Creating A Print for my Ponte Pants 🎨 - Your Weekly Guide from Sewing Artistry

Published: Fri, 04/09/21

Basic

April 9, 2021

Creativity has always been a huge conundrum for scientist, psychologists, and even artists to figure out because it's hard to grab onto something that isn't concrete. Something that has mass, like a chair or a boat. This is more like air, and how in the world do we grab onto air, and yet we can not exist without it. This is exactly the problem with creativity. We can't really grab it, but we can not live without it.

Now not everyone can be classified as an artist, however we are all creative. Here's what I mean. You wouldn't normally call an accountant creative, but what happens when he gets a client who is paying a lot of taxes? Maybe there's a way, legally, that this client doesn't have to pay so many taxes and because this accountant can think creatively, he can find that way. What about a banker? It's the banker who can work within the parameters of the bank to help finance a new business. That would certainly classify as creative.

But being an artist is a little more than simple creativity. Most creatives have a world of rules and regulations within which they work. Artists not only don't work within those rules, but they practice breaking them on a regular basis. Here's what I mean by that for us sewists.

We wouldn't normally think of wools or heather wools to be formal, but designers about eight or so years ago, started creating a lot of formal wear in wools and not really super refined wools, but woven heathery type wools.

Using a variety of different types of fabrics in one way to be creative, but another is the print or colors of fabrics. I think I've told you that we have this very evil man who owns a fabric shop here in town and he ordered in a fabric printing machine which has to be double evil. I mean, having the fabrics isn't enough - he has to order in a custom-print fabric machine. And for creative people this is like alcohol to the alcoholic. I guess that makes me a creatoholic!!!!

The first project I've really devoted any attention to is for a scuba knit pair of pants. He has rolls and rolls of plain white scuba knit just waiting for a design to be printed on it. Right now - it's spring here in the US - I'm thinking along the lines of an eighteenth century watercolor floral wallpaper type design.

So in the creating process, sometimes you need a goal and sometimes you don't. I find it easier with a goal. That can be seeing a fabric that is so awesome, but not exactly knowing what to do with it, or seeing a design, but not sure what fabric it's made for. The later is where I am right now. I want to do a floral scuba pant, but really not sure exactly what floral. Eighteenth century florals are usually in the Chinoiserie or "China style" with amazing detail, but also closer to a Rococo style. Watercolor makes the design more casual and not so much on the realism side. The idea of doing pants tends more toward casual, and especially floral pants which scream casual, so definitely more watercolor than realism.

Doing a quick image search here are some ideas that appeal to me.

All of these hit the spot for a ponte pant print for summer pants. I like the deeper colors on the lower right, but I love the idea of doing something symmetrical up the side of my pant leg - a print that looks like it was designed for the fabric.

Here's how this looks. It's incredibly subtle. As a matter of fact the last time I saw this, I was working a wedding and had be rushing around doing this and that not paying much attention to the mother of the groom, who I knew to be a very astute fashionista and could afford the best. Finally when I looked at the hem of her dress and looked at her, she saw the astonished look on my face when I say, "Your dress!!!!" And she said, yeah - she was lucky the hem worked for her. Notice, the hem in front (on the right side of the photo above. Now, notice how the design of the hem goes all the way around in back, even though the dress has a train on it. This is a damask design. That means that not only did the design have to be worked on before, it had to be woven in place so that the hem would work. The hem of the dress is longer in back, thus the damask design has to be longer in back than in front and that doesn't happen on a straight fabric. You can see the WOW feature this is - when you know what to look for.

Imagine pants that have delicate 18th century watercolor flowers growing from a garden at the hem, then growing up the side of the pant leg. Yeah, that's what I'm looking for here.

Here's my first attempt with something that looks so happy which is exactly what I wanted.

There are a few more flowers on the back piece than front and that needs to be addressed. The outline of the pants also needs to be considered as this pant has a marvelous leg cut and I do not want to lose that, however I will place both pieces together at the hip and hem seams and that line (from hip to hem) will be the new straight of grain. Because of the leg cut, that won't be a straight seam and I will have a "dart" to create the great leg cut. On a scuba knit that is already stretchy, not being exactly on the grain won't be too much of a problem. The only other thing is that this will print out at about 1¼ yard to make sure I have enough for my length. The waistband on my Barb Pant will be in the green on the side of the legs since it really won't show that much anyway.

I'm also thinking that an ombre background from very light at top to darker below might be a really fantastic print - maybe the other way around. My hips are big enough - I do NOT need more projecting of my hips! Next step is to get hex chart printed out so that I know what colors I'm dealing with and can correct all my colors.

There is nothing like sketching and playing around to see how a whole new creative look will take shape. I spent about 3 hours creating this to balance it, make sure it had movement, that I wasn't putting big flowers on the side seam dart area. To top it all off, I've have two killer pieces of ponte for the tops - one a celery green and the other a beautiful salmon - the color of my pants.

I know this may seem like a little advanced. But I want you all to see what you can do with your pants once you have a pattern set up.

More next week!

Welcome to the world of a great fitting, flattering and comfortable pant. Yes, it's possible and no it doesn't take a Ph.D. from FIT!!!! Once you have this pattern perfected, making pants up is a cinch. It takes an afternoon for a newbie, but for a pro, a couple of hours -- once you have that pattern perfected.

This is the pant that I wear that gets the most compliments and even pros in the business remark at how well it fits because the hang and drape is so good. What they don't know that I do, is that this pant has the "Aaaaahhhh" factor. When I sit down I'm never worried about whether the pant will split or I'm going to have my eyeballs pop out cause the pants are so tight!

And that's what this resource does. Included in the resource are:

Instructions on the kind of fabric to use and why
Instruction on the pattern to use and why
Instruction on fit, hang, the drape of the pant
Instruction on hems and hem styles
and when to use what style where
Instruction on finishing techniques
Instruction on variations of this ponte pant
Instruction on styling for different figure types
Instructions for care

This is full of inspiration, and instruction and is one of my most popular classes at Bernina when I teach in person - hopefully we will do that again!!!

In the meantime here's a fun class at the usually special discount for new resource introduction.