B-b-b-b-burda
Oct. 26th, 2008 09:21 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
janestarzLast week I bought the October issue of Burda Magazine. It often has models I don't like or really loathe, but this month there was a lovely pair of jeans in plus sizes that would look great on me.
Click here for a picture of the jeans.
So I measured my butt and came out on size 52. *Gulp*
Size 52! I knew I had grown a bit bigger since starting work in the IT, and it's been ages since I made myself some new pants. But I need new pants, I need a pair that fits comfortably, so I put my pride in my back pocket and made the pattern in size 52. (I was expecting to be size 48, for the record! 52 is large enough to be on some otherworldly scale. The fourties are all good, the fifties never even get mentioned.)
After a few hours of patiently stitching, serging, and pinning I had assembled the pants and I could try them on for the first time. They looked mighty big to me but I would try them on before tackling the zipper.
As I pulled the trouser leg on my left leg, I thought "Hm. Maybe not too big after all" as the trouser leg fit snugly over my upper leg. But then I pulled the other leg on and I had the trousers on.
It was quite snug around my thighs, comfortably so, but around the waist it was too big. Way too big. Like fifteen bleeding centimeters too big!
How the hell do the people at Burda design pants? I can't for the life of me imagine how the woman fitting those pants should look, because I come up with Mr.Michelin. Big round belly and stick insect legs.
Needless to say: the pants can not be fixed. I can't take out fifteen centimeters out of the waistline without getting some seriously hideous wrinkles near the hinge of the leg. I'd have to adjust the whole front pocket too, and the mid-back section. The back has a jeans-shape: the leg pieces go up halfway, and then a separate slice of pie is added to create the back and give it the right curve.
I can possibly redeem the pants by taking off the zipper-flap, sewing it up, adding a drawstring waistband and call it larp-pants. And wear long tunics over it at all times. I love larp-pants with pockets, because it gives you plenty of space to store stuff you don't want pick-pocketed.
This was just such a disappointment. And I have nothing to show for it.
Click here for a picture of the jeans.
So I measured my butt and came out on size 52. *Gulp*
Size 52! I knew I had grown a bit bigger since starting work in the IT, and it's been ages since I made myself some new pants. But I need new pants, I need a pair that fits comfortably, so I put my pride in my back pocket and made the pattern in size 52. (I was expecting to be size 48, for the record! 52 is large enough to be on some otherworldly scale. The fourties are all good, the fifties never even get mentioned.)
After a few hours of patiently stitching, serging, and pinning I had assembled the pants and I could try them on for the first time. They looked mighty big to me but I would try them on before tackling the zipper.
As I pulled the trouser leg on my left leg, I thought "Hm. Maybe not too big after all" as the trouser leg fit snugly over my upper leg. But then I pulled the other leg on and I had the trousers on.
It was quite snug around my thighs, comfortably so, but around the waist it was too big. Way too big. Like fifteen bleeding centimeters too big!
How the hell do the people at Burda design pants? I can't for the life of me imagine how the woman fitting those pants should look, because I come up with Mr.Michelin. Big round belly and stick insect legs.
Needless to say: the pants can not be fixed. I can't take out fifteen centimeters out of the waistline without getting some seriously hideous wrinkles near the hinge of the leg. I'd have to adjust the whole front pocket too, and the mid-back section. The back has a jeans-shape: the leg pieces go up halfway, and then a separate slice of pie is added to create the back and give it the right curve.
I can possibly redeem the pants by taking off the zipper-flap, sewing it up, adding a drawstring waistband and call it larp-pants. And wear long tunics over it at all times. I love larp-pants with pockets, because it gives you plenty of space to store stuff you don't want pick-pocketed.
This was just such a disappointment. And I have nothing to show for it.
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no subject
Date: 2008-10-26 11:52 am (UTC)What I would suggest in future, is to put on the tissue pattern first, pinned like the garment, before laying the fabric, especially with a pattern firm you are not familiar with.
I made a lovely Vogue dress once, well, it was lovely on the packet, on me it looked like a potato, so I had done the same thing.
no subject
Date: 2008-10-26 02:05 pm (UTC)I could send you the magazine with the pattern if you like?
no subject
Date: 2008-10-26 08:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-10-27 07:55 am (UTC)Making pants is always dificult, even now I can make my own patterns most of the time they don't fit.
I hear from a lot of other seamstresses that they buy pants in a shop and sew the rest of their outfit themselves.
no subject
Date: 2008-10-27 03:13 pm (UTC)My experience with Burda is: if you follow the instructions, it won't fit 9 out of 10 times. So I always keep a sharp eye at what I'm doing and use my instincts when working with a Burda pattern. Such a shame, because some patterns are good.
Good luck fixing the pattern. The pants on the picture look nice.