Cutting it fine.... Part 5

I've taken a run at my trousers over the past few days.  The curved crutch seam was easier than I had anticipated and I was able to use my sewing machine to stitch the seam, then my new overlocker to seal the raw edges.  The fabric is wonderfully soft and drapes beautifully but it frays like buggery, so I was keen to get all the raw edges overlocked as soon as possible.

As I predicted, the inseam pockets were an absolute nightmare.  I pinned and basted them every which way, infuriatingly incapable of understanding the instructions no matter how many times I read them.  But until the outside leg seams were sewn I just couldn't get my head around the method of construction, which seemed completely counter-intuitive.  Eventually I just took the plunge and did what I thought seemed correct, even though it didn't seem to be exactly what the instructions described.

I then had to finaigle the pocket pieces into position and seam them, then overlock, which was just sooooo tricky with all the seams coming together at different points in a small area.  However, once I'd turned them right way out, and fiddled further with the pockets, I could see that they were mostly correct, although the top edges would have to be sewn onto the waistband casing. 

The waistband casing was also bamboozling, even though I did sort of understand that it would have to be sewn on right sides out, upside down, on the outside of the trousers.  

Like..... really?!

I spent ages checking and double checking that I had it right, as I was going to use the overlocker to stitch the seam and overlock all the many raw edges at the same time, so a mistake at that point would have been catastrophic and the trousers would almost certainly have ended up in the bin!

Eventually I worked up the courage to do it... very slowly, inch by inch, checking all the layers were in the right place and the damned pockets weren't facing the wrong direction.  The main issue with an overlocker I've discovered, is that unlike a sewing machine, you can't really see exactly where the needles or the edge of the fabric are as there's so much machinery in the way.  I just had to ignore the needles, the long foot, cutters and loopers and concentrate on feeding the fabric through in as straight a line as possible.

Thankfully, having spent absolute ages double checking the overlocker settings on spare scraps of fabrics, the overlocked seam was perfect, and after carefully pressing all the remaining seams I found, to my surprise, that I'd made a pair of trousers, with inseam pockets both going the right direction!

The next step was to make two channels in the waistband for two rows of flat elastic.  I measured the relevant distance from the top of the waistband and stitched as directed.  Then I discovered that my overlocked seam took more of the fabric than a single stitched seam and that I had barely a millimetre of tolerance between each of the two channels.

My elastic was 3/4" wide and the space for the channels was exactly 1  1/2"

Buggrit.  Buggrit.  BUGGRIT!

Annoyed that having second guessed myself since the start, I'd dropped the ball so close to the end, I thought momentarily of unpicking the top casing seam, but had a brainwave and set about pressing the trouser/waistband seam to within an inch of its life.  Then I pinned the elastic onto the outside of the waistband, flush with the seam, and stitched right up against it.  In theory this should give just enough room to insert two rows of the flat elastic, with the added advantage that it shouldn't be able to twist. I'd have to dispense with the other row of stitching between the bottom row of elastic and the waist seam, but I didn't think that would matter too much, as the overall width of the waistband was correct.

Now to find a safety pin big enough to thread the elastic through the tight-fit channels!  It will be touch and go I think.....