french seamed pocket bags

as promised, here is a simple step by step for making the pocket bags on your shorts or pants french seamed. while simply finishing the edges with the serger or zig zag stitch is perfectly acceptable, the french seams make it so neat and tidy. so i see no reason not to do it this way!

fair warning: i did this about a month ago so if something i say sounds like gobbledygook... sorry!

the front pockets are the easiest so i'll start with that. here i have the pocket bag attached, under-stitched and pressed to the inside. now instead of folding the pocket bag to the side seam as the directions state, fold it under to line up the bottom edge with the wrong sides together and stitch the bottom of the pocket together at about 1/4".

trim the seam allowance by half. now turn the pocket bag so the raw edge is now inside the pocket bag and press the bottom edge.

stitch 1/4" from the edge encasing the raw edge in your stitching. baste the side of the pocket bag to the side seam allowance as per the pattern directions.

the back pocket is slightly more difficult to explain, but not hard at all to execute. if you're having trouble visualizing how this works (even with pictures) it's probably something that makes the most sense when you're actually doing it yourself.

so we start off after the welts have been sewn on and the pocket bag has been stitched to the bottom welt and everything has been slashed and turned to the inside.  finish the side seams of the pocket bag, then press the pocket bag down.

now fold the pocket bag up to the waistband seam and put a pin to mark where the pocket bag edge was stitched onto the welt, as in the picture below.

 

now unfold the pocket bag and fold it under and line up the pin with the stitching line on the welt.

pin the lower half of the pocket bag at the side seams.

 

at this point the bottom of the pocket bag will be flipped up toward the waist. don't freak out, it's supposed to look that way.

now stitch the side seams at 1/4" stopping once you reach the point you originally marked with the pin.

now trim the raw edge down by half, stopping where you stopped sewing. see the pic below.

 now reach in and pull the pocket bag down so the raw edge is to the inside.

press the seams and turn the upper edge of the pocket bag in as you press so it looks like the picture below.

stitch the side seams, encasing the raw edge, at 1/4" and continue stitching all the way to the top of the pocket bag.

make sure you grab the ends of the welts as you stitch up the sides.

now, admire your handiwork!

—lisa g.

YEAH!!!!!! a REAL shorts/pants pattern!!!!!!

so in case you haven't jumped on the sewaholic bandwagon (and really i was feeling as though i was the lone holdout...) the thurlow is the one to splurge on. after making up my blue shorts a couple months back, i was pretty meh about the complete lack of pant patterns that have all the bells and whistles of a normal pair of pants: fly facings, fly extensions, welt pockets, etc. and literally as i was composing my blog post for those shorts, my email chimed announcing the thurlow.


prayer answered.


seriously. it was as if the sky opened and angels sang. at least the voices in my head did.

even though i was mere tweaks away from fitting my bottom half with the mccalls 5391 short pattern, it was really a sense of screw you mccalls... a little gal in canada did it BETTER! that made me abandon the mccalls and immediately purchase the thurlow. when it comes to patterns, i'm more of a wait-for-the-$1.99-sales-at-joanns person than a splurge-over-$20-on-a-pattern person (my colette patterns, while i love them, have all been gifts). but i figured, this is a staple that i will use for years to come. unlike a dress pattern, which may or may not ever see multiple versions (though i'm completely in love with the cambie and totally want it now!) this pattern will be repeated. in fact, i would spend more than $20 for a pattern like this. 

sorry, my pics are basically awful. too sunny, and it was
too hot to bother retaking in a better spot.

just so you know, you may cut out (or trace) all your pattern pieces and be completely dissuaded by the sheer number of pieces. but, each has it's place and purpose so soldier on my friend! it will be worth the effort. so, what are all these details i'm talking about? you know those little strips on the inside of your rtw pockets? the pocket facings? included. welts (along with fantastic directions)? included. separate fly facing piece? included. fly extension? included. and yes, these things ARE a big deal. why? mostly, longevity. while i love my blue shorts, i can tell that not having all these details, and just having the straight turn and burn waistband will decrease their life.

when i finally had a chance to start sewing up my thurlow shorts i even skipped the muslin. e gads! i didn't have time, plus i was able to pull out my mccalls pattern pieces for a little comparison. so i wasn't going completely blind here. my measurements were a perfect 6 but decided to cut a size 4 based on pattern ease and comparing to my other shorts. turns out, the 4 fits me perfectly. not a single alteration was needed. even that back seam with room for adjustment, i sewed on the original stitch line. sheer unabashed joy!!!

yes, i realize my elbow is sticking out in a very awkward way.

