FINALLY!! TOny's airplane pants!! (Or UFO pants, to be more precise.) I, RHOnda, bought this fabric five (5) years ago when TOny received a Flight Simulator program for our computer, KIA ("know it all").
The fabric is fleecy on the inside and more sturdy--almost feels painted--on the outside. DEFINITELY picked for the motif and not the hand of the material.
'Used Simplicity 2481 which has pjs for the XS children to XL adults. The pattern showed only hip measurements for the bottoms. I e-mailed the company (info@simplicity.com) and asked why no WAIST?? They responded that people like to wear their pants way down on their hips. (??) Sew, I looked up the corresponding measurements on their chart and determined that a "Medium" was 34", like
TOny.
Off I went. WELL, these pjs are HUGE. HE says, "comfy". I say "baggy bum"...
Sew, what did I learn with this EASY project??
-I changed the elastic casing to accommodate 1" pyjama elastic. Made more sense with this fabric than a wee 1/2" elastic. I checked the huge crotch curve and had no problem "stealing" some space for the wider casing.
-I checked the elastic length on TOny & sewed it--permanently--in... Complete with four (4) stitches-in-the-ditch. THEN when he tried his finished pants on, we discovered that they are way too big in the waist. Conclusion: extra stitching on FLEECE = live with it :( ;).
-What I DIDN'T remember was that I would be loosing length on the side seams. I was LUCKY that I had "added in" 1" extra "just because" ;)
-I worked/played like "the big girls" (you "Advanced" sewer gals). FUN!! I made little samples of my serger seams, sewing seams. Also tried out the elastic on a wee scale. Found that I could even sew several seams ON the elastic, if I wanted. I made a wee pocket and attached it by zigzag; it just melted into the sample--wonderful!!
-I also learned that if you don't check the length of your serger tail BEFORE flying the rafters up on the spools you can/I DID take a thread right out. The left needle was BARE :(. Guess what!! I figured out how to re-thread the little thingy!! YAAAHHH!! WHAT a confidence booster!!
Sew, this wee little beginner project was "worth it". I learned lots. Now I'm making TOny a pair of summer pj pants--but using a DIFFERENT PATTERN!! Bye bye, baggy bum!! ;)
RHOnda
3 comments:
So strange that the pattern had plenty of room to borrow for wider elastic and still denies that the "waist" measurement is relevant. Good job - you can learn a lot about your machine on simple projects!
Great job, Rhonda! you GO, Girl! If you see the result's too wide, can you pinch in a bit of the CB excess fabric from the TO-bum, to correct the pattern for his shape? I only ask this because my own hubby has NO bum (really zero!!!!) and nothing in RTW is remotely like his shape. I had to draft a My-Hubby-pattern for him before sewing up his trousers. Which, I'm happy to add, he loves to wear. Win-win, right?
After all this they do look good from where I sit :) The print is cute.
Sergers are not that scary after you use them.....you are bigger that it :)))))))
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