Feeling Crotch-ety:Purple Passion Pants#1

What is she on about?  You ask.  Well, I vaguely remember this being  a favourite phrase back when I was in 6th form, I think it came from some torrid bodice-ripper someone was reading, and the ‘paroxysms of purple passion’  that were described.  We decided that to be on the safe side, we should all get some purple passion pants, so as not to be found wanting.  Or something. [y’know, all girls school, we were obsessed…]

So, when I decided to make some Greenstyle ‘Chelsea’ trousers, and opted for my purple ponte, the combination of trousers [NOT pants], purple, and 70s styling, took me right back.

So, purple passion pants!

Now I started this post back at the beginning of December, when I cut out loads of goodies, and then just kept pushing them back down the pile.  I made up a pair of these for the missus [back when I also made her the Jalie unitard and the Moxie shorts, all unblogged because she said they were too revealing for pics], which looked cute on her, but I haven’t  seen her actually wear them, so not a great success.

A few weeks ago, I decided to assemble the cute little ‘tulip’ shaped pockets, which are fiddly but not difficult, and then got irritated as usual by my sub-standard top-stitching, and put them aside again.  I dig out some sparkly embroidery thread thinking I could hand stitch an edge feature, but didn’t do that either.

Yesterday, I suddenly remembered that perhaps the new fabulous Pfaff might work better for top-stitching on stretch fabric, so had a go.  Oh joy!  Kalloo kallay!

Look at this! [not pressed yet so those tiny puckers at the corners will steam out no fuss] 

The trousers are simple to make, and I added a wider elastic into the wasitband than the pattern requires, as I like to feel them SNUG round my fat middle or else they shimmy down past my hips…so they looks  a bit odd here unstretched, but fine pulled to my flab width

They look great on my bum, I’m happy there…BUT.  WTF is happening at the front?  I can’t be bothered to take pics of them on right now, but I’m getting the exact same issue I had with the last trousers I made- masses of excess fabric making vertical folds across the front crotch.  I spent ages last night googling trouser fitting adjustments and found nothing…loads and loads of ways to allow belly room, flat bum adjustments, horizontal folds etc.

The only think remotely alike was this

which is from a post by Cation designs on trouser fitting.

It results in a pattern change like this

So it looked like a lot of faff to do some pinning, dismantle the trousers, re position the crotch curve [which is what this looks to perform] then re cut and resew.

I sulked.

Then I realised I really need to sort this because it’s exactly what’s wrong with these too

from that Simplicity Mimi G wardrobe pattern…passable on bum and hips, horrible at the front

So I sulked some more, and pondered and cogitated.

What trousers do I normally wear?  Several versions of good old Style Arc ‘Linda’ the first Style Arc pattern I ever tried.  I happen to have some cut out in navy ponte, so I compared the two front crotch curves.

GOOD GRIEF!

The Greenstyle one is underneath [the red line is the size I previously cut for the missus] and the ‘Linda’ is on top.

No wonder I have miles of fabric flapping about.  Seriously, there’s room here for several sets of MAN lunch let alone lady lunch.

So, these need to be mostly unpicked [dammit, overlocking] re cut, and reassembled.  Any flapping after that will just be bloody well covered with a tunic!

Maybe if I master these, I can salvage the Mimi G ones, the voluminous ‘Daisy’ ones from last year, etc etc.  The Crate of Shame contents could reduce slightly and I will wear more than one pair of trousers for work…