As I Sew: Why yes, I do things the hard way.

Here's another project from the past year. Although I mostly sew for myself, it's not because I don't like sewing for others. I like doing commissions (hint hint), as long as the person I'm working with is willing to try things on and discuss what is and isn't possible. In this case, my best friend asked for some pants from the Sims 2 game, like these:

... and here's my version (plumbob also made by me using a template found online. It's card stock that's been painted and wired to a headband):

I did kind of promise to sew Eddy something for Christmas and he's pretty easy to work with, so I didn't mind taking on a complex project I had never done before. By that I mean I'd never made structured pants, put in a fly front, or worked with denim. I'll say now that I was a little amazed when I finished them and they turned out better than I expected. There were some tough times with how much my machine did not enjoy sewing through 8 layers of denim.

As I often do, I started out with a commercial pattern - Simplicity 4760, traced it, and cut it all apart to get those color blocked stripes in the correct places... because I do things the hard way. My professor Susan asked if I just appliqued the stripes on. Nope. The thought of just applying them to the surface of a plain pair of jeans never even crossed my mind.

I'm pretty pleased with all the top stitching on these, especially considering how thick the fabric layers got in places. My machine can't use a twin needle either so I had to stitch everything twice by following the edge of the presser foot. The seams aren't actually flat-felled - I kind of cheated there. I simply sewed down the seam allowances with the top stitching.

I really like seeing little hidden details in clothing that you wouldn't notice unless you were the person wearing it or looking for it. In this pair of pants I used tie-dyed fabric to line the pockets (I also did the dying; perhaps I'll do a post about that some time).