My New Favorite Pants

Attention All Aussies: Send more stretch bengaline! NOW!! ;-)

OMG, I love this fabric! It makes me look slimmer, it even makes me feel slimmer, it glides over my legs because the inside feels slippery like it's lined (it's not), and it's easy-care, easy-sew. The only thing I don't like about it is that I ran out. Ahem. Aussies? That's where you come in. It's just not commonly available here in the States. I have no idea why not!

In case you joined us in the middle, these are the pants I planned to make from KS 3277 way back on November 12. They were to be the final. All the others (the UFOs referred to yesterday) are the wearable muslins leading up to these. I did actually finish them not long after November 12, but needed to wait to find new shoes in order to hem them. They are now complete! And very wearable! Yay! Can you see me dancing? And they match my favorite top so perfectly. I love it when a plan comes together. ;-)

OK, stop dancing, Debbie. The back isn't perfect. But I already knew that and have since decided that the crotch curve in KS 3277 isn't the best for me. But still, they aren't too bad and it's not like I go around looking at my own backside anyway.


Hemming them was an exercise in creative thinking, though. If I turned up a full hem, they were going to be a tad too short. Not highwaters, but not the best length for the new shoes, or the old legs. What to do, what to do?? If I had had any sizeable scraps available, I would've faced the hemline and turned up the facing. But I barely had even threads left over. Hmmm. On to Plan B.
Plan B turned out to be facing the hemline with Seams Great. If I had had black, I would've picked that instead of the glaring white on the brown bengaline. But I was on a mission to finish these and I wasn't going to interrupt my momentum with a trip to the store. White it was. (I think this is 1-1/4" wide, but the package is upstairs and I'm not.)



I used a 3/8" seam allowance and attached it the bottom of the pants in the round, overlapping at the join about 1/4". Then I pressed the SA's toward the Seams Great and then I pressed the Seams Great and SA's under to form the hem, rolling it toward the inside so the white wouldn't be right at the edge.

I first tried a basic straight stitch hem. That worked great technically but looked kind of cheap and icky on the outside of the pants. Too much stitching. So, I tried a machine blind hem (I avoid hand sewing at great lengths.) Looked great on the outside, but not so good on the inside. But really, who's going to see the inside of my hems in real life?? I kept it. The Seams Great is exceptionally thin and even though the edge "picot-ed" a bit with the blind hem stitch, it really adds no bulk at all. It doesn't look like it in the photo below, but trust me. Or look at the next photo.


This shows the finished hems. No stitching shows, no bulk, and only a glimpse of the white … if you're looking UP inside my leg. Problem solved, mission (and pants) complete.


And just for added reassurance, I took a pic of the hems with me wearing the pants. Still no white showing, even with my leg raised up. (It was fun trying to balance on one leg and take a photo at the same time!)

We Interrupt This Jeans Report To Bring You …

… more PJs!

I finished the purple jeans and tossed them into the laundry to remove the glue basting (back pockets) and chalk/pen marks (all over). And then I had no more excuses for ignoring the KS 3277 test sews in various stages of completion still strewn about the sewing room. I want to make a top to wear with the jeans, and then a jeans-style jacket, but all of these unfinished potentially wearable muslins are making me nuts. I don't really like UFOs and clutter, and work better when I've finished one thing before moving onto the next.

I finished up two of those test pants last night and have the other two pairs still to do tonight. From last night's sewing, one will be wearable outside the house and the other turned into this PJ set. Yeah, forget what I said about finishing one project before starting another because in the middle of trying to finish these, I decided they needed a matching top. Which means I started something else without finishing all of the test pants and also created more mess when I added the tee fabric the mix. But rules are made to be broken, and hey, at least I also finished it. Plus, it's going to be very cold here tonight (even non-Floridians would consider it cold, maybe), so I really wanted some nice new snuggly PJs and a top with long-ish sleeves. These fit the bill rather nicely (if I do say so myself!).

The pants are a beefy cotton/Lycra blend with great recovery. The top is 100% cotton interlock. While the lime green top does actually match the green in the pants in real life, I wanted to tie both pieces of the to-be set together a little more. So I bound the neckline and sleeve hems with the pants print and then I created an iron-on transfer for the front of the top.

