Friday, April 5, 2013

First EVER attempt at sewing :)

Goodness gracious its been almost 3 weeks from my last post!! 
Sorry it has taken me so long I've just been busy and decided that if I didn't have the "urge" to write then I wouldn't force myself. I have lots of things to share and I really can't wait to share them, I just didn't want to force myself to write cause then I never like how it ends up. 
So anyway, this is what I did last night.
usually on Thursday nights I go out with my girl friends but this week I missed my Reed and decided I wanted to just wait on him to get off work. And I was also itching to get in to these new kelly green pants :) 

A while back my mom Lydia and I spent the weekend in Charleston to prom dress shop. And we can't go to charleston with out hitting up the Goodwill on Johns Island. We always find the best stuff there, and I was looking for some bright high waisted pants to wear to the Carolina Cup.
I found these, they were wide leg and a little short but my mom said she could fix them. 
Like everything in life it got lost in the hustle, so I decided to try my hand at them this weekend. 
Not sure why I thought it was a good idea, I had to call my mom atleast 5 times just to figure out how to thread the machine... 

But I did it and I'm gonna share how!

First of all I tried on the pants, sorry for the bad pictures. Thats what I get for being lazy and Tepe not listening last night. I really liked how they fit at my waist but just wasn't crazy about the high water wide leg look that was going on.  


So I turned them inside out and place my favorite pair of skinny jeans on top. 
The jeans aren't high waisted so I just lined up the area between the legs instead of the waist. 
Then I took a pencil and trased the inside of the pants leg. 

(Tepe wasn't leaving me alone, she always has to be close which means she is often in the way) 


 Then I pinned along the line so that both sides of the pants didn't move while sewing. 


And then finally I stuck them in the machine and went to town!
I don't know any specifics about settings, I used the straight stich and then came back with the zigzag stich. I read that gave the pants more stretch?? Not really sure but I tried it!! 



And for those of you that know what you're doing.
This is my moms machine. Maybe you can see some of the settings and tell me if they are right or wrong :) I know its holding my pants together so at least its functioning! 


Here is a close up view. Not very straight but thats the two stitches I used. 


And here you can see how I did the entire leg. I tapered them towards the middle. 
Probably could have gone up a little further but I was worried about them getting to tight across the hips and pulling funny.


And then I would say to try them on to make sure they fit the way you like. I tried them on about a million times through out the entire process. And I took out stitches at least half of those times. 
BUT I learned a lot and I know they aren't perfect, but I can at least wear them today and be happy for spring!! 

Once you are happy with the fit you could trim the fabric down but leave enough so you can play with it again if the future if needed! Honestly,  haven't trimmed mine yet because I'm terrified I didn't do it right and if I cut them no one would be able to fix them :) 
But I'm wearing them today and they feel fine so far!! 


Heres the final outcome! 
Tepe and I hit the yard to enjoy the sunshine and she just couldn't help but jump in all of my pictures. I look pretty awkward so I guess thats why I'm not a model. And I learned that I should invest in a remote for my camera cause running with 10secs is hard to look natural in the photo. 



They are a little funky. 
But for $3 bucks and a night teaching myself to sew I say they look pretty decent. 
Little odd on the inside of the legs and kinda pucker around my tummy but they are comfy and just the right color for spring :) 




1 comment:

  1. AWESOME!!! I think everyone's first few projects are a little funky, but I think they look aweseome!

    A few questions: Did you end up cutting out all the extra fabric after you sewed? Generally, I would use a longer stitch length inside a crotch or like you did, use a zig zag stitch or a stretch stitch if your machine has that, but also, if you cut out the extra fabric after you sewed, then you can zig zag right on the edge of your fabric to keep it from fraying in the wash. There are also these scissors called Pinking shears and they cut at angles, so you could used those to keep your edges from fraying!

    Great job though!

    ReplyDelete

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