Finishing Up!

Tuesday, February 1-  Button holes!  Sewing on buttons, too and finishing

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Actually, it's Wednesday.  And I am over this massive snow-ice-rain-winter storm.  Over it.  I woke up to chunks of ice beating my house, my salted sidewalk iced over, thunder, lightening, and thinking we were the only school district in this part of the state not with a 2 hour delay or closed.  Sent my kids to school with the Dad and 10 minutes later he brought them back. "No school" he says.

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WHAT?!

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We didn't get the notification phonecall.  It wasn't on the radio.  The janitor told them.

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Glad to see my tax dollars working like they should.

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*Grumps*

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I'm hoping I can finish this before the power starts doing that flashy-blinky thing like it did yesterday.  Bear with me.

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On the up side, Phil didn't see his shadow this morning!  WOOT!

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Before you sew the button holes, you need to transfer the markings for the button hole placement from your pattern.  OR, you can decide where you want the button holes to be and just draw them on (especially helpful if you're using bigger buttons).

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There are several ways to make button holes.  Many modern machines have the buttonhole stitch built right in.  I sew on vintage machines, and therefor, use the vintage button hole attatchments designed for them.

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Once the button holes are sewn, you need to cut them open.  Be careful not to cut thru the buttonhole threads!  A friend of mine places a straight pin at each end of her button holes, so that her seam ripper or scissors doesn't cut too far (the pin stops them blade).  I cut, using sharp pointed darning scissors, from the outside towads the middle of the button hole.  It's just a matter of preference.

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I loike to try my buttons to see if they fit before cut more than one hole open.

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I use a fabric marker with disappearing ink to mark t.he center of the button holes for button placement.  Make sure you line your side panels and front panel up to your satisfaction before marking.  Then, just make a dot in the center of each button hole, onto the side panels.

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Sew your buttons on!  SewMamaSew has an excellent tutorial for sewing on buttons by hand, if you need some help.

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The directions go on to say that you should stitch a few inches of the front facing & the side panels together to prevent gapping.  I have no gaps, so I'm skipping this step.  It's up to you  :)
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All done!

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*Notes: the Brawn is in cloth diapers, so I made the size 4 pattern with the correct pattern length (since these are supposed to be cropped), and they fit over one of his fluffiest diapers with ease and fit like a full length pair of pants.  If you cloth diaper, I suggest definately going off the measurements of the hips at the widest point for choosing your pattern size.  The Brawn usually wears a size 2t pants at the moment.*
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Hopefully, the Brawn will cooperate and allow me to get some photographs of him in his new pants today, so I can show them off!

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Also, if you haven't already, enter the giveaway, I'm extending it thru midnight PST tonight, because of the winter storm.

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Be sure to e-mail me a finished picture of your pants to thejenni dot girl at gmail dot com, so that I can show everyone's pants off when I get back from Baltimore on February 7th!

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Hemming the Legs and Vents, Giveaway too!

Monday, January 31-  Hem the pants and finish the side vents

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Before we actually start sewing today, I have a surprise!

The Hubs (aka: the Dad) & I are going away to Baltimore this comming weekend like we do every February (a certain freak snowstorm threatening the country had better miss us and not repeat last year's snowpocolipse, or *somebody* is going to pay).  I needed a haircut and some mid-winter pampering before we left town, and I needed to do it without the Brawn and his desire to not be in his stroller when it's not moving.  That either meant A.) the Dad would have to miss some sleep and watch him so I could go & I would feel rushed  B.) I do it over the weekend when the Brains could watch his baby brother while his Dad napped in the other room.  I chose B.
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I am waxed, polished, washed, cut, and curled.  It looks great!  Still long, but with lots of face framing layers in the front and long sexy layers in the back.  The Blonde thinks I'm nuts for the eyebrow waxing (She's ripping the hairs out of your skin, Mom!)  I feel human!  In fact, while sitting in the chair, having my eyebrows hairs ripped from my flesh, I thought to myself, "I should do a giveaway as part of the Sew-Along!"
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I asked the Blonde what I should do for the giveaway.  She thought for a few, and said, "Buttons!"
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That girl is definately my daughter.
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We bought some pretty awsome buttons at JoAnn's, brought them home, and now I'm fighting the desire to keep them.  I will part with them, but it won't be easy.  It would probably be easiest on me if someone gave me a really good reason to stuff them in a padded envelope and send them away to a new home.
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the Blonde and I thought these buttons were perfect because they don't scream boy or girl, the trees are green and that means it is summer and WARM on the buttons (we miss being warm), and they are vintage recreations.  LaMode says that these are replicas of what one would have found between 1860 and 1900.  They are 1" accross, are supposed to be handwashed (I'm assuming one could use the delicate cycle on their washer if they wished unless thair washer beats their close clean), they are NOT plastic, nor were they made in China (Italy produced).  I *think* they are mother of pearl, but I'm not sure.
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Here's the rules:
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1.) Be a follower.  I want to know who's stalking me.  It fluffs my ego.
2.) Leave a comment telling me what you would do with these marvelous buttons if they were your's
3.) Winner will be chosen at random using a random number choosing website
4.) Comments will be closed for entry February 1st, 2011 at 11:59pm EST
5.) You do NOT have to be participating in the Sew-Along to enter 
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The Sailboat Pants were designed to be cropped pants, but work well as full length trousers as well.  Because they were designed to be cropped, they were designed with slits.   I think slits are cute on both clam diggers and trousers, but they are just as cute when full length and ventless.  It's really just a matter of taste, or, in my case, mood.  I'm moody and like a variety.

