A Pair of Pants...

I will admit that I'm overly sensitive to the elastic waist vs. fly front pants debate.  I truly understand that quite a few people associate elastic waist pants with ill-fitting, polyester pants that an older woman wears.  That if you are truly hip, cool and fashionable, you will be using a great fly front technique or some low risers on a funky pair of pants.

However, I'm soooooo past funky and low rise!  I'm soooooo much more into classic and elegant but more than that I'm into comfort.  And I truly believe that you can have a well-fitted pair of pants with an interesting elastic waist treatment.   Plus I honestly hate the way a fly front looks on my abundant abdomen.  This is me...and now that I've spent two paragraphs and alot of words justifying my point of view...here is my latest garment:

These pants are worn with a RTW twinset.  I have a load of these (RTW & "made by me" twinsets) in my wardrobe because they make dressing easy on cold wintery mornings.  Add a pair of pants or a skirt, a great necklace and I'm out the door.

Some stats:

Pattern:
TNT pants pattern

Fabric:
100% worsted wool purchased from Fabric Mart at least 5 years ago

Notions:
charcoal ambiance lining purchased from fabric.com
elastic
rayon seam binding

This pair of pants is an experiment in using a new lining technique.  Normally I've inserted a lining as two separate pairs of pants joined together at the waistline and I've experienced a lot of lining failure in the thigh area. I think due to the friction between the two fabrics moving/working against each other.  In an effort to address this issue, I've decided to sew the fashion fabric and lining together as one piece.  I discussed the challenge in this blog post and received some very interesting suggestions along with some requests to provide pictures of my sewing process.

Now if you're strictly a fly front girl, I totally understand you leaving now...plus how will I ever know!  *LOL* 

Jane commented:
"Carolyn, I learned a neat way of lining/underling pants. Cut the lining 5/8" larger on all the vertical seams and keep the regular size on the curved ones. Sew the vertical seams right sides together with the fashion fabric using a 1/4" seam and turn. The lining wraps around the fashion fabric pieces forming a mock hong kong finish. Then serge all the curved edges. I can hem to this underling and pressing in the crease is a snap as the lining and fashion fabric are treated as one. I won't do my wool pants any other way"

and Julie Culshaw added:
"do a search on the Threads website for a technique called "flat-lining". It is a way to line each piece of the pants, but it finishes the raw edges at the same time. I believe the only seam left to be seen is the crotch curve. A good technique that doesn't compromise the fit."
*BTW Julie, it's good to hear from you!  Glad you're still around and I miss your fabric store more than you know!!!!*

So I used the flat-lining technique to finish this pair of pants.  This technique can be found in Threads Issue #48, page 58 (thank you Threads Archive DVD for making this easy to find and use!) 

I flat lined the side seams and the inner thigh seams

and serge finished the crotch seams.

I added elastic and one of my labels to the back of the pants so that I would be able to tell the front from the back of the pants when dressing...and was extremely nervous during the entire process.  But as you can see from above there was no need because this technique worked perfectly.

I was also able to hand stitch the hems to the lining without seeing any of the stitching on the fashion fabric.  Love this!  Finally, by adding the lining to the fashion fabric and sewing it as one piece, the pants have a heavier feel to them...hopefully this will help with the warmth factor too!

talking to Danny who kept waving at me

while we were taking pictures!

There will be more pants making going on during the next couple of months because my existing pants either need to be repaired or retired and I wear pants more often in the winter than I do in the other seasons. 

In the process of moving onto the next piece to sew, I've changed up the order.  The BurdaStyle top is on hold because I'm not sure it will work.  It needs a little more thought.  Instead I've decided to work on the jacket and pants from the Pinstripe Follies Collection.  Now that these pants are working, I really got excited about making some of these pieces...but first a quick skirt. 

I don't make a lot of skirts anymore...probably because I already have quite a few in my closet but this particular piece of fabric is calling my name so that's what's up next. 

...as always, more later!