Thought for a lifetime

Einstein made the very important observation that " Imagination is more important than knowledge ".

Saturday, October 27, 2012

Color Block your Trousers

I have been really frustrated lately because I have not sewn in months! I am making myself complete all the "little" projects that are cluttering up my sewing studio. These trousers are one of those projects.

 

The fit of these linen trousers is pretty good but, a little short in length for my 5'11"body. Too short is probably my number one reason for not purchasing a pair of pants- but I digress. I'm not sure how I came up with the idea of sewing a swatch of fabric to the bottom but, that was the plan.


Now the proportion of the contrasting fabric to the pant leg was critical. I tried to just eyeball it but, then I remembered an article on proportions that actually had contained an equation for historically proven "correct" proportions ( author measured ancient Greek and Roman sculptures ).
Basically it is dividing a length into 5 equal sections and then the equation is 3 to 2. So the length from the knee on the trouser to the hem was 19" divided by 5 equaled 3 7/8". I multiplied 3 7/8" by 2 and that equaled 7 3/4". And that's how wide I decided to make my bottom band of contrasting fabric.
Explaining math is almost harder than DOING math!


I clearly marked each fabric leg piece that had been cut off the original trousers left and right and front and back. And then completely removed all stitching to use pant fabric as the pattern for the contrasting fabric. It also became the stitching guide so the contrasting band and pant leg would fit together exactly.


I sewed the side seam and inseam exactly like the pant seams and then hemmed the bottom before sewing the contrasting band to the pant leg. The pant and contrasting fabric are both linen so with a little steam and pressing the transition from original pant to contrasting band is pretty flawless.


And voila! 
I totally dig my new color blocked trousers and best of all it is one more to-do project that is now DONE!

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