Truth or Flare

We just saw James Cameron's Avatar yesterday late afternoon on its premiere day at a local movie theater. My husband liked it and I liked it but not as much as he did. Heather fell asleep during the last half hour of the movie. I just hope I do not dream of tiger=eyed blue-complexioned people with tails flying on enormous origami looking birds. If you watch the movie, you will know what I mean.

Now switching to a more interesting topic for many of us, sewing!

Simplicity 4135



Pattern Description:
Misses'/Petite boot leg pants in two lengths or city shorts, wide leg pants and gauchos

Pattern Sizing:
I sewed a "12" instead of my usual "14". My instinct was correct. A "14" would have been large for me. Although a sewed a "12", I still encountered a little extra ease, possibly due to using some sort of stretch denim.





















Did it look like the photo/drawing on the pattern envelope once you were done sewing with it?
Not exactly. My pant legs seemed fuller than what was pictured on the envelope.

Were the instructions easy to follow?
They were surprisingly satisfactory , except for the vagueness with the positioning and the insertion of the underlap of the fly front zipper. Lizziwhizz's very helpful review differentiates between zipper stop and end of zipper. It is the zipper stop not the end of zipper that is placed at the dot, otherwise, there would be some gap at the bottom of the zipper.

I highly recommend photo album tutorials from our fellow PR'ers (Annette1, KayY) or Sandra Betzina's video.

What was different was the order of construction. It felt strange to sew the center back seams and inseam after attaching the waistband (left and right pieces). It seemed like a good idea to do those later after determining how much to take in for the center back seam and the crotch depth before stitching those seams. I thought the marked center seam was quite large. Then I discovered that after stitching a 1" center back seam, I felt I could have taken in an additional 5/8" to further stabilize the the center back.



Favorite Features
*They fit better than Burda WOF pants from my personal experience
*I like the waistband style, which I wish I could feel comfortable wearing. However, because I am short waisted, I always wear my tops untucked.
*The pockets did not flare out to emphasize my hips and/or my tummy.

What did you particularly like or dislike about the pattern?
*Pant sizing is somewhat off. I recommend making a muslin or a wearable muslin before cutting nicer fabric.
* I should have placed the waistband along the grain.

Fabric Used:
*Medium weight stretch denim from JA's. This is the same material that I used for Heather's Jalie jeans.

Modifications
* * I removed a total 3 3/4" from the length. I made a 1" at the petite adjustment and thinking that was not enough, I trimmed 1 1/4" from the edge of the leg. Then I used a 1 1/2" hem.

*I sewed a 5/8" seam at the crotch.


Would you sew it again? Would you recommend it to others?
Yes, but make sure you have a handy resource for inserting the fly front zipper.

Conclusion:
This pattern has been in my stash for awhile now and I wish I had sewn it sooner!