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Hemming is pretty easy.  First, we are going to fold the hem 1/2 an inch towards the wrong side of the fabric/project and iron.

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Then we fold another 3/4 inch more to the wrong side, and again, press with your iron.

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I like to sew my pants' hems with the legs right side out.  It allows me to see my allowance, so that I don't sew all the way around the leg and find out I completly missed the folded hem.  I use the guides on my machine to insure that my stitches are all the same measurement from the bottom of the hem.  Not that I have ever, ever, ever had a crooked folded hem allowance.  Ever.  (If you're buying that tall tale, I have a beach house in Arizona for sale) 

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The vents are easier than you would think.  Turn the pants inside out, if they aren't already, and fold the vent edges to the wrong side.  In other words, fold them away from you, so that they are tucked in on themselves and press.

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Top stitch, 3/8 inch from the edge of the split, pivoting at the top of the vent to stitch straight accross, then pivot again, 3/8 inch from the split edge, backstitching at the ends to lock your stitches.

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Repeat on the second leg.

LOOK!  PANTS!  All that is left, is the buttons and button holes!

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Tell me about your buttons!  Are they big?  What color?  Vintage?  New?  Plastic?  Wood?  Handmade?  Do you love them?  Did you enter the giveaway so you can have more fabulous buttons in your life?

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Budding Artist

The Brawn is a tough, rough, bash 'em, smash 'em, take no prisoners type of guy.  He crashes, thumps, bellows, roars and head butts the unsuspecting.

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My baby is all boy.

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With a soft side.

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The Brawn has a secret. 

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He's an artist. 

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Finger painting is a multimedia experiement that includes using various toys and objects to create prints and designs.  He also enjoys painting his hair, skin, clothes, and on more than one occassion, the dog.

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There is passion in his art.

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Markers and crayons have become his mural creating tools.  He's colored the stairs, the walls, the glass in my windows, the floor, and himself.

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His art is life.

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I decided it was time to expand his portfolio.

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Watercolor!

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He could barely wait for my instruction for using a brush and how water makes the colors come to life.  His eager hands snatched the paintbrush and away he went!

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He concentrated so hard on holding his paintbrush just so.  For well over an hour he swirled, blended, smeared and spilled paint accross his paper.

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"Go Away, Mom!" he would yell when he thought I came too near.

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With his pudgy little hands, he held his paints in place while he dipped his brush in each color and in the water in the lid.  He needed no extra help from me.
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So big, so creative, so thoughtful, so confident.

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His baby and toddler-hood days are so over.

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Hold me while I cry
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Two Legs, One Waist, and a Yard of Elastic

Friday, January 28-  Assembling the back, sides and insert elastic.  Inseam, too

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Actually, this Saturday.  I was under the weather on Friday, but back to life today!

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Just like we assembled the 2 front panels, we assemble the back 2 panels.  Once again, I used a French seam with 1/4" trimmed off one layer of the finished seam allowance and press with your iron

Now for the side seams.  I'm using flat-felled seams for my side seams.  You can also follow the pattern directions and sew the seams, right sides together and press the seams open.

Line up the pattern markers (the triangles you cut or marked before removing your pattern pieces from the cut fabric pieces) before sewing, so that the elastic waist band casing on the back of the pants sticks up above the front panel.

And then sew each outside seam, leaving the vents open.  Clip seam allowances where indicated in the directions.

On to the elastic waist!

These pants are designed to be smooth and flat in the front, with the elastic all in the back.  Fold the seam allowances on the sides towards the inside of the pants and iron.  Then fold the fold the top of the seam allowance down a 1/2 inch, iron, and fold down another 1 inch, ironing again.  Edge stitch the casing along the lower fold, to form a long casing for the elastic.  It will be open at each end.

