V 8156 - Thread Tracing
The couture version of Claire Shaeffer’s pants pattern calls for thread tracing the lengthwise grain on the front and back (or crease line on the front pattern piece), the crossgrains at the crotch line and knee, as well as the foldlines at the fly opening and the back pocket, along with the fitting seamlines.
For thread tracing you will want to use silk thread - I used YLI slk thread, which is SO YUMMY I could eat it up with a spoon. Don’t cheat on this and use whatever you have hanging around - the silk thread is necessary because it can take an iron without leaving an imprint and pulls out from the fashion fabric in one nice long piece without shredding and leaving little tufts of thread behind. A note on the color - I chose to use a steel gray that was slightly warmer than my fabric - although difficult to see online, I felt like it was a safe choice, in case the thread traced seams got caught up in a machine seam and became difficult to extract. (So far I’ve only removed a few basting seams, so I’ll report back if this does indeed become an issue.)
Each piece (front and back) were cut out in a single layer, so I could match the herringbone design - the crease on both front pant legs is on the same exact \\// herringbone pattern. (This would be the slightly rippled line going up the middle of the pants leg in the accompanying photo.)
Because these pants are cuffed, each pant leg had three lines of thread tracing at the bottom - seam line at 5/8″, then the hem line above that and finally the foldline above that.
For the how-to’s on thread tracing, I relied on the following, which I hope will be helpful to anyone who choses to try their hand at it!
* Couture Sewing Techniques by Claire Shaeffer, pgs. 38-39
* Thread Tracing tutorial on Couture et Tricot
* PatternReview.com Knowledgebase
* Ann Rowley on Tailor Tacks
For the record, I chose to use my Dritz sewing gauge to mark 5/8″ seam line on all pattern pieces that would be thread traced. I then lay the pieces on top of the fabric and found the crease line (for the front pieces. Removing the pattern piece, I thread traced the length of the crease, and then replaced the pattern on top, matching the crease line to the thread traced fabric (in this way, I was certain that the pattern would not shift, thereby moving the crease line). Then I pinned around the pattern piece, leaving one side unpinned. I folded up the pattern piece to my tick marks (done with my sewing gauge) and thread traced along the folded edge. I then repinned that side and moved on to the next section. This easily took me over an hour to thread trace and cut out each large piece. Ha - but don’t let that scare you! :)