I Have Great Fitting Pants!

I have been busy busy busy trying to make a well fitted pair of pants. You may recall my first attempt. I tried them on and smoothed them out in front of my mirror and thought they were a little tight, but otherwise excellent - until I walked around in them and saw what happened once the stretch fabric "relaxed". I made a second pair of pants from a self drafted pattern and I was so disappointed, I wanted to cry. They were just terrible and I had such high hopes for them... In desperation about a week ago, I called Nashua Sew and Vac 30 minutes before they closed last Sunday and asked Sherri if they had Bernina My Label in stock. She said yes. I told her I would be there in ten minutes! I didn't even ask her how much it was! I remembered looking at the program about a year ago and deciding it was too much money, but now I was desparate to get a good fitting pant pattern and dissect it to find out what makes a good pattern fit. It turns out I got it at quite a bit off the original retail price of $499! I am doing the Happy Dance!! I love this software!!

My Label is pattern drafting software with a really cool feature. It allows you to customize a 3D model with 47 measurements. As the measurements are entered, the model morphs to reflect each measurement. After all the measurements are entered you can choose a style and see a custom drafted pattern appear on the work table. You can tweak the style measurements (which are based on the model measurements) and then try it on the model. I have had so much fun playing with this virtual fitting room! I can see what styles look good on me without having to stitch them up first! I have made two test garments and I am working on qualifying my measurements - a process of making a muslin and measuring the fit of the muslin in order to tweak the model measurements.

I have a really good fitting pair of pants from my first draft! The beauty is that there is FABULOUS support documentation available. I found this PDF file which taught me about some of the figure variations I had never considered before and how to correct the pant pattern to fit better. If you have ever had trouble fitting pants, give it a read.