Cashmerette Calders

Last post I showed off my Cashmerette Calder Muslin.  I've been loving these pants for lounging around the house - but now I wanted a pair I could wear outside too.  

First I had to adjust my pattern. The muslin was a pretty good fit, but there is always room for improvement. My measurements at the time of making were:

Waist - 39"
High hip (around belly at front) - 44" 
Low hip (around bum) - 43". 

Based on the table below that puts me at a size 14 hip and between 18 and 20 waist.

For my muslin I ended up cutting 16 front and 12 back (for an average of 14 all around) and I felt like that was still a little baggy at the back, and the seams which are meant to be more towards the front were actually closer to my actual sides so I decided this time to reduce the front down to the 14 and leave the back at the 12.  

According to everything I should be grading out to a 18 or 20 around the waist, but with an elasticated waist I didn't feel like I really needed to - the waist just needed to be wide enough to go over my hips.  Despite the numbers saying it shouldn't work (the finished garment measurement for a size 14 at the waist is 41.5" stretched) I cut my waistband to a size 14 at the front and a size 12 at the back and it slides on fine.  My theory is that that 43 - 44" at my hips is squishy - not solid!  The best thing about this is that I don't have all that extra gathering at the back waist which is a look that I don't love. 

So my final pattern modifications were:

Back - Using the Apple back piece, I cut everything (including waistband) to a size 12 and removed 1.5" length between waist and crotch.  For my muslin I ended up taking a 6" hem so this time around I removed 3" from the bottom of the legs (since the legs are pretty much straight I didn't bother removing the length at the shorten lengthen line, just took it off the bottom).  I then also modified the back crotch curve making it more of an L shape based on my latest shorts pattern.  

Front - I trimmed the pattern back to a size 14 all around (including waistband), and took 1.5" out of the rise and 3" off the leg length. 

Now to figure out what fabric to use!

Last time I was at the fabric store I purchased a piece of fabric with the plan to use it for my next pair of pants.  It was on the wool remnants table for $2.99/yard.  It's a black twill fabric - bottom weight, not sure of the fabric content but a burn test showed signs of both poly and natural fibers so I'm guessing a poly wool blend of some sort.  after pre washing my fabric piece turned out to be about 1.75 yards of 60" wide fabric which would be fine for a pair of fitted pants, but now that I wanted to make Calders - Hmmm the pattern says 2 3/8 yards for a size 12- 22 pair of Calders in view A.  Could I do it?

Why yes I could - just.  I had to line things up very precisely and cut pieces upside down but since it's a plain black fabric I figured that wouldn't be a problem.  The only thing I had to do was add a seam down the back of the back waistband as I couldn't fit it on a fold.  I was quite impressed be my tetris skills.

After sewing this once before this was a really easy sew.  I did each seam on the sewing machine and finished on the overlocker/serger.  I did top stitch down the front and back crotch seams.  I find that is where my pants split most if they are likely to split at all so a bit of reinforcement is always good.

When I had attached one edge of my waistband to the pants, I pinned in a piece of elastic and tried them on.  As expected they are a bit scratchy.  I had bought a piece of poly cotton knit to use to line the fabric, but since that was only 45" wide there was no way there would be enough for a lining for my Calders so I went through the stash to see what else I could find.  I came up with two scraps - A pink and a brown and decided to use both up (not enough of either to use one or the other.)  I cut the front out of the brown and the back out of the pink.  I had to do one little patch job on the back of one leg to get it to fit.

Once I cut out my lining - as it was a knit fabric I then went around and cut about 1/4" off each seam just to give it a smidge of negative ease compared to the woven main fabric.  I also cut the length off 3".  I serged the pants lining together with a 1/2" seam allowance and then basted it, wrong sides together to the waistband. 

Then it was just a matter of finishing off my waistband - I didn't use the elastic lengths specified in the pattern just pinned the elastic in one side, tried them on pulled the elastic as tight as I wanted and pinned the other side.  I used three rows of stitching to hold the gathers to the elastic just because I think it looks nicer.  And then finally I turned the hem up 3/8" and then about 3/4" to give a nice long leg line.

I really love these Calders - I think they look fantastic, then feel super comfortable with the elastic waist and the knit lining - perfect for either lounging around the house - or heading out to dinner.  win win all round!

Sorry about the lack of good photos - my camera is playing up at the moment so this is the best I could get!