In this post I started printing to copy a dress design that I came across. I had a pair of white pants that I printed to look like this:
As I had unpicked the pants to print them, I now had to sew them back together to fit me. I need some shape in these pants - the original pants had an elastic waist and a drawstring and I wanted to remake them with a zip front so that they are quite fitted. I got out my black jeans to use as a pattern.
The white pants were quite a bit bigger than my jeans.
What I had to watch when I cut them down though, was that they didn't have the stretch in the fabric that the jeans have.
I used the top of the jeans as a template and made a rough pattern. I mostly needed the shape where the zip would fit in. I've never cut pants out before.
You can see on the jeans how it overlaps and fits together. I'll have to decide what to do about the button, too.
Once I had cut the two legs out, I pinned all of the seams with safety pins so that I could try them on.
Still a bit big in the waist, hmm. The legs are the right size, but I will need to hem the bottom.
I did some quick tucks with pins and was happier. Now to actually make them fit like that...
They fit pretty well in the back!
Overlocked all of the raw edges.
And started trying to figure out the zip in the front. I hadn't cut the front shape of the pants quite right, so it took some cutting and pinning.
I had to fold some of the front fabric under, to create the zip line.
Maybe I should have cut the excess off, but I knew that the extra fabric would stabilise the front. So I left it and sewed carefully around the metal eyelets from the original pants.
I pinned in place and thensewed the bottom half of the zip, and then the top half, making sure that they lined up.
Sewing machines generally come with a variety of feet for different purposes. The A foot, on the left, is the regular/general sewing one. The E foot, on the right, is for zips. Having all of the stabilising metal removed makes it easier to manoeuvre the sewing around the ridge of the zip.
See how it sits in the groove below?
Once the zip was in I could make the pants fit properly around the waist with a couple of darts sewn in.
Chopped some length off the legs to make them fit, using the rotary cutter and a rule to make sure I did it straight.
A very quick hem on the bottom.
I also made some more belt loops out of the scraps, as I must have removed some when I made my husband's costume. I like to have extra belt loops, so that the waistband doesn't scrunch up in a weird way.
There was a hole next to where I wanted to put a belt loop on the back, so I did a quick patch job on it at the same time.
Only a couple of the original belt loops remained and they're the white ones. I found a plain black button in my stash and created a button hole to match.
I removed the front right pocket of the white pants when I made my husband's costume. Since that's my dominant hand, I wanted to put a pocket back on to use. Given the odd patterns on the pants, I didn't think it would make too much of a difference having two different pockets.
Finishing the sewing off: tying off all of the loose threads, my least favourite thing.
The finishing touch: an iron-on motif from the local sewing store. A lot more fiddling and bits to finish than I thought it would be. When I had gotten to putting the zip in I thought it would only take me another half an hour! 2 weeks later...
It took less than a minute to iron on.
Liking the view from here and they fit really well.
And my stripey, crazy pants are done. Do I dare wear them to work this week?
#lovelypennypatterns
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