Sunday, September 9, 2007

First week of school and still got something done!

I've finished my big-legged pants. My husband and 13-year-old son say they are weird, but my 17-year-old son says they are fashionable. Since he's the one checking out girls, he's the one whose fashion judgment I'll trust. Mine are a bit big in the thighs compared to today's wide-leg pants, but that's a problem with my body. My hips are large while my thighs are very skinny. If you cut me horizontally right through the waist, the part that's left below would look just like a mushroom. It's hard to fit something on my hips and thighs at the same time. If the fabric fits, I still look weird.

In the end, I like them. They are comfortable. The fit in the butt better than any pants I've ever made. I finally got the crotch curve lowered right to I don't have wrinkles pointing to my butt.
The fabric was very loosely woven. I interfaced the seams along the hip area, where I would expect stress. I also zig-zagged along the seam allowance, catching the serging threads and extending the anchoring closer to the straight stitch. Without the zig-zag, I think the serging would have unraveled after a few washings. The hem needed something to stop the unraveling, so I interfaced the hem allowance and serged the edge of both fabric and interfacing, then folded up right along the other edge of the interfacing. I'm intrigued by Laura's comment about interfacing past the hem allowance, so I'll try that soon.
There are loose thread all over my sewing room. I was trying to get to a deep cleaning before school started, but I didn't make it. I'm glad, since I would have had to vacuum up all those threads anyway. Now I really need to get in there and vacuum!

1 comment:

LauraLo said...

Hi, Alana,
Great looking pants!
I'm just chipping in to explain a bit more about why the interfacing is extended past the foldline:
1) For some people is is hard to cut the fusible exactly the size of the hem width and the width might vary, therefore giving you an unstraight hem
2) If you interface only the hem, you have the hem which is thicker and sturdier, and the foldline which is thinner, starting immediately after the stabilised area. This makes the foldline more fragile and prone to tear and wear.
3) If you extend the interfacing past your hemline, you can then benefit from an interfaced area when sewing your hem by hand (if you do that), catching only the interfacing and therefore getting a truly invisible hem.