Bob Turns Five, This is my eighteenth pair

The Bob pants pattern from Style Arc is turning five this month, and they are running a sale on their website to celebrate.  I'm late sharing this, it runs for a day or two more.

https://www.stylearc.com/shop-category/pdf-sewing-patterns/pdf-guest-list-patterns/?utm_campaign=website&utm_medium=email&utm_source=SendGrid

I am not advertising for Style Arc. I don't get anything from them. I don't want anything from them.

I have Bob pants. I need nothing else. 

If you look on Instagram on #bobpants, there are over a thousand posts. Also #

Only one of these is not about the pants

It's always about pockets with me. These are huge and don't show

I faced the visible portion of the pocket with the main fabric

I had lost count of how many of them I have made, but I did pull most of them out and the stats are: five solid color ones, and 12 prints and stripes plus the pictured one in the works.

The thing that makes them work is that they take very little fabric given how easy going and loose they appear. I did move the front seam forward so the pocket bags are under my mom pouch/pooch. More storage area.

Putting the pockets on and matching them up is the only real construction detail. Threading the elastic probably is the most time consuming; they are an easy make. Which would explain the number of them I have. They are acceptable for office wear; loose but not sloppy.  Intentionally designed. I have five of them in brussels washer (the pair in the photos are linen/rayon yarn dye in mustard).

I have upgraded to 1.5" non roll elastic for the waistband; I can put more stuff in the pockets and have the pants stay up with that heavier grade. Your mileage will vary.

Happy Birthday Bob!

There has been sewing. Pants. Bob Pants

 As its probably apparent, there has been a bunch of stuff between me and writing about sewing. 

there has been mending. there is always mending.

I have been writing and researching for my last class, the one that stands between me and a certificate that proves I know another set of things that will be of little use in  terms of a job but useful in terms of 1) amusing me 2) using family school credits  3)useful in keeping the job I already have.

June 17th was the worst day I have ever had at work in ...almost forty years. This graffiti on the bus stop did cheer me up, and whoever drew it, I love you.

I have been sewing pants, in ten minute increments.

As dearly as I love a dueling set of prints that work together,

trying to brighten up the taupe on toast color scheme at work

but maybe not at work, I've made some 

Plain Bob Pants.

Where it gets fancy is on the inside.

I learned from previous versions that the Essex will fray but is so so so soft and drapy. It's divine and makes these into real secret pajamas.

https://stonemountainfabric.com/product/essex-wide-natural/

And I have bound all the interior seams.  Not all the binding matches. I'm just not quite that kind of girl.

Binding binding binding

Frida is watching over this

So much binding. Otherwise a normal set of Bobs. I have a 45" booty now, and I can make a pair out of 2 yds of anything as long as it's crossgrain.

I think I like the shirting fabric better for binding; the stripes look cool, it's lightweight and presses like a dream.

Edge stitched the top seam, stitched in the ditch most of the way around for the elastic channel. Using 1.5" elastic for the Bobs. I put a lot in my pockets, and I made the pockets bigger so I could put a lot more into them. 

Made a cardboard bodkin.

Oh my god more Bobs. This fabric is from Stonemountain too. https://stonemountainfabric.com/product/textured-yarn-dyed-cotton-seed-stitch-stripes-golden/

The pants could match the shirt made  from this AHenry print. They do go together

More more more binding. The  binding could have matched the pockets.

but the binding is what I have out so  here it is. It's a big lump at the crotch but in such a place that i can't notice it.

Put a tag on the back on this one. I also put a button on the front so I can find the front faster.

Reused the cardboard bodkin

and after threading the elastic through, I had an idea.

why use cardboard, which is hard to feel for in the channel while I'm feeding/feeling for it.

And that's the next post! BODKINMANIA

Bob and Variations

 

I can never make just one.

I have been wearing memade pants exclusively for (checks blog)

a jillion years. (2014) (and I did take the Craftsy Jeanius course and it changed my life)

https://www.craftsy.com/class/jean-ius-reverse-engineer-your-favorite-fit/

https://erniekdesigns.blogspot.com/2014/03/jeans-x3-sources.html

specifically: I just don't want to bother with the other pants anymore.

