Still plodding along on the pants, friends. A lot should come together today, including, hopefully, the backs and fronts. Yesterday I managed to complete my back welt pocket and insert my front fly zipper.
I'll say this about welt pockets: It's not so much that they're difficult, though they certainly require accurate measuring, stitching, and cutting. It's that most sewers don't make them often enough to master them. The last true welt pocket I made, on my cranberry corduroy pants, was more than a year ago. So every time I make one, it's like I'm starting from scratch. With something like a front fly zipper, I've already done them enough to know the routine pretty well.
I decided to follow the instructions on my pants pattern for the welt pocket; not the best, not the worst. I wasn't sure if I needed to raise the pocket placement a bit, since I'd shortened the rise in the pants, but I measured against some RTW pants I own, and the center of the welt is generally three inches below the bottom of the waistline, so I left it as-is.
I marked, I stitched, I matched, I cut...
I took a deep breath and I pulled (my welts) through. I poked, I prodded, I pressed, I panicked (a little). Then I pressed some more.
I stitched down those little triangles on either end, and edgestitched around the perimeter of the pocket. After considerable toil, it looked like this. Not perfect, but acceptable. I'll likely press it more down the line. How someone can do this accurately with a zigzag machine, I will never know.
Whew -- glad that's over!
Not much to say about the fly. It went in without too much drama, though I still have to topstitch in front and trim a bit inside to keep things tidy.
Today's concern is the side pockets. When I took 1 1/2 inches out of the rise, I also changed the angle of the slanted edges of the pockets and facings slightly, relative to the angle of the edges of the pants fronts, if that makes sense. I may have to trim a bit or even cut new pocket facings. But there are worse things, right?
And that, friends, is that.
I'm not sure how far I'll get today. I've been trying to limit my sewing hours so as not to exhaust myself. As far as crotch reinforcements, a much livelier topic than I'd expected, I did include one, and I'll share it with you down the line.
Send good pants karma my way, please.
Have a great day, everybody!
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