Pages

Monday, October 3, 2011

Oops...Even I make (BIG!) mistakes!

Alright, so that sounds a bit cocky. No, I'm not a professional seamstress but 
I can whip up a good outfit with decent skill! Almost all my projects have tiny imperfections but the project I just finished has a...very noticeable mistake. 

You see I've been wanting to make G a cute pair of dark brown cords to wear this winter.
I saw Dana's flat front pant tutorial and thought it was just what I was looking for! She has a pattern drafted for 2T-3T which is obviously a bit big for G. I wanted to try to scale down the pattern for an 18M size.

I also didn't want to waist a good piece of fabric so I tried it out first on some hand-me-down fabric from my 
mom (thanks mom!!).  So off I went cutting, tracing, cutting and pinning. I got the pattern 
down to the right size (check back for a tutorial on how to make an 18M size!) and started sewing.

Very quickly I realized I had used a back piece for the front and a front piece for the back! AH!!
Sure, I could seam rip it but I already sewn an adorable pocket onto a back piece too!

Well crap. Thankfully they were just pj pants and G will be sure to wear them, just not to any sleepovers!
I didn't want the pants to go to waste so I also tried a few different sewing techniques.

I did a lettuce edge on the bottom of the pants so I wouldn't have to hem them. 
This is actually incredibly simple to do! Simply set your machine the narrowest zigzap stitch and stretch the fabric as you sew (lettuce edge can only be down with stretchy fabric such as a knit). The edges will curl up and give it a nice finished look!


Since I used a waffle knit fabric that won't unravel I decided to do a simple shirred waist. I sewed elastic
onto the waist, but pulled the elastic tight as I went. This make the fabric stay flat but the elastic stretches out. Once you're done the elastic will spring back to it's original, stretchy self! Tada!

I hope I didn't lose you in this post. To top it off, here's the "big mistake" pants!



1 comment:

  1. they are still cute! :) she won't care... Way to go turning it into a learning experience along the way!

    ReplyDelete