Catherine Wendland

RTW Inspiration at Glasswing

Sometimes when I want to educate myself in what’s cool and get inspired, I visit a store called Glasswing. It’s full of small label, high class clothes that have a professional/minimalist “I’m not trying hard (but actually trying very hard)” vibe to them. I love going to this store and looking through the unique shapes and beautiful fabrics.

One thing I really love is seeing the fabric choices that are made in RTW, especially in these smaller labels. They often pick really high quality, durable fabrics, in fiber blends that I wouldn’t necessarily think to choose. I found that the Kamm pants in real life were way thicker than I thought they would be. Some of the dresses were in thicker fabrics than I would think. Many products were cotton/linen blend instead of straight cotton, which I think gives the fabric a nice body. I like to look at these things and take mental note for when I’m choosing fabrics.

Today when I visited, as I was looking through the clothes I was making mental notes of how I could make that with patterns I own or know about. When I shop at this store, I’m generally not willing to spend $200-$300 on an item*, and a lot of the time I have low confidence it will fit me well, so … that’s exactly why I love making clothes! So for me and you, here’s a rundown of the inspiring pieces I saw today.

*Though it’s totally worth it if you don’t sew, want a quality garment made ethically and want to support small, often female-owned businesses!

RTW – Linen Sumo Jacket – Glasswing

Me Made – Wiksten Haori. Draft a cool wide angled pocket.

RTW – First Rite Cargo Trouser – Glasswing

Me Made – Lander Pants by True Bias – switch out button fly for zip fly.

RTW – Ozma Studio Pant – Glasswing

Me Made – Megan Nielsen Flint Pants

RTW – Crop Wide Leg Trouser – Glasswing

Me Made – Made By Rae Rose Pants. At the time of this posting, these are not released yet, but I can’t wait for these professional-looking secret pajamas! #mbrrose!

Me Made – Emerson Crop Pants by True Bias. I never considered making this pattern till now – she added a high waisted option, which looks more proportioned to me and now I really want to make it. 🙂

RTW – Jesse Kamm Sailor Pants – Glasswing.

Me Made – Persephone Pants by Anna Allen. If you haven’t heard of these you’re either hiding under a rock, or don’t follow indie sewing patterns. I’ve made these once but didn’t fit them well, so I never wear them, but I think they opened my eyes to wide leg pants and so many people love them!

RTW – Ace and Jig Wheeler Shirt – Glasswing

Me Made – Archer Button Up by Grainline Studio. Crop sleeves to be 3/4 length, straighten the bottom hem. This top is boxy enough to be sort of a jacket so keep that in mind when you’re selecting your size.

RTW – Signature relaxed Tapering Trouser – Glasswing

Me Made – Seamwork Channing. These are a flat front, elastic back pant and they look super comfortable!

RTW – First Rite Work Jacket – Glasswing

Me Made – Merchant and Mills Ottoline Jacket. Simplify the sleeve by omitting the placket and place your pockets as you will. The Ottoline does not have the front yoke, but I think it gives off a similar vibe.

Full Tummy Adjustment and Pants Fitting thoughts

I have made so many pants that don’t fit.
I have made several pairs of non-stretch pants in the last few months and none of them quite fit right.
I have made two pairs of Megan Nielsen Dawn Jeans and one pair of the Philippa Pants by Anna Allen. For both of them, I cut a size 14 leg and graded to 16 at the waist. My Dawn Jeans are made of a rigid duck canvas with almost no give. I have a pair of wide leg cropped Dawns cut out in a white denim, which I think will give a bit more, so we’ll see how those fit when I get around to making them.

Overall though, I’ve been pretty disappointed in the fit I’ve been getting lately. I thought it was because I wasn’t taking enough time to make adjustments as I sew (which, yes, was a problem), but I’ve come to the conclusion that I actually need to make a full tummy adjustment.

Body Denial!
I think I would have come to this conclusion sooner, but I have been a little in denial about how my body is shaped. You know how you think “well it will fit when I lose weight” or “I don’t want to make a size change because I know I’m really close to changing”… But those thoughts don’t help when nothing actually fits. And it still doesn’t fit.

I think this mindset of denial actually hinders me from my goals. If I create something I love that really fits the body I have now, that helps me love who I am and where I’m at and I think that will help me and my mindset as I train myself to make different choices.

