Happy Valentine’s weekend! Whether you think it’s a meaningless capitalistic money grab, the most beautiful holiday in the world, or an excuse to get cheap candy, I hope you take some time to express your feelings to your loved ones. Tonight, I’m getting together with some of my girls for a movie, dinner, and possible shenanigans. The weather swings from mild Spring temperatures to chilly Winter temperatures, so I finally made some corduroy pants. Using the 16 Wale Stretch Woven Needlecord fabric in Ochre from Minerva, I sewed up the Seamwork Noah high-rise, wide leg trousers. I paired the pants with my Messy Monday tee rainbow tee and, my latest obsession, a black Milan purse from Portland Leather Goods. As cute as these pants turned out, I had a few problems with the pattern.
First, the good – this fabric is divine! I’ve never worked with corduroy that had such thin wales, but I really like it. From afar, the pants almost look like brushed suede – very cool. The color is warm and classic, but neutral enough to go with anything. I really love ochre, but this medium-weight fabric comes in 17 lovely colors. The corduroy softens up beautifully after laundering and there’s just enough stretch to be comfortable while maintaining the shape of the garment.
Now for the not so good. I’ve been working with Seamwork patterns since before they were Seamwork patterns. Seriously, I started sewing them under their predecessor’s name, Colette Patterns. I say this because I usually know what to expect and how the patterns are made. What I didn’t expect were mislabeled/switched pattern pieces, pattern pieces too small for the instructions, and reversed pattern pieces. It got to the point where I hopped on the Seamwork Community message board to see if I was the only person having problems (I was not). The left and right pocket bags are mislabeled and should be switched. I spent literally hours between watching sewalong videos, reading community posts, and playing around with the pieces to make these work. So freaking frustrating!
Also, the instructions say that the pocket bag is long enough to be caught in the fly stitches. This isn’t right, at least for the 12-30 size range. This was more of an annoyance than anything else, but it was still noteworthy. Another issue is that following the cutting guide will have you cut the fly pattern piece in reverse. This pattern is drafted for a person 5’8. I’m 5’7 and with a 2.25-inch hem, I still ended up cutting about 6 inches from each leg, wasting a foot of fabric. Simple things like this should really be caught before being released, especially with the costs of fabric constantly rising. Finally, and this is just personal preference, but the wide legs are gigantic. Each leg is over a yard in circumference. That’s insane. I’m really disappointed in this pattern because of these mistakes. I was able to fix them as I went, but they are enough to cause a beginner sewist to quit. And that’s really a shame.
