The Good News … and the Bad News.

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.)

I ironed the zipper flat. As usual, when I let go it curled up!

I pinned one side of my invisible zipper to my pants just to see how it is supposed to look.

I turned the zipper over and pinned the one side on. I prefer to use Wonder Tape, but sadly I have run out!

I sewed my invisible zipper on with my Singer zipper foot, then thought I would try to sew it closer with my “Universal” invisible zipper foot. Oops! I forgot to use a narrow strip of interfacing this time.

I marked the waistband seam on my invisible zipper to ensure that the other side would meet up properly at the seam.

One side sewed and one pinned. Looks good so far.

Both sides sewn on. Still A-Ok!

The remainder of the front crotch seam sewed up too. Also I sewed the invisible zipper ends on to the seam allowances to keep them in place.

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!