It seems like most of the people I follow on Instagram usually make comments about how they have to grade to a smaller waist because of their large hip to small waist ratio. I rarely see anyone mention a full tummy adjustment or have a body shape more like mine. (I think this means I need to broaden the people I follow!) So I thought this might be a good blog post, so if all you people shaped like me are out there, here’s a fellow full tummy adjuster!

Resources that helped me:
I stumbled across this video by Alexandra Morgan that I think explains the logic behind the adjustment really well. She goes over how to tell if you need this type of adjustment, how to figure out how much of an adjustment you need to make, and then how to do it.
Alexandra has a lot of fit videos that are explained really well. It looks like she also has classes and her patterns go over fit, too.

Through that video, I was able to confirm that this adjustment will help me.
Telltale signs:

All of my pants pull down at the front of the waist band. Viewing my pants from the side, I can see that the waistband is not perpindicular to the floor.
My pants side seams pull forward at my abdomen. They stretch towards my front to give more fabric to that side.

My favorite pants that fit right now are some stretch denim Ginger Jeans. All of the pants I’ve made recently are non-stretch, so I think it’s harder for the fabric to be “borrowed” from the back of the pants and that’s part of the reason why they are so uncomfortable.

Here you can see where the seam line deviates from vertical, and where the waistline dips down in the front.
This is a mockup of what a full tummy adjustment would look like.

Curvy Sewing Collective has a great tutorial on this, too. Pretty similar to the video – plus I like the static non-video tutorials to refer back to.
See the tutorial here.

Intended ease
Another resource I’m finding helpful is paying more attention to the intended amount of ease at each part of the body.
The waistline is meant to have about 1″ of positive ease, so you can bend, move, and sit. I think that’s where my Philippa pants went awry – I brought them in to 0″ ease and it’s pretty uncomfortable to sit in them.

Again, Alexandra has a nice tutorial on how to measure yourself, and a worksheet you can fill out to make sure your pattern has enough ease.

No pressure, people!
(If you’re a beginner sewist, please don’t feel pressured to make so many adjustments. I sew a LOT and have for many years and am just now getting to the place where I feel comfortable enough/am motivated to dig deeper and focus on fit. If you’re at that place too, awesome! If not, no worries! Just have fun!)

I haven’t actually done this adjustment yet, but I thought I’d share my research process with you all, and I’ll let you know how it goes when I do it!

Philippa Pants

The Philippa Pants by Anna Allen were released last month and I saw tons of people on instagram were really excited about this pattern, and I had been following Anna Allen since she came out with the Persephone Pants. I jumped on the bandwagon.

I’ve been on a pants-making phase the last month and have made quite a few pairs… however I’ve noticed I get really excited about finishing the pattern and often skip the whole “fitting” part – where you can baste the legs together and make any changes to the seam allowance that will help the fit… as a result, I have three new pairs of pants that don’t really fit well.

For this pair, I thought I should change that by actually taking the time to baste-fit.

I’m glad I did, because I ended up taking in the side seams on the legs by 1.25″ and .75″ on the hips.

Pattern Details:
Pattern: Philippa Pants
Designer: Anna Allen
Size: 16 hip, graded to 14 in legs
Fabric: Mystery black cotton twill (originally bought for some dungarees I never made)

My Measurements: (I like to include these so if you’re considering this pattern, you can get a better idea of my body size to compare to your own.)
Waist: 34″
Belly: 39″
Hips: 42″
Height: 5’3″
Inseam: 27″

Modifications:
– Shortened by 3″
– Size 14 leg, graded to 16 hip
– Changed outer leg SA – 1.25″ SA from ankle to crotch, 0.75″ from crotch to waist.
– Used a zipper instead of button closure. (I did buy Anna’s instructions for the zipper closure for this piece.)

What I would change next time:
– Look again at the sizing and Anna’s chart for how much ease should be at each part of the body. Since I took out so much from the side seams, I suspect I could have cut out a different size.
– I also wonder how it would work to do a full tummy adjustment. I haven’t tried that before, but that is where I run into fit issues, so I might try that for my next pair of pants.

What I like about the pattern:
– It comes together really quickly – there is not a yoke or front pockets, so it’s just fewer pieces to manage.
– The waistband foldover works really well. The inside of the waistband comes down farther than the waist seam so you are SURE to catch the inside waistband when you’re stitching.

What I didn’t like:
– Like I said before, I made the size according to my measurements, but had to take in the side seams quite a bit. I’ll just have to double check the recommended ease next time and maybe choose my pattern size differently.