I have some things I want in pants and I got tired of buying pants and altering them. I got tired of pants not fitting, having stupid pockets, being uncomfortable.

I am not sure why I originally wanted one piece pants (I am prone to stunt sewing), but I did and I hammered on that pattern a lot. And the final iteration had the side seam towards the front, and an inseam pocket in it. And I was very happy with them, and was only lured to the Bob side by Instagram people.

(@theladywholunches, specifically)

The Bob uses less fabric and fits just right.

It does bear a strong resemblance to V8499 and V8561, both Marcy Tilton patterns

(please see http://communingwithfabric.blogspot.com/2010/03/vogue-8499-marcy-tilton-pants.html for her take on them)

Even Google thinks so; my search results for marcy tilton pants patterns shows the Bob pants and the Ethel:

So more Bobs happened.

Two yards, crossgrain layout: squeezed fronts backs waistband and facing for pockets (not entire pockets)

These took two yards of Ankara and used all but a couple of 8" x 5" triangular pieces.

A nice thing about ankara is that you can use it crossgrain to show off the print, and if the hem of the pants pieces is right on the selvage, the print lines up all around the pants.  and the front piece looks off grain. Except it's not if you look at the marking on the piece.

Well, we'll get to that

You should always mark the grainline on your pattern pieces; this is sewing 101. I've messed up so many pants by not paying attention to that, and the inevitable twist in the legs as they get washed and worn is just my pants telling me what a hack I am for not paying attention.

HACK! LOSER!

And looking at this diagram for the pattern pieces, there's an interesting set of grain choices.

The hems match the grain lines, but the grainlines don't entirely match the front and back seams. The front piece actually gives you a 1" by 8" wedge more fabric at the front seam (the gray wedge indicated below), starting with 1" at the waist and tapering to the crotch. I have more tum than I used to, and this is...not a bad idea. All three fabrics I used are so busy you can't notice the widening.

the yellow rectangles are square with the pattern's grainlines

Yes, it's weird, but I don't think it's wrong. the grain is consistent between the front and back, and the fit works for me, so I'm calling it hooray for the extra gray wedgy bit. I have added that and more into pajama bottoms to allow for cake consumption; why not start with it?

I ditch their pocket bag for one where the top seam gets sewn into the waist band so the weight of the bag is carried by the waist band, not the side seam (which the side gets sewn into). And my bag is bigger. bigger on the inside.

Inside out Bob pants, showing larger grey pocket bags (made from separate material), extending into the waistband and staystitched to the side seams

So here are the Bobs

Another Ankara, from House of MamiWata

and Tiger

from Alexander Henry, courtesy of Stonemountain and Daughter Fabrics

(I don't get paid or compensated by them, they have both done a great job by making it easy for me to give them money for fabric)

You can see where the pattern does not match up on the side (moved more to the front because extra pocket contents room under my tum) seam, and this needs to be a feature, not a bug. In another kind of print, I could turn the front panels sideways from the back, to make a contrast (I have done that with  stripes on another pattern, and it looks really cool)

This is a great pattern for ankara, as the body in most of those fabrics is really a great match for this style. The novelty cotton is a little too soft for it, but these will be fine once summer comes in August.

I suspect there's a couple more coming down the road....

Style Arc Bob Pants: Peer Pressure Pants

 Now here's something I don't say very often 
"I made these because everyone else made a pair and they looked great on them"

Style Arc Bob pants

and even more of a surprise:

"And they turned out pretty great!"

Pretty much straight size 18, with the usual adjustments: moved the side seams towards the front by an inch (you can see that on the grid board photo above, and on this inside out flatlay photo.

changed the pockets to hang from the waistband, and faced the visible edge.

used the selvedge edge as a trim on the inside waistband and visible on the hem

And I have two more cut out right now, ready to sew!