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for the time being i will keep my old posts here at blogger, but i have imported all content to wordpress. please don't abandon me! to stay updated, head on over to my new space and follow me there. thanks!

—lisa g.

Saturday, February 2, 2013

it's not just you

guys, i've done a lot of un-selfish sewing lately, so it was time to sneak in a piece for myself before starting another dress shirt. i decided to make some denim thurlows. yeah, i blatantly copied not only the online sewing peeps who have made denim trousers, but even my own little sister who made a pair recently, sent me pics and generally rubbed it in my face that she made super awesome pants. really, they were so cute i just couldn't help myself anymore. i had to have my own. there's a fabric store nearby called sewfisticated (don't you just adore the name?) and every time i go there they have loads of bargains. they always have a table full of denim for $2.50/yd, and on my last visit i just couldn't pass it up. the denim they had was a little heavier than i would have preferred, but i think it still works just fine.

now, i made thurlow shorts way back when and when i did the fly, i noticed the fly extension seemed to not quite be in the right place. but i went along, leaving it as it was. then when it came time to put the waistband on, the waistband came up short. i assumed i just messed up somewhere. i made a quick fix, and all was good.

so this time around, i carefully followed the directions, and lo and behold—same problem. ah-ha! it wasn't me. it was gasp a flaw in the pattern! this time, i searched reviews because surely i wasn't the only one who came across this problem. nothing. then i asked my sister and yes! she too had the same thing happen to her. i have seen whisperings of waistbands coming up short, so i'm here to say: it's not just you! this time around, i decided to rip out all the stitching, take out the zip and start over. p.s. one of those little razor blades makes super fast work of stitch unpicking. a regular seam ripper would have taken me an hour; razor blade, less than two minutes. believe me, re-doing the zip was much less work than it sounds.



i know we all have a proclaimed love affair with sewaholic patterns, but for the sake of anyone making this pattern and having fly/waistband issues, i will stand here and be the one to let you know that there is indeed a teeny tiny mistake in either the fly extention piece or the directions. fortunately, it is a super easy fix.

if you need what you are sewing to look exactly like the directions, trim 5/8" off the width of the fly extension when you go to finish the long edge (or trim it from the pattern piece to begin with). after, you can continue following the directions and illustrations as they are.


please note that i reversed my fly to the
standard zip up with the right hand layout

if you are confident enough to have yours look slightly different, sew the zip at 5/8" in from the facing edge instead of lined up with it. then when you sew the zip and fly extension to the pant, line up the edge of the zip tape (instead of the edge of the facing) with the edge of the pant. i kind of like the facing to extend beyond the edge of the zip tape to minimize bulk, so that's what i did.

all in all, it's not a big deal. i do wish sewaholic would put a little note amending the pattern either as an insert or on the site somewhere, especially since we're talking about the fly. many people are using this pattern as their first try at pants and we're all assuming that we have erred somewhere. i love sewaholic and tasia is an absolute dear who works very hard and delivers an outstanding product, but just a teeny tiny little amendment would be fab.


again, my zip is reversed from how the pattern is written
that's just how i roll

that's my PSA for the day. carry on.


—lisa g.

19 comments:

  1. Perhaps if you contact Tasia, she can put an errata up on her website which would be better than nothing and she'd be able to fix the patterns in future print runs.

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  2. I agree with Miriana - I'll bet Tasia would be grateful that you spotted the error and she could put a note up.

    I really appreciate you posting this. I haven't gotten to this pattern yet, although it's on my list. This would have thrown me for a loop!

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  3. i know i stared so hard at the directions trying to figure out what i did wrong!

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  4. I agree -- Tasia is awesome and I'm sure she would be glad to know about what you found. Can't wait to see your finished trousers -- they sound cute!

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  5. Your fly front looks very well done! Funny that no one else has ever mentioned this, because it is a hugely popular pattern.

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    Replies
    1. thanks! i think people just don't notice until they go to attach the waistband, then the problem is mis-diagnosed as a waistband issue, not a fly extension issue. but if you look at a rtw pair of pants, the fly extension and fly facing usually line up when zipped. that's why i think it's a fly extension thing and not a waistband thing. at any rate, it's still a fantastic pattern!

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  6. I did have this happen but chalked it up to me being a new sewer. I have fabric for another pair and am going to try the adjustment. Thanks so much for posting this!

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  7. Nice work Lisa! I'm acidically honest when it comes to reviewing a pattern... I've even had an indie designed contact me and apologies once before for a mistake I pointed out! Either people forget when it comes time to write the review... or noone likes to say anything bad, because - well, we are a rather tight-knit community! Don't wanna rock the boat too much, eh?
    Probably worthwhile letting Tasia know so she can fix it up? Even the best of us make the odd blooper ;)

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    Replies
    1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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    2. i'm definitely more peace-maker than boat-rocker! but i'm also a perfectionist. i can certainly see that by the time it came to finishing and pattern reviewing people either forgot or assumed they had erred somewhere! heck, i was so excited to have great shorts the first time around that i completely forgot until i went to make this pair 6 months later!

      i did send off an email so they can look into it!

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  8. I had that problem, too! I totally thought it was my mistake. Thanks for the heads up.

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  9. Tasia has an errata page where she lists mistakes in her pattern directions so I think it's great that you let her know of this issue!

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i appreciate all the feedback, but will no longer be responding to comments left here. i have moved all my content to wordpress (see link at the top of the page!) and will now be posting there. all my posts can be found in my wordpress archive. thanks for reading and please visit my new page!