My first corduroys are done!

18 hours after cutting....they are done!
 
Side:

Back:

Sassy:

The full view back:

Side:

Front:

All buttoned up:

Back with two belt loops at CB:

Closeup of pocket:

Inside.  The button is from deep button stash, probably purchased at Cloth World's clearance bin when I was a teenager.  The card said the button was made in Italy.  It also says it's green.  Hrm.  It looks like a copper color to me! 

Inside with flat felled yoke seam, and my name hand embroidered in the back, with the date.:

This time I topstitched the inseam with my edgestitching foot:

The hem. I used this technique from the Seasoned Homemaker this time, it worked very well!  

I heart tailor's chalk.  Here is how I marked it for sewing on the beltloops.  This time I cut six 3.5inch loops out of the strip instead of the suggested five 4" loops.  That way I could sew two loops, one on each side of the CB seam.  That was a lot easier than fighting my machine to stitch through who knows how many layers!

I also serged the cut ends of the belt loops and used fray check on them. 


Improvements over my jeans:

• Sewed thighs with 1/4" SA, resulting in 1" additional space all around the thigh.  This is much more comfortable for sitting!
• Before sewing on waistband, I sewed the very top of the jeans with a wider seam allowance.  The result is it looks like I won't have to wear a belt with these!  (Whereas I have to wear a belt with the jeans).
• Topstitched the inseam.  Remember to do that before sewing the side seams!
• I made fake bar tacks on the fly front.  My machine does not have an auto-bartack maker, so I used a narrow zigzag stitch with a very short stitch length to mimic a bartack.
• Embroidered the date with my name in the waistband facing.  Maybe I will start doing that for all my clothes? Hrm.

I'm wearing these cords right now and they feel great.  The fabric is super nice.  It feels luxurious and the fact that it's no-wale corduroy means it looks like velveteen.

I still can't get over the fact I have made two pairs of pants with fly fronts.  Last year at this time, the idea was scaring me quite a lot!

Be well!!!

brown cords, hour 14

Just 3 steps to go (belt loops, button/buttonhole, and hem) and I'll be done with my first ever pair of corduroy jeans! Woot!

I hemmed and hawed over what design to use for the back pockets--here's what I came up with and really like it. It's the start of the curve from the jeans pocket, and then it veers off.   I used my jeans twin needle to stitch.  What does it look like to you?

This time I embroidered my first name and the date on the interior waistband.  Next time I make brown cords, I'm going to do all the topstitching in gold jeans thread--wouldn't that be awesome??

Here's the front:

Here I'm showing how I used chalk to mark 3/8 so I would know where to stop stitching on the pockets. (I had already wonder taped the pockets down and edgestitched with my edgestitching foot.)





So then it looked like this:


And here's what it looked like going through the machine while I topstitched the waistband, this is to show how most of thejeans are shoved in that little space while the lower part of the waistband is edgestitched:

And here's what it looks like on me:

I don't think I will have to wear a belt with these! I sewed them up with a larger seam allowance at the top to get them to fit better.  And like I said last post, I sewed with 1/4" seam allowance in the thighs so I have an inch more room--MUCH better when sitting down.

So I will finish these off next weekend.
Be well!

Brown corduroy jeans in progress, hour 7.5.

I thought that making jeans the second time would go faster than the first, but so far I'm just about on track as far as hours logged.   The pattern is the J Stern Designs jeans pattern.

Here are my jeans, this time in brown corduroy, at hour 7.5.

The fabric is some glorious stash "uncut" corduroy fabric from Joann's almost 4 years ago, when I had this crazy idea I was going to start making a ton of corduroy jackets.  Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.  (The "uncut" part means the wales of the corduroy are not cut).

I'm using dark brown "heavy" thread for the topstitching. Not as impressive as gold jeans thread on denim, but the detail is there even if it's hard to see.

The inside pockets are made from a Robert Kaufman floral cotton I bought 4.5 years ago at J and O Fabrics in Pennsauken, NJ--on my way to my college reunion meetup--this is how I remember....

I used an 11" trouser zipper that I shortened to 5". Do men's pants really use 11" zippers? Hrm.
I dove head first into make the flat felled yoke seams, and what a mistake that was!  It is hard to do that on a fabric with thick nap.  So I then go look at a sampling of my RTW cords and velveteen pants to find out that every single pair has a mock flat felled back yoke seam.   Knowledge for next time.

