Monsal Lounge Pants

 

The Monsal Lounge Pants from Wendy Ward's book "Sewing with Knitted Fabrics2 are my TNT jogger pattern.

I've made another 2 pairs, one in plain brown brushed polyester knit and the other in a cotton jersey printed with an animal print pattern. They are both the same variation of the pattern.

If I add the brown joggers into the Paisley SWAP with the teal tops, it looks like this

1 jacket, 1 fleece, 1 shirt, 8 knit tops, 1 pair jeans, 1 pair joggers, 1 skirt.

Paisley Shirt & Skirt

I know it's been a while since I posted, but I have been working on the Paisley pieces. Its been quite a journey, but I'm finally happy with them both. This is quite a long post but I've moved the details of the issues and solutions to the bottom if you don't want to read them!

Paisley Shirt

This is the usual TNT pattern I use for my shirts. For this version I have pattern matched across the front and the two patch pockets. For the rest of the shirt I have kept the print the same way up, but not attempted to specifically pattern match. I felt this was a reasonable compromise between looking good and using the fabric carefully.

I used small brown variegated shirt buttons which I had in the stash.

Paisley Skirt

I carefully cut the skirt panels with the print the same way up as the on the shirt.

I drafted some inseam pockets which are attached to the waistband and side seams but hang freely below the 1st tier. I used a plain cotton fabric so as not to cut into my precious print scraps.

For the skirt I used OOP Simplicity 4499. I changed to an elastic waist and added pockets.

Some of the issues I encountered

I cut the shirt out first and did a few steps on it. Then went back and cut out the skirt, made that up. The bottom tier stuck out too much.  Removed the bottom tier and measured it, cut a bit off, re-added it. 

Made the shirt up. Decided to add pockets. Pockets were not level. Went through scraps, no repeat of that section of the print, so could not cut new pockets.

Wore the skirt out. Decided it wasn't quite working so removed the waistband, pockets and yokes, trimmed them down, trimmed down the first tier, sewed it all back together. 

Unpicked both pockets from the shirt. Trimmed the top off one and the bottom off the other. Remade the pockets and reattached them. Finally did the hem.