Thread the 3/4 inch elastic that the pattern calls for thru the casing, I use a diaper pin to aid me in getting the elastic into the casing and smooth.

Pin the elastic at one end of the casing and adjust the length needed for your child's waist (or use the chart in the directions if you want) and pin at the other end..

Securely sew each end of the elastic in place, and trim close to where you just stitched, being careful not to clip the fabric or your stitches.

Not that hard, but it sure sounds and looks complicated at first!

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The pants are starting to take shape, and at this point, they resemble a funky skirt.  They also give me flashbacks of my oldest child running around with his snaps undone on the inside of his trousers, a look that drove me to finding pants with snapping inseams.

Lucky for us, these pants have a lovely sewn inseam!

If you're using the pattern marked sizes 4-8, the directions tell you to place the wrong sides of your fabric together, pin and sew.  This is WRONG.  A small typo that can make a novice or experienced seamstress crazy and fustrated.  Trust me.  We are going to place the RIGHT sides of our pants' legs together, matching the the raw edges, transfered markings and crotch seam.

Then we sew each leg, one at a time, starting at the hem and stopping at the crotch.  Make sure you backstitch at the beginning and ends of your seams.  Do NOT sew your crotch seam's seam allowances.

 

 

Press the seam allowances open, and relax.  You're ready for Monday's hemming and vent finishing!

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How's everyone doing so far?  Have you ripped out any seams?  Are you pleased with your top stitching?  Are you excited to finish them an put them on your model(s)???  I am!

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Front Assebly with a Couple of Sides

Thursday, Januaru 27-  Side panels & assembling the front

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You should have 4 side panels, 2 of which you ironed on the interfacing on Monday, that look like this:

Place each set, right sides together and sew the short straight edge & the curved edge, ensuring you backstitch at the beginning & end of each seam.  Make sure you lift the machine's foot to make the 90 degree turn.

Just like I did with the front lining after I sewed it to the front panel, trim one raw edge of your 2 pieces of fabric, clip the curves carefully, and clip off the corner of the salvage on the turn

Turn, again using an object like the previously mentioned knitting needle and press with your iron.  Here is one panel before turning and ironing and one after:

Once you've turned both of the side panels, top stitch like you did on the front panel, 1/4" from the edge on the 2 side with the seams, again, lifting the sewing machine foot to make the 90 degree turn.  Iron.

Line up the 2 notches on the open edge of each panel with the notches on the outside of the front panel and pin.  Using the longest stitch on your machine, baste the sides of the panels to the sides of the pants.

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The front is DONE!  (well, except for button holes and buttons)  Tomorrow we move onto the back panels, place the elastic, and sew both sides together.  Good thing there's a whole weekend for everyone to get all that done!

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Sewing the Front Panel

Wednesday, January 26-  We sew.  The front panel to be exact

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Time to thread up the sewing machine, load that bobbin and prepare to sew!

The directions call for you to finish the bottom curve of the front facing.  This can be done several ways:

the zig zag stitch

Photo from Hoppo Bumpo

a rolled hem (this tends to require a special sewing machine foot)

Photo from Craft Stylish

the serged edge (using a serger)

Photo from What the Craft .com

More finishes can be seen at HoppoBumpo.blogspot.com

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Once you have finished at edge, we move on to assembling the front panel.  The directions say to place the right sides together, and stitch a 1/2 inch seam.  Stitch the seam and iron it flat and smooth.  Make sure that you iron the seam open.

Or, you can be like me and make this seam a French seam.  I trimmed one edge of my fabric down to reduce the bulk for my corduroy fabric. 

Pin the front facing to the pants' front panel, right sides together.  Stitch both pieces together, utilizing a 1/2" seam, pivoting at the corners.  Do NOT sew the sides of the facing to the front panel. 

When sewing the lining to the panel, make sure you life your foot and turn the corners square.

Remove the pins

I like to trim one edge of my salvage to reduce seams that will be top stitched

Clip the 90 degree inverted corners, being careful not to cut the thread in your seam.  Also clip the outside corners as shown

I use a large blunt ended knitting needle to keep my corners sharp when I turn my projects right side out.  Be gentle and don't force things or you can poke a large hole in your seam, or worse, ripped the fabric on the corner

After turning everything rightside out, iron your project.  You want to make sure your seams are neither pulled to the front or back when ironing.

I tend to use a stitch length a little longer than I use for my seams when I top stitch.  The pattern recommends topstitching a 1/4" from the edge of your project.  I use my machine's foot for a guide

Again, lift your machine's foot to make a sharp turn on the inverted 90 degree angle.

Clip your loose threads and iron your project again

Voila!  Here is the front panel of your Sailboat Pants!  (Or mine anyway.  Your's will look similar)

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