So now I need to decide what to do about the back pockets and what design to use. Hrm.
Also, I was really worried about the nap of this fabric and if it would be easily crushed.   When I hammered thick seams, I only hammered the seam allowance.  I did not want to permanently damage the nap of the fabric (and the nap does feel really good!)

 The good news is the nap has good recovery after sewing, and I sat in them during dinner tonight and they didn't make little moons where I sat down (my main fear!). So YAY for that. (All pix above were taken before wearing).

I plan on undoing the side seams so I can topstitch the inseam, then redo the side seams.  I am mighty fast at undoing things I sew lately, and not as frustrated when I have to redo them.  And I want to sew them tighter up around the very top.

Oh and I sewed the seams 1/4 inch in the thigh area inner and outer seam, to gain a whole inch there, and that is MUCH better for sitting down.  Yay!


I have this crazy idea to finish these pants by the end of next weekend but I think that's rather unlikely given the time of year...but I have a huge drive to finish them so let's see...

I also cooked tonight but sadly do not have pix (sorry Gwen!)
Be well!!

Last rose of the season; Simplicity 3628 day 4; more cake; more corduroy

A post in 4 parts today:
part 1: The last rose of the season
So I thought the last rose of the season was last week? 2 weeks ago? But here, I present you with the last rose of the season. It had started to bud when it suddenly turned cold, but a warm spell the last few days has made it bloom, hurrah!


Part 2: the birthday jacket.
Tonight I finished the second sleeve hem by hand. I then tackled the jacket hem. I tried the instructions but the hem came out ugly. I used that as my starting point for a hand stitched hem. It's not great and it's starting to feel Becky Home Ecky but it will do for now. I definitely need more practice with jacket hems!


Tomorrow night is button and buttonhole time.
The pattern calls for three 3/4 inch buttons. Which do you like better:
3/4" brown:

1" mother of pearl:

3/4" aqua-ish


Then Thurs night will be the running stitches and Friday I'll wear it to work!

Part 3: cake story continued:
Yes, my coworker thought there was a lot of "left over" cake and that I must have baked a lot for there to be two whole cakes leftover in the fridge. We laughed about it again today.

I have learned that Sally's mom calls the cake "ice box" cake and makes it more of a log shape than a square like I did.

Laurie's mom would make it for Lincoln's birthday and called it a Lincoln Log.

Part 4: corduroy
Thanks everyone for sharing your corduroy love (or lurve for one Mary Nanna who is so deeply in love, it's lurve).
I wear cords almost every day in winter except when I want to wear a cord jacket (so I wear velveteen pants those days because a cord jacket and cord pants is just too much corduroy, even for me).
When I bought my new couch I contemplated buying a corduroy couch, but it didn't come in red, just brown, which was a bit too much like the corduroy couch growing up...take a nap and wake up with wale marks on your face! Good times.

Good night!

Birthday cake, love of corduroy and one sleeve hemmed

A post, in three parts.
Part 1: birthday cake.
Where I work, when it's your birthday, you bring in the celebratory item.
Last night I made 2 refrigerator cakes. They are ugly cakes that taste great because it's made from a pint of heavy whipping cream (with 2 tablespoons of sugar and a teaspoon of vanilla) and Famous Chocolate Wafers.

The wafers soak up the cream while in the fridge and it becomes cake-like. and very, very delicious. I actually made two, but here's the one on the cute cake dish.

I sent the email to my coworkers this morning that cake would be at 2:30. One coworker misread it and thought the cake was this morning and that she missed it while at a meeting. After lunch she took a slice from the cake thinking it was leftover. and then when she went to email me to tell me how good it was, she re-read it and realized that cake wasn't for another hour. Oh, how we all laughed!


Part 2: love of corduroy.
Mary Nanna commented on my choice of corduroy for my birthday jacket. I love corduroy, always have, always will, though velveteen is coming in a close second lately.
Just look at all the corduroy I have bought in the last month alone. (some of it is "uncut" corduroy, or without wales. Neat, huh? Well, yes, if you like corduroy.)




Part 3: sleeve hemming.
I spent too much time playing with the collar tonight (which had been fine, with one tiny flaw, which I tried to correct, which has created a larger flaw which I will now overlook, lesson learned, leave well enough alone). So I only hemmed one sleeve; the other is pinned though.


Judging by how long it took me to hem the sleeve by hand, I was thinking of giving the instructions for hemming the hem a try with the machine, as per the instructions. I'm going to try it tmw night. If it works, it will save a lot of time.

Good night!