Colette's order: sew fronts to backs at inside leg seam, then sew center seam from front to back. After that, sew up your outside seams (completely on the right, to the zipper point on the left. Construct the waistband side seams and sew outer waistband to mostly-completed pants. Sew the pockets together. Insert invisible zipper in already mostly-completed pants. Then add facing waistband and do all the neat and tidy stuff.

How I'll do it next time: sew fronts to backs at inside leg seam, then sew center seam from front to back. Sew the outer waistbands to fronts and backs, sewing pockets. Pin fit to make sure nothing has gone wrong, then insert invisible zipper and finish rest of left leg seam. Baste right leg seam to check fit, tweak, then finish. Add facing waistband and neaten.

There's nothing wrong with the Colette instructions, and I think I got a pretty good result, but since every fabric is going to behave at least somewhat differently - the stretch twill I'm using seems to be almost part bubblegum it was so stretchy - I like having the option of tweaking in multiple places throughout the construction process.

Would you sew it again? Would you recommend it to others? I think these are in the running to join my Burda pants in the TNT pile.  There weren't many kinks to work out in this first pair, so I'd definitely try them again. 

Conclusion:  A good basic pattern - with great instructions - that can be made up in a variety of fabrics.  Further investigation is required, but there could be TNT potential here.

If Burda gives you lemons

make Sorbetto with them.

I wanted to deal with the remains of my BWOF 9/11 #132 dress before it became a crumpled silk UFO taunting me from the floor of my sewing room - or worse, a crumpled silk sleeping mat for Lily, no longer taunting me because it's full of cat hair. 

What can make you feel almost as good as a successful sewing project?  Taking scissors to an unsuccessful one. 

I cut off that unfortunate upper portion and threw it out.  That left the lower section, and once cut along the side seams, I had a very large piece of fabric for the front, and a reasonbly-sized piece for the back. 

What to do with those pieces?  I looked through a few patterns, but most of the ones that appealed wouldn't work with the fabric (either the size or the print), so I reached for the Colette Sorbetto pieces which were still on the table from the other week. 

I guess there's a point to being a slob.

When I made this pattern a week or so ago, I thought it was a quick, easy, cute top, and now I can add one more positive to this list:

It's a quick, easy, cute top that saves me from having to look at this failure of a dress crumpled on the sewing room floor. 

Take that, Burda.  It may not be the dress - or even a dress - but it's a wearable, finished garment and I can now put the Burda dress behind me.

Hurricane update:  I really thought with the weather we were going to have this weekend, I'd get a ton of sewing done.  Not so; I got about as much sewing done as we got hurricane weather.  (I'm glad about the weather - this is one of the times when I was happy the weathermen were wrong - but sad about the sewing).

Philly got about 6" of rain, which is less than we got two weeks ago.  The winds were rough but nothing the house couldn't handle, and for the first time in many, many years, we took on no water.  It's comforting, knowing that the house is finally just about watertight. 

For anyone who's curious, the chickens made it through the storm just fine - it was, after all, less water than they've had several times since moving into the back yard.  In what turned out to be an excess of caution, we took a fashionable blue tarp, some bungee cords and a few bricks, and made sure that the girls were as close to protected as we could manage.  All that did was keep them relatively dark all day yesterday, and so they laid no eggs, but at least they were dry. 

Tomorrow is a vacation day for me, though I'm not sure now what we're going to do with it.  Originally it was supposed to be a shore day but I think the shore's still closed, and even if it's not, most of the roads between here and there probably are.  So maybe it'll just be a vacation at home day, sleeping late, cleaning up some debris outside, . . . getting a little bit of sewing done?

Hope you all made it through the storm unscathed, and got more sewing done than I did. 

Instant Gratification Sewing

Or, I still haven't worked on Mario's shorts. 

I had very little time to sew this weekend, and I wanted to make something for me, me, me.  I chose a quick project, because I knew otherwise I was at risk of creating a UFO.

But I chose a good fabric, because I wanted to make it worthwhile.

I know I'm late jumping on yet another popular pattern bandwagon, but better late than never, right?

Here's my version of the Colette Sorbetto top, in Liberty paisley in a variety of blues and greens, neck and armholes bound with blue seam binding.  The fit on the top isn't perfect, but it's good for a first shot. Next time, I'll change the dart - it's a little long for my personal configuration; also a little high. I like Colette patterns because they're drafted for curves, but I think their draft might still be for younger, higher curves than I have. But that's an easy enough fix, and I'm even going to tweak the one I wore today and shorten the dart so that it ends in a better place. Other than that, the fit was good - I added a little to the length, because I always do, but no morechanges except to add buttons down the front pleat, for extra interest. They don't really show well on the paisley, but I know they're there.

That's my weekend sewing for you. We did go flea marketing on Saturday and I scored a couple of really cute vintage patterns I'll share soon - the joy of finding vintage patterns with a 38" bust. Talk about fit for real people!

Sencha: more than a muslin

Okay, let me say first that I'm not completely done with the Sencha - I have to rummage through the button stash for the exactly right buttons that I have, but just can't quite locate.

I'd say I'm at 90% here, and I'm pretty happy with the result. I think it looks as good bit different than the other versions I've seen online, but that's also because most other versions are made in the recommended silky fabrics and I went for a slightly more substantial cotton. Then again, it was supposed to be a muslin, and my theory was that if it worked in cotton, it could only look better in something with more drape.

But I'm really liking the cotton. Maybe it's because it's red-gold-orange (notice I only change colors when I go for green or brown?) but I also like the casual summer feel of the almost awning-stripe print.

The fabric was a gift from a co-worker, an older attorney in my office whose father recently passed away. She's cleaning out his house, which apparently contains the rubble of the ages, and she brought this into work for me a few weeks ago. It was a curtain, she thinks from the sunroom or kitchen, and going by the depth of color inside the hem, it was once considerably brighter. It's still bright enough for me.

I wasn't sure what I'd do with it, but when I got the idea to muslin the Sencha blouse, I thought it was a perfect use for this fabric - I knew that it would work, at least well enough for a summer top, but I was hoping it would turn out like this - a top that I'm definitely going to wear this summer.

A note on Colette patterns: the sizing is different than BWOF or the Big 4 (I was a 6 in Colette), but the measurements seem very accurate. The instructions are beautifully clear, with nice illustrations. After playing hopscotch with too many pattern instructions, it was nice to open the little booklet included and see the instructions written out completely for all three versions, even though, except for specific details, they are very similar. There's no "see instructions for Blouse 2," or "see nos. 5-7 for Blouse 1." Thank you.

More on construction and the dirty details when I'm finished.