Tada! "Pretty Flamingo" Trousers

I had my last dressmaking class of the term this week - always very sad.  I've loved this second term more than the first - I think it must be because my confidence is growing.  I decided that I needed to learn more skills this term - with my dress, I learnt zips, panels, interface, sleeves, etc.  And this time I wanted to pick up different skills - specifically button holes, waistbands and pockets.  Trousers are notoriously difficult to fit apparently, so Helen, my teacher, advised that I make a "toile" - a rough prototype using an old bedsheet to get the fit right, and then I could go ahead and choose the fabric proper.  

 

The start of the trousers is actually much easier than I thought, and I was pleased that these were coming together much quicker than my dress ever did.   I've discovered a love of top stitching and was thrilled with the way my pockets turned out, the detail really makes the difference.  Top stitching wasn't too difficult, it just required a lot of concentration.  

The worst bit of the whole enterprise was the buttonholes - they were rubbish!   I practised for what felt like HOURS but it made no difference at all.  They were just awful!   And my notebook had five pages of notes on how to do them, but each page was aborted halfway through when I realised that it really wasn't working. After spending a two hour session one week trying and failing to achieve it, I came back to it the week after and managed two perfect little buttonholes in ten minutes!  Perhaps I was just trying too hard?

Once the buttonholes were completed, the next stage was to sew the waistband onto the trousers and do more top stitching - lovely job!

All that was then left to do was insert the elastic into the waistband, do the hemming, dye the trousers, insert the cord and hey presto. I had already decided that these were too good to just discard them, despite the fact they were never supposed to be the "real thing" so I bought some dye for them, to make sure I got plenty of wear out of them.   I could have kept them white - I did really like them to be honest - but Finn is the dirtiest dog in the whole world and they would never have stayed white for long!

I really wasn't sure about "flamingo pink" - I thought they were a bit bright, even for me!  I was even less sure when I managed to break the washing machine while doing the dying - these potentially could have been the most expensive pair of trousers ever made!  (Post dye note:   washing machine filter was just clogged up with sock and dog hair, all sorted now and normal service resumed!)  

So, with the trousers' new colour, all that was left to do was thread the cord through the waistband, cut the ends to length and then paint them in clear nail varnish to stop fraying.  And, hey presto, new summer pants!  I really love them.  And I was even more thrilled when Helen, my dressmaking teacher, asked me where my trousers were on Tuesday in class.   When I pointed out that I was wearing them and she then astounded me by saying she assumed my trousers were shop bought, professionally made, trousers, I got a wee bit emotional.  I can sew!   

So what else was there for me to do, but sign up for September's class this week?  Andy has gifted me the enrolment for my birthday and I am delighted to be going back.  Next term, I think I will have a go at a shirt - so I will learn collars and cuffs and even more buttonholes.   Very happy bunny indeed!  

And I have Shiriin to thank for this term - without my very generous patron, I would never have been able to do it.   I have vowed to keep Shiriin in soft furnishings for life as my way of saying thank you, but, first, a set of scrubs!