It's Below the Belt.. ...or, I don't like pants. Not at all!

At the time of this outfit, I was not very good at making pants. I had never made pants before my start in the SCA, and as a woman, I never really required it. I eventuallly got better, but childrens pants, I discovered, had a whole different set of rules.

Without a guide for childrens pants, I improvised. I made a body block of the pants; guessing where the lines and curve placement should be. After measuring Cassy from waist to below knee, I cut the pants block where I needed it. I then made parallel lines in the pattern based on grainlines. Every 2" untill I could not make full lines from waist to knee. Then I cut on those lines, down to the knee, without cutting all the way thru. I fanned the pattern out, 2" per cut, and traced the pattern onto fresh paper. What I got, was a pattern with large waist, fitted bum, and room at the knees. Oddly enough, it looks just like men's pants patterns in "The Tailor's Pattern Book" (Algeca 1588) *grin*.

I then laid out the pant patterning on the fabric underneath the banding, and traced around them in perma marker (no, I did not learn....). Confidently, I cut the legs and zig zaged them immediately, as they were cut with curves and they were fraying like mad.

I then sewed the fronts to the backs and added the white brocade stripe to the outside seam. I then zig-zaged the edges down to stop fraying, and made the seam allowances lie flat by sewing them down as well. I sewed up the crotch of the pants, taking care to make sure the crotch seams lined up correctly.

I sewed up the plain cotton lining taking care to make sure the button-fly was on the right side of the pants. Then, after I sewed the seam allowances down to make the seams smooth, I lined up the button-fly and front opening so that I could sew them as a turned, properly lined front opening. After panicing many times over the fact that I might be doing it wrong, I got it turned the right way. I topstitched the lining to the good fabric, and felt very proud of the fact that I could sew at 2 am. After fitting the lining into the pants themselves, I got to work on the waist band. I used some leftovers of the striped cotton lining to make the backside of the waistband, and some leftover brown brocade for the front of the waistband. I sewed the 2 sides of the waistband together, and after much contemplating and fussing, I settled on gathered stitches over the front hip bones, and all over the bum area. The pants did not lay as well as I had hoped after all was said and done, but it worked, and there was ample crotch room.

I then went to work on the leg bands, when I realized I was not so smart at 2 am! I didn't leave any way to open the bands to get the pants on and off.
K.
I don't want to do this anymore.
That's it. Cassy can just wear potatoe sacks to events from now on.

*sigh*

I bit the bullet and made a slit in the seam between the white strip and the brown pants and hand sewed the cut edge. It looks alright, but not a professional job, that's for sure. I added a band of brown velvet to edge the legs after gathering. I finished it off with a button and buttonhole (done on my sewing maching). They look a little 18th century, but they'll work. Feild testing time!

MOVING ON!

_