Trouser Drafting with Kenneth D King

Trouser Drafting with Kenneth D King

This past weekend mom and I drove up to Minneapolis, Minnesota for our first sewing class ever. On Wednesday, we loaded up the car with suitcases, sewing machines, and our sewing tools and I left school early that afternoon so we could drive up and spend the night at my sister's house.  The first two days we hung out with my sisters and my nieces and then the second two days we spent 7-8 hours a day in class.
The class was hosted by the Minneapolis Textile Center and they had a great space to accommodate all fourteen students.  Mom and I showed up a bit early on Saturday, eager to get our space set up and to meet the guest speaker.
There was no sewing the first day, so we ended up not setting up our machines, but we were able to unpack tools for taking and recording measurements and then drafting the pattern.
After introductions by Kenneth himself, who has some of the best stories and one-liners to emphasize his noteworthy skills and resume, we did class introductions and it was so interesting to hear where people were in their sewing journey. There were beginners like me who had sewn few items- none of them were trousers- and there were experienced sewers who were still looking to broaden, improve, or refine their skill set. There were design students, hobbyists, people who sew on a daily basis, and others who are getting back into it after a few years hiatus.
Pattern drafting started with the essential step of taking measurements. For this, Kenneth listed what measurements were needed and modeled how to take them accurately.

Measuring crotch depth, that's a new one for me

Identifying waist and full hip placement

Then we paired off and measured our partner.  Remember, it's just a bunch of numbers, it's not a judgement on your worth as a person.

Kenneth's book, which you can purchase whether you take the class or not, has the drafting process laid out so clearly in pictures and text. He also does a remarkable job of breaking down the process in person, in this case with the aid of a large dry erase board, so that even the math phobic or the "it's been awhile since I've had to do math" among us barely hesitated during the process.

Mom drafting her pattern

Kenneth adjusting individual patterns

That first day seemed to fly by and when we left at 5 pm, everyone had a custom paper pattern for trousers.

Sunday we started a bit earlier than 9 am because Kenneth wanted to get us all sewing as soon as possible. He guided us in tracing our patterns and cutting out the muslin and then we had work time while each one of us put together our first muslin.

Muslin number one

When it came to creating the muslin, things could have gone more smoothly.  First, my sewing machine was not making a strong stitch.  The bobbin tension seemed be off, but after about 10 minutes of fiddling with it I finally moved over to share mom's Featherweight.  There wasn't time later in class that day to fix my machine, so I'll be following up on that sometime this week when I get home. Then, I sewed the first muslin pieces together incorrectly--made a leg from the front pieces sewn together and a leg from the back pieces sewn together. I started ripping out seams to fix that and one of my pieces of fabric tore. I cut another pair of front pieces and then found that the back pieces had stretched after having seams removed and ironed so they no longer lined up with the fronts. A very generous classmate gave me some extra muslin and I cut out a whole new muslin. By this time, most people had completed their first fitting with Kenneth and were having lunch. No lunch for me, had to keep sewing and install the front zipper. Mom, who had helped me redo everything-Thank you!-- and I had our first fitting after lunch.

They started out fitting like loose pajamas, but Kenneth fixed that.

Kenneth made adjustments to the muslin and transferred the changes to our pattern and then we were back to make our second muslin. I felt a bit rushed at the end of class, but Kenneth is a professional and didn't appear the least bit flustered.

Wouldn't you like a peek into Kenneth's brain to see how he organizes all the info and skills he has in there?

It really is fascinating to watch him simultaneously carry on a conversation and flawlessly fit and edit pattern after pattern for hours on end. You learn so much in this class, and yet, you know it's just a fraction of what you could learn from him if time permitted.
As we packed up our things at the end of class on Sunday, we were all leaving with a pattern for our third, and probably, final muslin. Maybe next weekend I will be able to get some more muslin and try out the final fit.  I'm thrilled to think that I'll actually be able to make pants that fit me correctly. I thoroughly enjoyed taking this class and I would love to take another class with Kenneth or participate in one of his sit and sews. This class opened up so many sewing possibilities and it got me excited about tackling those future projects.