MONTH OF PANTS #3

WOW, there really should have been more progress on my third and final pair of pants for the Sew-A-Long. I guess there would have been if I hadn't been doing some dreaded sleep sewing that I didn't discover until last night. I've been working on fitting the crouch of the pants to eliminate front wrinkles. I'm convinced, as Gwen suggested, that the problem is caused because the front crouch area is too long. After she made this suggestion I pulled out my sewing books to get a clearer idea of how to shorten the crouch area. I should have waited until she emailed me back with her suggestion on just how to do that. I used Nancy Zieman's slide method to shorten the crouch area 1 1/2" back and front for a total of 3". Well, this resulted in the crouch being just a little too short, and a few wrinkles still spoiling the front view.

I though I could live with the "little too short crouch", but was still unsatisfied with the wrinkles. While at work yesterday, I toyed with the idea of taking everything apart in order to restitch the crouch for a little more room (that would involve removing stitched seams and SERGER stitching in the inner leg and side seams). I decided that was too much work - I'd just deal with them and use Gwen's simple solution on the next pair. I was getting ready to attach the waistband AND GUESS WHAT I DISCOVERED??? I had sleep sewn and serged the wrong side of the pants back to the right side of the pants front! They were all sewn together including the center back seam. WILL SOMEONE PLEASE TELL ME THAT THEY HAVE DONE THIS BEFORE?

This fabric is a nice quality light weight wool (unlike the last pair of pants I made) both from my New York shopping trip. So rather than chunk them in the dumpster out next to the street, I felt I had to try to rectify my sleep sewn mistake. I was up until 3 A.M. picking and pulling. My plan is to attempt re-cutting the crouch area, stitch and serge them back together with the seam allowance I have left, and make Gwen's adjustment (which is tying a piece of elastic at my waist over the pants, and just pulling them up until the wrinkles disappear, and them chalking a new stitching line around my waist. (long sentence, but I had to get that in there). Additionally, adding the seam allowance before stitching.

Gwen says she got this tip from Pants for Real People. I've started to buy that book before, but kept stalling. I went to two stores looking for it yesterday, and of course I couldn't find it. I'll get it from Amazon as soon as I can because I do need. THANKS GWEN! Now it's on with the show, I'll let you know how everything turns out...