Post the Sixth: A Decent Pair of PANTS Part 1

Finally. Six posts in and the sewing blog actually does some sewing.

 Where did I leave off? Oh, right. Continuing on with M8473.

 Corduroy is a pain to cut out. See, normally patterns do this super-helpful thing where they show you a pattern layout on 45" and 60" bolts.

Blesséd be the layout.

 But corduroy has wales and to insure those wales stay parallel means cutting everything out piece by piece. That's cool. Totally wasn't planning on doing anything else tonight. Or the night after.

Swear to you this is the same fabric from the same bolt.

 And then there's this whole other thing. 

 Know I said I would cut with the nap going up, but with fabric in hand I think the other way is the way to go. But you can clearly see that, can't you? With the nap running down the color is noticeably richer. Just glad I noticed this BEFORE cutting pieces out.

 So, one eternity later, we have our cut corduroy. It's often recommended to finish the edges on corduroy, but this doesn't seam prone to fraying. So, just going to skip that. If it really needs to be done, the pattern will tell me so.

 The pattern also has you cut out a few pieces of interfacing. It specifies a lightweight fusible and I'm using a Pellon version of that. Just enough to give the piece a little more thickness, but not actually bulk it up.

 Hey since we're here, here's my machine:

My Little Workhorse.

 The Singer 7426:  an entry level machine if ever there was. It can do nothing fancy, but what it does do it does incredibly reliably. If the internet is any indication, it's also not prohibitively expensive. (Saw a working one at some town's Goodwill going for $50, if that's any indication.)

 Mom actually bought this for me back in college, which was (ahem) a while ago. Doubtless there are worlds better machines available, but it does what I ask and doesn't give me guff so I've never felt a pull to upgrade.

 One last thing before getting rolling. While the wrong side of this corduroy isn't scratchy, it's...not pleasant either. Weirdly sort of rough and off-putting. And a little thin. Not to the level of being uncomfortable or anything. It just feels very...meh?

 So we're adding a lining to this! No one can stop me, so why not? The fabric I'm using is a Bemberg, which is a type of rayon, but any kind of slippery fabric will work. You could even splurge on silk if you are so inclined. (Promise to keep my jealousy to myself.)

Pattern promises this will turn into something.

 Okay! One eternity later the pieces are finally all cut out. All of it! A quick test with the iron and it's a relief to see that this will press with minimal hassle. A scrap piece of corduroy or muslin will work just fine. Which is great because the next step involves ironing interfacing to a few pieces. 

 

For that second photo those of you with great spatial skills can play the game "where do these pieces go?"

 To better mimic the stitching you see on jeans, the instructions want you to stitch parallel lines. I...can't do that. Well I can, but it'll look terrible. Luckily, there's a way around that.

For all the world looking like weapon accessory. Yeah, that's right. It's nerdlinger all the way down over here.

 So the twin needles easily allow you to stitch parallel lines without having to match everything up perfectly. Unfortunately, this means threading the machine by hand. Twice. But the results look so much more professional.

Nothing makes you feel older faster than trying to thread a needle by hand.

 Next they make you assemble that weird little mini-pocket-within-a-pocket doohickey. Nowadays it's called a coin pocket--although I'll be deuced if I've ever seen someone use it to that end. Back in the day it used to be much larger and was used to store your watch, but no one carries pocket watches anymore so it's shrunk over time. In a couple of decades it'll probably just be this small, decorative swatch inside the front pocket. Like the wisdom teeth of garments.

 

 ANYWAY. Fold top side down and tuck in the edge so there's a clean edge front and back. Top stitch to get those swanky parallels.

 

 Fold the sides in and a quick press. Position it on the inside of the front pocket according to the pattern and top stitch. And viola, the mostly-useless coin pocket.

 

Now just sew the inside of the pockets together and trim off the excess.

Do the same (sans coin pocket) for the other front piece and there we go! Front pockets assembled. 

Next time: Well, hopefully going to finish up the pants. Still not totally convinced these will actually fit, but that's Future Me's problem!

Material Directory

Sewing machine, twin needle: Singer (Can be found most places, if not ordered from them directly)

Current background music: Ai Yamamoto + Dan West. "Pompo." Microdoses.

Time until deadline:  146 days