The Good News … I’m feeling better, even though my nose doesn’t. I felt good enough to spend most of this weekend sewing. Yippee! You might remember, I left off with the slash pockets being completed on my third pair of pants (out of the four I want to make for myself). Gotta love that RTW Challenge and make ’em myself!
I have been using a couple of Craftsy courses: “Pant Fitting Techniques” by Sandra Betzina and “One pattern, Many Looks: Pants” by Kathy Ruddy; and Vogue pattern V2948. So far, I have made a muslin, a brown pair and a black pair. Now this blue pair, well, I just love the fabric. It’s called Blue Horizon Suiting, 100% polyester, with no stretch. It feels so much like an expensive suit pant fabric! And the colour is the perfect blue!
After finishing my brown pair, I have decided though to make the waistband 1/2 ” narrower. I don’t have a long waist so the tall waistband on my brown pair gets folded over after a day’s wearing.
Good news! It was easy to chop 1/2″ off the top of the waistband pieces. I also took the waistband in 1/4 ” on the side seams, front and back. It would feel better to have a tighter waistband.
I also decided to iron my waistband seam open. With my brown pair I folded all the seam allowances up and hid them under my waistband facing. It makes the insides look nice but it makes the fabric layers really, really thick when I am sewing on my invisible zipper.
Another change. After sewing on one side of my invisible zipper with my Singer zipper foot (it fits just fine on my Janome), I decided to go over it again with my “Universal” invisible zipper foot to see if I could “get in closer”.
You might have seen it before, but here is my process for inserting an invisible zipper. (Click on the first photo to start the slideshow.)
Now to try it on … Front view, Not bad. Strangely enough, these feel a little baggier than my brown pair!
Back view. Bad News! A bit off really! I don’t know where all those baggy wrinkles came from, especially since this was made with the same pattern as my brown pair? Perhaps, the brown knit fabric hung better, without those baggy wrinkles appearing, than this blue suiting fabric?
Good news! An easy fix! Walk around holding the sides of my pants tighter! or how about just sew the side seams in perhaps?
Good news! Side seams sewn in 1/2 “. Looks better! An adjustment I will have to make a note of for my next pair.
Bad News! I sewed the invisible zipper “so close” that when I zipped it up, the fabric was in the way and the invisible zipper didn’t go up easily. And Even Worse News! I couldn’t get it down again! I couldn’t get out of the pants without yanking the zipper pull off! I guess you are supposed to sew close, but not THAT close!
I think I am going to take a break before I move on to my fourth, and last, pair of pants, a black pair. I suddenly have to replace a zipper.
I also have a real surprise for you next week. I have found two of the “Oldest UFO’s” in the world. And I dare you to prove me wrong!
So tell me, have you tried tackling invisible zippers? Do you use a proper invisible zipper foot? Or do you just “wing it” with some other kind of foot?
Happy Sewing!
Oh dear! Bet there was some commotion when you were stuck in your pants! Sorry, but I had to smile! I use a normal zipper foot, first row of stitches gets it in place and then I roll it over with my fingers and get in close. Sometimes I’ll go over again if I’m not happy, but after reading your post I’ll be getting close with caution!!
Glad to here you’re on the mend 😀
Yes, there certainly was commotion. I was thinking the whole time that I was glad I was stuck now though, and not at work when I had to go to the ladies room! I never tried my regular foot as I was so happy with the results of my Singer zipper foot. I might give the regular foot a go too! I think this time I was just obsessed with getting it perfect – I sewed myself into trouble! 😀
Glad you’re feeling better Linda and thanks for writing these details posts about your pants adventure! I use an invisible zipper foot and it makes a big difference!
Thanks! Maybe I should ask for one for my birthday! I’ve never tried one of those before neither! Of course, I would have to buy it first then hand it to Mr. Green Thumb to wrap and give back to me! Poor guy! But then what do I know about gardening!
hahaha, great idea!!!
Nice pair of pants and I love that colour blue. I have sewn one invisible zipper, in my first Rachel Comey skirt. I used my regular foot and instructions from a Threads magazine. It went in perfectly I’m happy to say. I have bought an invisible zip foot since but haven’t used it yet.
Hmm, I’ll have to search up that Threads article and see if they do it differently!
Hi Linda, I’ve just been writing a blog on invisible zips after sewing so many for the Glasgow students garments, I’ll put it on soon. I feel your pain, there’s nothing worse than the zipper getting stuck!!!
Well, it was much funnier, since it happened in the safety of my own home! Love to read your post on it. I love hearing 1000 ways to do something, it only makes me better at it! Thanks!
Haha! I am pleased it happened in privacy. The beauty of sewing is that there are so many ways to do things and you learn new things all the time!!
You sewed yourself into your pants. That is kind of funny. Good on you though for being able to admit that and chuckle about it. Im sure it’s happened to haute couture designers as well. We just don’t know it.
The pants are a gorgeous blue. You have me very curious about next week’s UFO’S especially given I’m not familiar with the sewing acronyms. Cheers. 🍺
😀 this time, what went up, didn’t come down! Yes next week is shocking (to me anyway). The Oldest Un Finished Object in the World!
ooh my sounds like an eventful weekend.. But so happy to hear you are doing much better. .. so before you started to share on the issues with the zipper I must say it looked beautiful.. I have never tried them before.. ( Scared,.lol)… but I love the blue and I think the pants fit so well.. you did great!! I am inspired for sure.. just need to find a good pattern to make my first pare of zipper pants.. 🙂
PS: Still looking for a design for the Designing December challenge..lol
Thank you! I love the fit now, and the blue too, and the fabric feels fantastic! I was lucky to find such a fabric. I wish I had bought more! I hope you find something you like for DESIGNIN’ DECEMBER!
