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

Big Tops, Knit tops for winter

At least I had a coupon for this splurge

I don't want to screw it up. I went to look for Miyake sweater examples and really didn't find much to tempt me

So I'm trying out things  The Style Arc Brooklyn uses some of that acrylic backed faux sweater knit, which is really heavy (heavier and stiffer than scuba to some extent) The Freya and the Winnie I have made before. The Iris (similar but larger collar than Freya) and the Jasper are in there to poke my brain.

Heaps of ideas all scrambled together

Remember the Bristol? So glad i tagged that post with the chicken tag

https://erniekdesigns.blogspot.com/2015/02/what-i-bought-at-sewexpo-today.html

I made one at one point and it was a dud, so dud it went straight to the recycle bin. I was so full of myself in 2015. I think everyone learns more from the duds, frankly.

And there was this with the Freya and the Winnie Style Arcs

https://erniekdesigns.blogspot.com/2021/04/a-couple-of-style-arc-knit-tops-that.html

In the meantime, I finally decided what to do with the sweatshirt dress

original Etsy image, more color accurate. 

It was a hot mess as sewn. The pockets were on the side seams; if I had stabilized them, they would have looked terrible. So I sat on this for a year. To avoid working on the stuff I needed to be working on, I sliced and reattached this.

I am liking it, better photo later.

And the horizontal seam made me think

The width at the midwaist does not work: I have altered that

I've done purposely ridged seams before, even it does feel sloppy.

It's a recycled knit pullover with a huge pieced cowl collar (photo shows serger seaming)

I have no problem cutting up sweatshirts to frankensew into new things. I'm just more cautious with new fabric (just realizing as I write this that there's another pullover I made this week that is so awful I didn't bother to take photos)

So I tried the Winnie in a sweatshirt terry 

not the real color

Not a twin needle but went around twice, as once just looked sad.

tacking down the collar on the side seams per the minimal instructions

It's okay. But now I know what I want to do with the Miyake knit. Three, four shirts later.

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!