Miss Bossy Pants!

What a labor of love!

This is the first time that I have ever gotten seriously discouraged with anything that I've made.

(not that I've made a whole closet full of garments lol)

For The Monthly Stitch Sew-a-long, March's theme was "Miss Bossy Patterns"

We had to give the opportunity to the public to choose what we were going to make from a selection of different patterns and fabrics.

This is how you all voted:

So I had to make Burda 6981- View B.

I changed the zipper to a white one.

I personally wanted to do the one with the ankle zips but, whatever lol

I got the fabric from Fabric Mart from one of their deals where they give you 5yds of whatever kind of fabric they want and you find out when you get the box in the mail lol
It's a cotton twill. Black, white and coral.

This was my first time making pants of any type so I was more than a bit nervous.

I cut the 12 and noticed that the finished garment measurements for the waist were an inch and a quarter more than my waist measurement.  I did some math (in my head) and decided that I was going to use a 3/4" seam allowance instead of the 5/8'.

After sewing up both legs and trying them on (separately), I realized that the pants wear WAY too baggy down the length of my legs so I decided that I would take it in another 1/4" so that the seam allowance would be and inch.

After attaching the two legs by sewing up the front seam, the pants were too tight around my hips!!

Like, I couldn't even pull the back closed!

So what I realized is that I did the math correctly the first time but I only needed to take it in more down the legs, NOT around my hips!

BUT, I was following the pattern instructions and they kept saying "cut down the seam allowance"

So let's just say that I didn't have much to work with in terms of letting the side seams out.

"Nervous" isn't even the word.

By the grace of God, it all worked out! lol seriously, that was some amazing grace

Rewind: when it came time for me to put in the fly front zipper I was extremely confused by the instructions.

Then I remembered that I had saved this link for future reference and I'm elated that i did!

I followed the video's instructions and I had such a pretty zipper :-D

But umm.. it's not in the center lol, and it's not straight either lol

I think that it's either because I had to play with the seam allowances alot, because I didn't sew the pockets in properly, or because I didn't do it by the instructions.

Yea, I made a lot of mistakes.

But I learned a lot at the same time.

Can we talk about this completely ACCIDENTAL pattern matching (or almost matching if you want to get technical lol)

Oh! I got to put my edge-joining foot to use and I LOVE IT!!!

It's also called a "stitch-in-the-ditch" foot and that is how I used it.

You can see here how I had my needle a little bit out of position and I was on the waistband

but then I moved it over one position to the left and now the stitch is completely invisible!

wholetime though, I think It is SUPPOSED to be visible because the directions say topstitch the waistband to catch the facing on the other side loool whatever.. it still looks good lol

I left off the cuff on the bottom and just folded them up and hemmed them.

The way this print is set up, the cuff was looking very awkward.

If I make these up again in a stiffer fabric or solid color, I'll definitely add the cuff.

I could go on and on about the craziness I went through with these but I'm just going to stop and say that I love them lol

They're so very unique and can be dressed up or down.

I'm sure I'll get plenty of wear out of them :-)

Things I've Learned

1. Interface flaps/facings when I'm going to insert fly-front zippers

Especially when the fabric stretches like this twill did. I think that is one of the reasons that the zipper is leaning to the right.

2. Twill FRAYS like crazy

It's weird because when I first cut out the pattern pieces, the fabric wasn't fraying, but when I started pinning and sewing things together, I had threads everywhere. I may start serging fabric that I know frays before I start sewing it up to avoid much of that.

3. Trust Myself

I was second-guessing myself all the way through this garment. I think my nervousness to a hold of my confidence and the garment suffered from it.

No that I know how it feels to get really discouraged at a garment, I'm going to take that energy and reverse it and go into troubleshooting mode.  I'm didn't get a degree in Engineering for nothing lol

Thank you so much for reading!

Let me know what you think!

See you in the next post!

share and stuff! *pops gum*

xoxo, Tasha