To get a ‘job’ out of the ‘To Do’ Stack DONE and back into my wardrobe took bribing myself! I had this great CREATIVE sewing up-cycle project on my heart and mind, but since that project would ‘go with’ these wool/lycra pants that have been stacked in my ‘To Do’ Bin forever – I told myself I MUST get the pants done BEFORE the fun. Like Mom always said, “Do the hard stuff first, then enjoy the fun, EZ stuff.” She would have been proud of me…..
Even those these pants were ‘narrow’ in my mind in the first place, the elastic was shot and I’d already ripped the elastic waist portion so the rest really only took about 1 hour to accomplish.
1. Put on the pant inside out (making sure that the Back is still on your Back)…so that the leg can be assessed and pinned in to some degree. For elastic waist – be SURE that what you pin in at the waist still allows for getting the pants up and down over the hips. Just realize that the pant waist won’t stretch any further than what the pant fabric does WITHOUT elastic.
2. Understand that to keep the pant on grain, that both the inseams and the outseams need to be taken in the same amount. Here’s my pant project ‘in process’.
Mark inseams and outseams the same narrower silhouette as pinned.
3. I generally only do one leg at a time, then take the information from that leg to the other leg. This assumes that your body is symmetrical. If you have other ‘side’ issues, this won’t be possible, but for most – this works. I LOVE the Clover 5-in-1 Sewing Gauge for this task, as I don’t need to ‘read’ the measurement, AND the slider clicks and STAYS PUT! The black marker you see there is my all favorite Chakoner with WHITE chalk.
Align legs and take amount from first leg tested and fitted to the remaining pant leg.
AS in the caption above, it is really simple to take the info from the first leg successfully (marked, sewn, and fitted) to the remaining pant leg. Simply align the same seams right next to each other, measure one, then go straight across to the same level on the other leg and mark the same amount of ‘take-in’.
4. Here is the BEST, FREE pressing equipment you’ll ever acquire: the hard cardboard TUBE from home dec fabric. It serves as a good, hard surface, yet lets the seam allowance fall back as you press the seam line itself so that the seam allowances don’t ’embed’ or ‘strike through’ to the outside of the pant leg. Truly a professional finish.
ALERT: Once upon a time, when my son was a little guy and he loved red crayons, he drew all over my tube – and I did not know realize it. I quickly grabbed it to press the leg seams of a silk cream plaid pant for a dressmaking customer and…………I can still hear myself screaming! Yes, the dry cleaner got it out, but my heart was in my throat and I don’t remember, but I don’t think I took it out on my little guy. Just keep your sewing tools SAFE and AWAY from the little ones!