Friday, June 29, 2007

Before & After

Remember these experimental pants? Well, I'm still experimenting with them. The primary reason I refused to wear them was the awkward length. They reminded me too much of the high waters I wouldn't be caught dead wearing when I was a child. I was able to shorten them to a length I feel comfortable wearing. The day after I put these pants in the Black Hole Closet of No Return in the Sewing Room, I wore a pair of RTW capris that had a flat fell seam around the circumference of the leg above the knee. I said to myself, "Hey, I could do that!"



Here's what I did:

I measured up from the hem and marked two lines on the pant legs two inches apart.















I sewed the lines together to form a tuck on the right side.
















I cut the tuck along the fold to make a conventional seam allowance and trimmed one of the seam allowances to about 1/4 inch.















3. Then I folded and pressed to make a flat fell seam. I know, I know - it's not the neatest, best looking flat fell seam, but a flat fell seam, nonetheless.
















Voila! New Capris!




I've moved them from the Black Hole Closet of No Return in the Sewing Room to my bedroom closet and I even found a t-shirt to wear with them! The t-shirt virtually covers my beautiful welt pocket so the pants don't look quite so bipolar.






I have messed with these pants so much! The only thing left to do is add rick-rack and eyelet lace. (I'm kidding!) I wouldn't feel conspicuous wearing these to run errands in the neighborhood. (Well, maybe not in my neighborhood. Someone I know may see me!) I read somewhere that if a mistake is not visible at 3 feet it's nothing to worry about. I certainly hope that's true!

2 comments:

  1. Good save on these pants! The flat felled seam is just at the right place too. They have a look similar to those zip-off shorts/long pants you can buy or make (I have a RTW pair).

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