i made only minor changes to the pattern, mostly just cosmetic. since i wasn't making "dressy" shorts, i made them out of a nice weight twill and opted to topstitch things like the pocket opening edges, side seams, the crotch seam, parts of the waistband, around the welts, even down the back darts. this gives the shorts a little more reinforcement for every day wash and wear. also, i opted to french seam the pocket bags of all the pockets. i see this in even the cheapest of rtw shorts/pants i have so i figured why not. since it only takes a few extra moments to do this, it is worth the effort. and, lucky you, i photographed my process so you can do it to. this should be my next post, if you're interested.




last thing i added was a little patch of the twill on the inside of the waistband where the hook is. i made it to line up with the fly facing, not thinking i should have made it long enough so that the inside button could be sewn to it also. i just stitched this piece on, then zig-zagged over the edge so it sits flush without added bulk.

lastly, i went to hem them intending to have the cuffed look and for the life of me i couldn't figure out how to do that. seems i can breeze through double welts and fly construction only to be confounded by a cuff. so i cut off a few inches and hemmed them as normal (and later it dawned on me that the instructions were not cryptic, and i figured out what i should have done. doh!) oh, and i couldn't be bothered to add all six belt loops (i hate doing belt loops) and settled for five.

oh... and i reversed the fly to zip from the right, not from the left. just a preference of mine (and every pair of pants/shorts i own...). it's easy to do: whenever a pattern piece says to cut from the right side of the fabric, just cut from the wrong side and it will all be reversed.

why hello there

i love this pattern!!! the fit is incredible, and i can't wait to make more shorts and pants with it. i had no trouble following the directions (except for the cuffs... my bad.) so if you're new to pants, you should still be able to work these out. at least, don't let the number of pattern pieces scare you off!


—lisa g.

and now for something completely practical

this is a post completely unrelated to wedding garb. hoo-ray! while i still have some work to do, namely making three bridesmaid dresses... i have so many non-wedding projects i have completed over the past couple months i'm not sure where to start. so how about some shorts?

they look all shiny and new here. thankfully many wearings
and a few washings later, they're nicely broken in.

eventually i want to venture into the world of making pants, and figured shorts were a good place to start. as a bonus, they sew up quick and don't require much material. i searched for a shorts pattern and was more than disappointed. all i want is a regular fly, pockets and belt loops and no elastic. is that too much to ask? eventually i found mccalls 5391 which hits almost every note. it has a zip fly, but it's not faced and there are no back welt pockets. not a big deal to add this in myself, just... annoying. i'm sure the market for making shorts is not a huge one, but these few details are not hard so i have no idea why they are constantly omitted from patterns!

i'm done ranting. for now.

this mccalls pattern is about the closest to RTW i could find and with a few modifications they're pretty darn passable! i chose a blue twill (it's organic! look at me being all environmental!) with no stretch. i made up a muslin i had hoped would be wearable, but the material sorely needed underlining to stabilize it. it isn't see-through, just not tightly woven. oh well, i got the sizing changes i needed.

these were surprisingly easy to fit, and i only had to make a few changes. i did a "large bottom adjustment" (i swear that's what my book says!) to fix the terribly gaping back waistband thing. i should have also have added length at the crotch point as the lady bits are a little more snug than i prefer, and there is a bit of wrinkling in the front. though the wrinkling is far more obvious in pictures than is noticeable in person. then again, in person i'm not staring at my own frontside. moving on. i also added length to the front rise. these were surprisingly not granny cut. my biggest beef with short/pants out there is that the waist is either old lady high or just low enough that they hit below le leftover bebe belly. not super attractive.

large bottom adjustment

the construction was pretty simple and straightforward. i had made a couple pairs of shorts for my son, so this wasn't entirely foreign territory for me. the pattern directions have the fly reversed though, which is weird. as in zip with the left hand instead of the right. i don't know if that is an old fashioned thing, or what. i'm pretty sure most ladies zip their own pants these days. it got a little confusing as i constructed the fly the way every pair of pants or shorts i own is constructed because i had to reverse every instruction—left for right and right for left... eventually i managed to get it all sorted. i also added a fly facing. why this little detail is omitted is beyond me. i don't get it. us sewists can construct ball gowns but not a fly facing? please.

mmm... i heart welt pockets.

i did have to sew the waistband with miniscule seam allowances to make up for the extra width, but that's not a big deal. next time i'll think to make the waistband longer from the start. i also added back welt pockets. welt pockets can be a little tricky, but i still wish the pieces and placement were included on patterns. i mean, you could always opt to not put them in. right?

photo bombed

all in all i am super happy with my shorts and i have worn them a ton! i'm itching to make up another pair with a couple more changes to perfect the fit and add a little more top stitching. by the way, have you noticed the severe laziness in RTW these days? most of the shorts i own don't even have waistbands! they're fake! i thought maybe this was just because i buy cheap clothes, but out and about i spied a pair of not so cheaply branded shorts sans waistband! is this lazy or just a "design element"? i really don't know. my money is on cheap and lazy, but that's not to say i'll never copy this move. i do have a weird hate for cutting out waistbands.


—lisa g