Wednesday 17 July 2013

Beating Cold Weather with Cool Pants

School holidays have just ended here in Sydney, and we took the opportunity to take our kids on a proper winter holiday - they'd never seen snow before! 

We decided to travel to Mt Hutt, near Christchurch on the South Island of New Zealand. I'd been keeping tabs on Andrea's blog through late May and June - and she was talking about really cold weather and even snow :).  

Two days before we left I mentally reviewed our clothes for cold weather.  Mr UpSewLate has an internal heating system that keeps him toasty even at ridiculously cold temperatures, so he was fine. We were all OK for ski clothes, but I wasn't sure about the non-skiing days...  how cold would it be? Would my jeans be cosy enough?  I didn't think so...


The threat of cold weather was a great excuse - I'd been planning these pants for months, even before I saw Rachel make the same pants from the same fabric! (What can I say, great minds think alike??).

The fit on my earlier Anita pants turned out to be quite wrinkly under the butt area (oh really, I didn't show you that photo?) - as usual (grrrr), should've expected it - so two nights before we were due to leave I switched to study mode and cut myself off from normal household conversations.  I studied Ruth's fitting comment on my red pants, scanned the pants pages of Sarah Veblen's "Complete Photo Guide to Perfect Fitting", and logged onto Craftsy to fast forward/rewind/fast forward my way through Sandra Betzina's pants fitting tips. And all swotted up, next morning I whipped these pants into a better shape :).



Doesn't look too cold in these photos, does it... but look past the trees, to the right. There's snow!!!


This spot is just somewhere we pulled over for photos on our way to a walk at Rakaia Gorge - to me it's a typical, gorgeous Canterbury Plains view. It was so much colder than it looks - you get a better feel for the temperature in this next photo, taken about an hour later (but excuse my ridiculous boots):


OK, OK, enough with the tourist shots, talk about the pants.

Some close ups now, and I'll describe the fitting changes I made:

Just a few small under-butt lines, + pattern matching over side seam
As I mentioned above, my earlier version of these pants suffered from under-butt wrinkles.  I always have this problem with RTW pants, and the last jeans I bought that fit reasonably well were described as a "curvy" fit.  To paraphrase Ruth's comment on my red pants, wrinkles under the bum say "you need a prominent rear adjustment" (and when you combine this with a swayback Ruth says you get the much more charming sounding "pert bum adjustment"). Translated to a ponti, I figured I could just add a bit of extra length in the curvy area of my bum.

To do this I scooped out the bum curve just a little and extended it about 2cm for a deeper crotch. The inner thigh seam had to join up to this new deeper crotch, so I did a rough bit of grading to adjust the inner thigh line. Scooping out the bum curve also removed a bit of fabric at centre bum (perhaps in the under bum area really?), and I was worried this could remove necessary fabric width across my bum, so I added 0.5cm width to the sides around hip level.

I don't seem to have clear photos to show how well this worked: there is still a little bit of wrinkling under my bum, but it's absolutely inconsequential compared to the amount of wrinkling I normally have in leggings or pants. Very small changes in the crotch curve or length seem to have a big impact on fit!

 


With a much thicker ponti than first time around, I went up a size from the size my snug measurements indicated for the full length of the front leg pattern pieces and from the hips up on the back leg pattern pieces. The muscles in my front thighs get bigger when I run, but the muscles in my back thighs seem to stay kind of inconspicuous...

I also removed the tapering from around knee level down, and because I wanted cosy ankles (and don't we all?) I added about 10cm in length to the legs... not quite enough as it turns out, so I didn't hem them.

I cut the pattern pieces individually as they would wrap around my body so I could pattern match going around my body, starting at the back left side seam. The fabric matches pretty well on the centre back, right side seam, and centre front, and reasonably well on the inner leg seams, but mismatches on the left side seam:

Reasonable pattern matching over inner leg seams


When you've finally finished taking all your blog photos, then and only then can you sit down and relax!

Longer legs to cover ankles

Phew!

And in brief, the kids also each scored a last minute NZ merino wool top that they could layer over a thermal top for skiing days:
 


My son's top was drafted using a too-small size 6-8 RTW top for the sleeve and body widths (to make it really snug) and a too-big size 9 RTW top for the sleeve and body lengths, and uses slightly smaller bands around the wrists and neck (twin needle stitched at the neck). My daughter's top used a Burda pattern (which I am feeling too lazy to dig out), simple folded over fabric rather than bands at the wrists, and a band around the neck which is not twin needle stitched down.

Although I find Burda patterns to fit my kids really well, interestingly in this case I prefer the fit of the top that was made without a pattern - looks like my kids' shoulders are narrow - and I like the separate wrist bands on my son's top.

Both of these tops got worn on the coldest skiing day (the one where I had a skiing accident and hit my head on icy snow and may have had concussion, but that's a separate story), but apparently they're itchy and can't possibly be worn without thermals underneath. 

And so concludes the ski holiday sewing!  