Great…still looking
Great…still looking for the look…
Clever adjustment with the side seams! The fit looks spot-on now. I use the invisible zipper foot – – didn’t know there was any other way :). Must have been a hilarious moment when you couldn’t get out of those pants. You’re such a trooper to continue to push yourself to get the fit of those pants perfect. I find it easy sometimes to just throw in the towel, but then I don’t learn anything if I do, right?
Side seams? You mean grabbing a hand full? Or the actual sewing? 😀 I don’t know if it was a correct technical solution, but it worked! I think I am going to put it out there to the family that I need a Janome invisible zipper foot, I mean EVERYONE has one! It was funny, cause I knew I was safe at home, can you imagine if it had happened at work! Some call it being a trooper, some call it being stubborn! 😀
I vote for ‘trooper’ and think you DESERVE a Janome invisible zipper foot!
WHOO hoo! I am about 99% convinced I should get the foot! And 100% convinced I am a trooper!
I almost always can get a good result with the Janome invisible foot for normal sized zippers. Thick heavy duty Bridal invisible ones need a regular zipper foot and a steady pressure to hold the teeth flat. I always slide my needle over 2 clicks toward the teeth and lengthen the stitch to 2.7 so it can be ripped out easily if that is what is needed.Then a longer running stitch of at least 3.0 is used to hold the outer edge of the tape to the seam allowance.
Thanks! I had the stitch length right. It was easy to pick out! I think my needle position was terrible. I am going to keep an eye out for a Janome foot. I am dying to try it out now!
OK, that was funny. Reminds me of the time a co-worker got hammered at an office party. She went to the bathroom but couldn’t get her pants off. Luckily I was within shouting distance and was able to help her out of her pants–catastrophe averted!
I thought it was a funny end to my day too! Oh my! Hopefully that lady wasn’t the topic of conversation the next day! (Once a Mom, always a Mom)
She’s pretty flamboyant and is frequently the topic of conversation the next day. 😉
Yes… Every office has to have one! 😀
I have an invisible zipper foot and couldn’t live without it. Before that I had exactly the same issues as you did – I often managed to sew too close to the zipper teeth and struggled with getting the darned thing up and down. All that aside, your trousers look really good and I am loving the colour!
Well there you go… I am not the first to do this! Although I might be the first to get stuck in my pants! So we have all agreed, Linda deserves a foot!
she does indeed!
Glad to hear you’re on the mend! I have a Janome invisible foot and I’ve sewn about 5 or 6 invisible zips and they’ve all turned out perfectly! I still need to refer to a tutorial when inserting them though. I seem to have some sort of spacial awareness problem where I just cannot work it out. I tried without it once and it went horribly wrong. The zip inserted OK it was just upside down and back to front – that was the only one I’ve unpicked!
Thanks! I have to pin my invisible zipper on how it supposed to look when finished, so that I can pin it on correctly to sew! Glad to know the Janome foot is so well loved. I have to get my manual for the settings for my blind hem foot, after all these years! My brain can only hold so much, I guess!
He he! Glad it’s not just me!
Haha you definitely should fix them by walking round holding the side seams!! Thanks for the giggle!
You’re welcome! This was definitely a sewing project I enjoyed doing! (I hope everyone enjoyed it!). Thanks for reading and commenting!
I’ve always been scared of zippers for this very reason! 🙂 Have you tried Janome’s Invisible (“Concealed”) zipper foot? I wonder if that would help?
I thought I was doing so well with my Singer zipper foot (on my Janome). until I got too close! I think it’s time for me to buy a proper invisible zipper foot for my Janome. Thanks for the suggestion!
I use an invisible zipper foot and it works beautifully. I broke my RTW fast to buy trousers! (Back on a modified fast) And if course they were no more successful than when I tried to buy them before I started sewing. I have the same pattern and the Craftsy class it came with and might have another go – I guess if you’ve made so many it must be worth doing. I don’t have the one pants many looks class. Is it worth it?
The one pattern many looks class is not for fitting but rather for what I did after the fitting. I liked the Betzina fitting class and her pattern. The Ruddy class showed you how to how to take one pants pattern (I used Betzina’s after I fitted it) and add slash pockets to one pair, perhaps welt pockets to another, etc. So it depends on what you want to learn. I learned something from both.
What a difference that 1/2″ makes: these look great, and I love the color! (And okay, I admit that I giggled at the thought of you being trapped in your new pants and having to break your way out of them!) And if there is one way to shut down my sewing mojo, it’s repairs and alterations–good luck to you with getting a new zip in this blue pair. O_o
I have only ever put a zipper in by machine one time–on a muslin, and on a friend’s machine, if you can believe that!–and while I was successful, I missed the control of doing it by hand. The muslin in question was for a silk maxi dress, and I haven’t decided whether to try a machine insertion on the real deal or to just do it by hand; 22″ of zipper by hand doesn’t sound like much fun, so that may be the motivator I need to figure out my machine’s zipper foot!
Let’s just say it was a fun weekend! I have only hand sewn a zipper once. The sewing was a little wobbly, but it went in well and held tight. I was surprised! I can’t imagine hand sewing a 22 inch zipper!
Great pants! I use a piping foot, which I think is shaped very similar, if not the same, as an invisible zipper foot. My zipper insertions have definitely improved since I bought it a few months ago.
I’ll have to compare the two. They seem to have a similar purpose!