Sewing Diary: Work Pants, Part 2

I'm back for another installment of Sewing Diary.  Read on to learn how to insert a zipper fly and make somewhat matching welt pockets.

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Review the instructions again, making sure to follow the notes I've made for myself.  For some reason, this pattern has the zipper opening up on the opposite side than normal, so the first pair I made always confuses me when I go to zip up or down.

Change to a zipper foot in order to be able to stitch close to the zipper.

(Oops, looks like I forgot to document a couple steps.  Must have been too busy concentrating!) 

Fast forward to the part where the topstitching of the fly is done, and remove the blue marks with water.

Make some additional blue marks that had previously been forgotten. 

Try to precisely line up the fabric along the edge of the zipper.

After sewing, pull the threads underneath and tie off.  

Trim the seam on the underfly piece and clip the curved edges so they will turn nicely.

Press the underfly piece with lots of steam, as per usual. 

Ignore the loose serger stitches.

Measure and mark.  Looks like the curve could have used a few more clips and a little better pressing. 

Practice stitches that will tack the underfly to the pants.  

Be glad I ran out of bobbin thread on the test stitches and not the real thing.

Change to a new, fully loaded bobbin.  Also be glad that I prepped several bobbins ahead of time, so I wouldn't have to unthread and rethread the machine during the sewing process.  

Sew two sets of tacking, but rip out the one that doesn't really look good there. 

Ah, much better. 

Admire the finished zip fly. 

Notice that I should have serged these edges before starting the fly.

Make a note in the instructions for next time.  I'm not sure how I missed this step the previous times I have made this pattern up. 

Attempt the serging after the fact with questionable results.  Oh well, this part of the pants is now complete, so don't worry about it and just move on.

 Stop and wonder why the stitches got so wonky on the back darts. 

Rip out the stitches and try again...

...with much better results, though I never figured out what was causing the problem in the first place.

Press the darts over a sewing ham that helps simulate the curve of one's booty (or any other curved body part).

Psych myself up for the hardest part with the help of the King of Soul.

Hope the process goes better than last time.  (In which I started sewing the pockets to the incorrect side of the fabric, then tried to redo it on the correct side which left me with this mess.  Luckily I had bought plenty of fabric so I ended up just cutting out entirely new back pants pieces.)

 Mark and pin the pieces as precisely as I can muster - on the correct side of the fabric.

 

Try to replicate the precision on both pieces. 

After sewing the "window," perform nerve-wracking incisions through the welt piece and the back pants piece. 

Success!  Try not to worry too much about the irreversible, gaping hole in my pants, as I did not have enough fabric to cut new pieces if something went awry.

Make a mess of some more stitching, rip out, and redo.  (Yes, this happens on a somewhat regular basis, most likely the result of user error and not a problem with the machine.)

Partway to success, as seen from the inside and outside of the pants. 

Assemble the last puzzle pieces of the pockets.

Check the functionality of the slightly wobbly welt pockets.

Tame the mess that resulted from so many lines of stitching. 

Part three is coming up next, in which I finish everything up and learn a handy trick for finding those stray pins that always wind up on the floor.

CSA Week 10

This week was like Christmas, in that everything was either red or green.  We got two kinds of cucumbers, arugula, green beans, endive, radishes, romaine lettuce, and strawberries.  I am looking forward to making some strawberry shortcake once HH gets back from his most recent work trip.

Sewing Diary: Work Pants, Part 1

Feeling some guilt about my lack of sewing posts, I decided to go all out and create a new feature called Sewing Diary, in which I take tons of pictures and record my thoughts about the process of creating a garment or other sewn item from start to finish.  It remains to be seen if I will make this a recurring feature or a one timer.

For now, I hope you enjoy seeing a more detailed post about the process of turning this:

into this:

(Just a note that this post is going to be written in more than one part, as there are approximately 120 pictures of the process!)

Step 1: Buy fabric.  I bought this fabric on Ebay, though other common sources of my fabric are Goodwill and Etsy.

Wash and dry fabric and least once, which is especially important for pants that would become utterly unwearable if they shrank too much.

 

Iron fabric before even thinking about cutting anything out. 

Lay out fabric precisely (or as precisely as I can muster) on grain.  For me this means measuring and shifting the fabric at least 10 times until I'm satisfied with it being close enough.

Lay out and pin pattern pieces, also precisely on grain. 

 Make adjustments as I go, then adjust the adjustments as needed along the way.

Compare pattern pieces to previous versions of the garment, just in case I think I might have changed something without actually writing it down.  In this case, I did not.

Use rotary cutter with a fresh new blade to make quick work of cutting out the fabric.  Note the extensive pattern adjustments that have been made (see the tape, pen, and pencil marks that appear on most pattern pieces).

Remember to snip all the parts that need snipping.  Inevitably forget to snip some, which requires matching the pattern up to the cut out piece at a later, less convenient time.

Save the big scraps for other projects.  

Try to get away with pinning as little as possible. 

Decide if any of the little scraps are worth saving, and toss the rest. 

Accidentally cut too many welt pocket pieces.  

Once I'm tired of cutting everything out, remember I still need to cut interfacing for a couple of pieces.  

Fuse the interfacing to the fabric, using a press cloth and that has been sprayed with some water. 

Come up with tasks that take 10-12 seconds while the iron does the work.  

Organizing the mess I just made is always a good decision.

 Try to fold the pattern pieces up neatly. 

Remember that I still have some lining pieces to cut after putting all the pattern pieces away.  

 Audition thread and zippers.

Wind a couple of bobbins from the bobbin case with the chosen thread.

Thread sewing machine and serger.  

Test the serger stitches on a scrap of fabric.

Review the sewing instructions.

Remind myself which piece is which before stitching anything together. 

Determine right side and wrong side.  On this fabric it is fairly easy to detect. 

Wonder why the pieces don't really line up. 

Chainstitch as much as possible.  This means to not stop and cut the threads after each individual piece has been sewn, but to keep on going so the pieces are linked and can be cut apart later. 

Wonder why the serger twisted up the edges. 

Press them flat. 

Sew as much as possible at once before needing to press anything, which is where the chainstitching comes in handy.  

Trim the seams constantly. 

Use pressing tools as needed. 

Roll the outer edge in a little bit so you won't be able to see the lining from the outside, and press in place.  

Remember to clip thread tails as I go. 

Admire the progress, no matter how small!

Stay tuned for part two, in which I tackle both a fly front and back welt pockets!