Silhouette Study

Struggling with my weight as I do, I am ever concerned about the combination of silhouette and comfort. I gravitate naturally to the latter.

Pants are my favorite bottom piece. I have a few skirts but I am never as comfortable in a skirt (or a dress) as in pants. Yet, I am curious about the silhouette I create.

CLD One-seams straight leg

CLD One-seams tapered leg

Here are four silhouettes I'm considering before making any more pants.

On the left, I'm wearing Cutting Line Designs one-seams in the straight leg version. I made these out of a linen-cotton blend that I think must have some rayon too. It is a drapey fabric which is good for this pair of pants. The CLD OS straight leg has a lot of ease - these are really too full for my comfort.

On the right, I'm wearing CLD one-seams in the tapered leg version. These are made out of 100% linen so not much drape. Still the silhouette is better than the straight-leg version, I think. This may be the best possible in a pull-on elastic waist pants. Favors the comfort factor heavily.

TSW Mimosa pants tapered leg

TSW Mimosa Pants straight leg

Next up is my TNT fitted pants pattern - a much tweaked version of the Sewing Workshop Mimosa pants. The pants on the left have a much more tapered leg than the ones on the right. I always feel better in the ones on the left than I do in the ones on the right.

I always feel a bit sloppy in the ones on the right. Now I see why.

Part of it is the fabric. The black ones on the left are made of a cotton-lycra, almost a canvas. The brown ones on the right are made of cotton sateen with the sateen side as the wrong side.

The straight leg style translates into a too-wide-pants, with my dimensions. And of course even a small amount of lycra translates into a closer, slimmer fit.

So the next step is to make a muslin of TSW mimosa pants with a tapered leg and see if I can get it to fit nicely even without lycra. This is a good opportunity to try out the contour waistband we've been discussing in my ASG NG.