See you soon,
  Gabrielle x

28 comments:

  1. Very cool photos. I want your trousers! I mean, how cool is that print? And the fit. Love them!

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    1. Thanks Merche - you would ROCK these trousers!

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  2. The trousers look fantastic. I think everyone gets a BIT of wrinkling under the bum otherwise we wouldn't be able to sit down. Pert bum adjustment. Like that term. I have a very very pert bum I think so will be using your adjustments next time I do pants. Love the kids tops too. Do you hate it when they think stuff is scratchy? I guess maybe kids skin is more sensitive than older skin.

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    1. Thanks Rebecca but I still feel like I'm guessing with pants fitting! Yes, kids must be sensitive - merino is soft to me!

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  3. Your trousers are terrific, awesome print. Trouser fitting can be so frustrating, but yours look as if you have it nailed.
    My son thinks every merino thing is itchy too, no matter how soft and cuddly I consider the fabric! Just as well poly thermals exist for cold weather.

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    1. Thank you! Ponti is very forgiving though - I really don't feel like I have it worked out for wovens yet! Yes, it's funny isn't it - when I made those tops I didn't even suspect for an instant that the kids would find them itchy! Yay for poly thermals :)

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  4. Sounds like you had a great holiday. Your trousers look great, those fitting adjustments have made such a difference. It's such a great feeling when things work out well :)

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    1. It WAS pretty good - it's always nice to get away from the usual insane routine! Thanks, yes, the littlest tweaks have a real impact with pants - and these feel good even after a couple of wears :)

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  5. You look hot! That fabric is fabulous isn't it - really suits the Anitas!

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    1. Thanks - and phew, I'm glad you aren't annoyed to see twin pants! It IS fabulous fabric; cool looking but so cosy...

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  6. I hope you are feeling better.
    You look great. Those trousers are really great - the print and the fit on you are spot on. The PBA was a good adjustment to do.

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    1. Thanks for asking Maria, I was feeling shaky and out of it for a few days but had some checks and everything seems to be OK now. I'm so grateful for my helmet!
      Thanks - that's a compliment from a pants fitting expert! Do you think 'PBA' could enter the sewing lexicon?

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  7. Fantastic looking pants and you have done an amazing job of pattern matching. Sounds like a great holiday.

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    1. Thanks Sharon; I get a lot of satisfaction from pattern matching... Yes, it was a great holiday - short but sweet, and always a bonus when the plane trip isn't too long.

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  8. Wow- those pants! Fabulous fit and fabric!

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    1. Thank you!! It's a great fabric, and of course being ponti the fitting side of things is a lot easier than usual!

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  9. Hi Gabrielle - I can certainly see the difference this alteration has made to the fit, when compared with your red trousers. The pants are lovely - really fantastic pattern, and look good on you.

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    1. Thanks Sarah; those little tweaks seem to work - but I think I'd need more tweaking for something other than ponti.

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  10. Pants fitting is always an adventure. I think you nailed the fit on these. They look great! They reminded me I have some printed denim waiting to be made into pants when our colder weather comes.

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    1. Yes, it is, isn't it - with surprise endings! Thanks, they feel like they're about right when I wear them. And I'll look forward to seeing your printed denim pants...

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  11. Lovely blog, Gabrielle. Well done. And good to see the YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE widget working nicely.

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    1. Thank you for popping by Vincent! And now I need to update those labels so as to give people posts they might actually like :)

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  12. Wow, the fit on these is amazing! I love the fabric too. I always suffer from under but wrinkles but you've inspired me to work them out.. :)

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    1. Thanks Elise! I wasn't too fussed about those wrinkles till I saw some photos - terrible! Ponti pants are pretty easy to fit but I reckon the principles are the same... good luck with the fitting!

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  13. They look great! My Anita Bleach Boys are my fave pair too

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    1. Thanks Lisa! I've just found yours - I don't know how I missed that post, but they look awesome!

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  14. These are such fun pants. Have to ask, would you recommend ski-ing in NZ?

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    1. Thanks Kirsty, sorry to be so slow in replying!

      We haven't taken the kids skiing locally but I would definitely recommend NZ for family skiing... there seems to be a better probability of snow over there for one thing, and the prices seem very competitive (accommodation, free lift passes for kids, free meals for kids in town...). And on top of that the whole ski experience was really well organised - like being able to book your passes online and then being able to track what you'd been doing (and compare with other family members or top users of the slopes). I don't know if all that is standard here too. Actually, I have a better example of how impressive the ski setup was: one morning the snow chains on one wheel snapped as we were driving up the mountains in snow, and we had to pull over as our car was skidding dangerously. One of the drivers that went past told us she was from 'Transport' and would send someone down - a ranger drove down to us, reviewed the situation, went and got a range of snow chains to try on our wheel, fitted a replacement chain, and organised a special carparking space for us at the top so that he could try to repair our chain for us while we skiied. At the end of the day we were then able to return the borrowed chain to them - all free, just part of the service apparently!

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