Mirroring Suzy Bee Sews - Life So Strange It Should Be Fiction

I was asked recently to post up how I use my pants block. I just want to say, this is the way I do it, I'm sure there are different ways and I'm certainly not an expert! If anyone can suggest a smarter or different way to do it, please do! I've traced my pants blocks onto cardboard, I have one set with darts and one set with no darts. The different seam lines are just for woven and stretch fabrics. When use a stretch fabric I drop the rear crotch and take in the sides. You don't need to put it onto cardboard but I find it easier to see under my pattern. First step (This is the back of the pants). Mark the stitching lines on the top of the pants piece and the bottom of the waistband then align. I slide my pants block under at this stage and make sure the grain lines are parallel. I usually line up the crotch line on the pants block and the pattern, this way the inner leg length stays the same length and doesn't need adjusting later. Adjust the...

*Autumn SWAP* I really liked this pattern when I saw Sew Busy Lizzy's version and figured you can never have too many pairs of basic black trousers! I used my pants block to adjust the pattern but I was pretty impressed with this pattern, I had to add width and about 1" to the back rise and dropped the front rise by about 1" which is a lot less than normal. The fabric is bengalene out of my stash and the facings are the leftover scraps of sateen from the Christmas Macaron dress. I had this dubiously great idea of cutting the facing on the opposite grain to negate the stretch....It worked well, it has stopped the stretch but was a bit of a beast to sew and I really should have used a walking foot to make it easier. I used stay tape around the waist as well to stop it from stretching out. I've just downloaded Sandra Betzinas book Power sewing and found the elastic waistband treatments really interesting but in the end I didn't allow enough ease in the waist to use ...