To make the transfer, I scanned a scrap of the fabric and separated out some of the motifs. Then I re-combined those into a new design, which I outlined with more of the green and printed off onto opaque transfer paper. (Love that stuff!) Voila!

The sun is down and it's dark outside now. It's only 6:30 PM but I'm very tempted to strip Zillie of her new outfit and start snuggling in my new PJs.

In the meantime, we now return you to the regularly scheduled jeans. This is one of the back pockets. After sewing it on for the second time. If you squint, you can see the deco stitching in the bottom right corner of the pocket. It shows up nicer in real life and I like the subtle effect. If you keep squinting and look at the pic of the PJs above, you can see the completed jeans hanging behind Zillie.

This …

… is what I've been doing in the sewing room for the last day. Look familiar? It's The Ghost Threads of Topstitching Past. I'm guessing you've seen this ghost a time or two.

It visited me while I was working on the purple jeans. I had them complete except for hems last night. I'd been trying them on and adjusting the whole way through. I sewed and topstitched the sideseams. I sewed and topstitched the crotch seam from back to front. I sewed the back pockets on, and topstitched and added a decorative stitch. They were perfect. And finally, I sewed the waistband on and topstitched it. It was perfect too, one of my best.

Then I tried the jeans on again and I could take them off without undoing the zipper. Arghhh. Sometimes, no matter how many times you've done this before, something just doesn't work out. That's my story and I'm stickin' to it, because really, I have no idea why it didn't work out as basted and pretested.

To fix the problem would mean taking in the waistband at the center back and tapering a slight "dart" down the center back seam. To do that meant ripping out part of the waistband and all of its perfect stitching and topstitching, then ripping out all of the topstitching on the crotch seam. Which then meant that the back pockets would end up too close together to look right to my eye.

Fast forward. I've now finished all the ripping out and have resewed/topstitched the crotch seam and waistband. Next up will be re-attaching the pockets and topstitching those. And then I'll be back to where I was 24 hours ago.

The jeans are OK now but they're not going to be a favorite I don't think. Maybe a few days out of sight while in the Magic Wardrobe will fix that. We'll see. Sigh. At least they stay up now when I sit or bend over and I don't have to worry about being mistaken for a plumber. ;-)

Stash acquisitions

I lucked out with fabrics at Joann's on Saturday. These are what followed me home, although there were plenty others who wanted to join them.

1. Wonderful brown doubleknit. I wish they had more. There was only 2.25 yards on the bolt and I bought it all. It will probably be "yoga" pants. I've been living in the black pair I recently made.

2. I didn't buy this on Saturday, but it's here so you can see it next to #3. I bought this from Joann's last winter. It's cross-hatched denim (no Lycra) and will be the jeans I'm currently working on. It's cut and I'm in the middle of pin-fitting.

3. Paisley textured stretch denim, 3 yds. This will be a casual, unlined jacket.

4., 5., 6. Heavyweight denims (no Lycra), 3 yds each. #5 is a brushed denim, very nice. These will all be jeans. I'm still on the look-out for solid brown heavyweight, non-stretch denim/twill. I have a lot of brown print knits in the stash that want to become cool weather tops to wear with brown or blue jeans.

Again I did not come home with a big cutting mat, but only because I didn't see any. The whole sewing area of the store had been re-arranged since my last visit (but in a good way!) so I probably just missed it. Plus, I was too enchanted by all of the nice fabrics on display. Yes, nice fabrics at Joann's. Imagine that.

I also bought an entire bolt of muslin and used my 50% off coupon, saving myself over $12. Woo hoo! Love those coupons. I used the 40% coupon for the brown knit (saving approximately another $10), as it was the only non-sale fabric. Then I used my ASG discount card for an additional 10% off the rest of my purchases. So all of those fabrics, two magazines, and one clear ruler for less than $100. And, I came back with ZERO patterns, even though Simplicity was on sale. I looked but nothing really spoke to me.

I think I did well.

Weekend Sewing Plans

While I like the latest pants, they still aren't true jeans and true jeans is what I'm wanting. So ... I have dug out a pattern and will see how my new set of alterations will work on that. But first, I'm off to Joann's to see what denims they have and to pick up some muslin. I hope I also remember to buy a big cutting mat. The last time I was there I completely forgot that was on my list.

I also hope all the crowds are at the mall and not at Joann's.