Post the Seventh: A Decent Pair of PANTS Part Duex

  Ugh, it's been a hot minute. Forgive me. It's Spring around here. Which means no end of yearly house chores, garden clean-up, etc. Anyway, what was I working on? Oh, wait, yes! THE PANTS.

  
Any vest worth its salt has tails. Everyone knows this.

  Not a half bad for a first attempt with this pattern! But how did we get here? If memory serves, we left off with the front pockets assembled...

  So next comes the back pockets. These have reinforced tops so you don't see as much of the wrong side of the fabric. But anyway, overlock stitch the bottom of the reinforcement. Put right sides together, straight stitch, and trim edges. Flip it inside out and stitch along the top with the twin needle. Fold and press the edges. Then use the pattern to place the back pockets and twin needle them into place.   

 

(It looks vaguely like an autobot symbol. I know.)

Nice thing about back pocket top stitching is that no one is going to notice if you messed it up. And

 even if they somehow do, you can just snap at them for staring at your butt.

  And there you go! Back pockets.

  Next, attach the yoke pieces to the back pants and twin stitch to hold the seam into place. Do the same for the outside seam of the pant leg.

Oh cool. Moiré effect on fabric.

  At this point, assemble the lining. Which is really just the previous steps, sans worrying about pockets. Just straight stitch right sides together and slip in with the top fabric.

Not pictured: lining slip-sliding off work surface every 5 minutes.

  Deep breath. Because it's time to put in the zipper. It isn't that I hate this step. Or that it's even that difficult. Just that it's clunky and fiddly and is twenty steps to do a single thing. BUT. It's do-able. Just a deep breath and--

Funky looking thing.

 

  Stitch together the lining and top fabric from base of crotch to base of zipper. Baste, right side of zipper into place. Fold and stitch together right fly, then baste right fly to underside of right zipper. Now, on the topside, stitch all of these layers together--staying as close to the zipper as you can manage. Finish left side of pant fly.

  Did you get all that? Grea--what do you mean "no"? Look, I swear it makes more sense when you read the actual directions and actually start sewing one together.

  To do the J stitch part, trace the shape onto tissue paper then pin it to the fabric. You can stitch right through it no problem and then rip it off afterwards. Pin right fly out of the way, then attach left side of zipper to left fly. Stitch together the bottom of the right fly to the left. Snip off any excess bit of zipper. Make a bar tack stitch at the very bottom to reinforce all of this (and to make it look more jeans-y).

Oh TG. A plain old boring straight seam.

 

 Sew the inner leg seams together. Remember to keep the lining and top fabric separate. You don't have to go back over and twin stitch the inner leg seam, but I kind of like the look of it. It'll be a tight squeeze, but you can do it.

Now just slowly stitch a straight line.

 

A solid hour of work in one photo.

  Sew the crotch together. I say that it's a totally straightforward thing. The instructions say it like it's some straightforward thing. It is not. If you did the fitting step at the beginning, it certainly helps. But you will most likely not hit the fit on the first try. Or third. (Or sixth or seventh. I'm not judging.) The key here is to not give up. Just brew yourself a cup of coffee and--

1. Baste that seam.
2. Try on pants.
3. Note adjustments.
4. GO TO 1

--until you have a decent fit.

  Once you're satisfied (or at least mollified enough to proceed), do a second line of  stitching as indicated to, ah, give you a little insurance in case the seam were to ever snap. Go back and top stitch this with your twin needle and congrats! You have a functional pair of pants!

--Is what I'd like to say, but we have two more steps left. Mercifully, they're nowhere as hard.

Just taking a moment of vanity to point out how nicely those yoke seams line up. Thank you.

  Slipstitch top of pants. This makes fitting the waistband easier later on, as tempting as it is to skip this step.

  Align waistband according to guidelines. Fold over edges as shown. Pull on the slipstitch as necessary to get it to fit. Edgestitch around waistband to hold everything in place.

Vaguely slick looking.

  Waistbands need belt loops, or carriers as this pattern calls them. (I could find no difference in terminology, other than one sounds noticeably fancier than the other.) Take your strip of fabric, fold it into thirds, then press. Twin needle top stitch and then cut into five equal pieces. That's it!

 

After the stress of fitting that last seam, this was refreshingly fun.

  Baste the carrier in place according to instructions, roughly 1/4 inch below waistband. Fold over and bar tack into place. Fold top of the carrier down and baste stitch it so that's it's flush with the top of the waistband. Bar tack the top and trim off any excess carrier. Repeat for the other four carriers.

The machine, on the other hand, didn't like sewing through so many layers at once.

  The original instructions have you make a standard buttonhole-style closure, but I like the look of the smooth waistband so I'm going to use some hook and eye closures that were on hand. Making a thousand little loop stitches is tedious, but not hard. Also doesn't take as long as you think. Maybe 3/4 an episode of DS9? So, not bad.

The irony of tailoring while watching a show that features a tailor is not lost on me.

 To properly position the closures, try this. Once the hooks are sewn in place, insert the eyes into the hooks and place them on the zipped up waistband. Use pins to hold the eyes in place and (gently) unhook them from the hooks. Voilà! There you go.

  The absolute last thing. I swear. It's just a simple straight stitch too. Line up seams of lining and top fabric, fold it in at least a 1/4, and hem. Now the pants have a nice, clean edge to them.

 

Vaguely professional looking.

  Would've liked them maybe a smidge longer with these heels, but it won't matter for regular shoes and it definitely won't matter for the costume when they're shoved in those half-chaps. Still, they look fairly sharp and for all the hard work I'm fairly happy with the results.

 

  Next time: Crimney! I don't know. This was a surprising load of work for something so straightforward (on paper, at least). Probably either the jacket or the hat. Whichever is stressing me out the most.  

  Probably the hat.

 

Material Directory

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