katies dudz: Tuesday Tutorial Part 2: The sewing of the boys pants

If you missed the tutorial on cutting the pieces for these pants, just go to yesterdays entry and read all about it ;)

Today we assemble the pants!
Are you ready!
It's really easy.. really it is!!

First things first... You want to make sure you have all your pieces.
You should have the following:
~2 front pants panels
~2 back pants panels
~4 denim semi-circles
~4 cotton woven semi circles
~back pocket piece
~front waistband piece
~back waistband piece

am I missing anything?
I don't think so.. lets get going!!

First we will put the front of the pants together and a good place to start is the front pockets.
You will want to take the denim pieces and the cotton woven pieces and put them right side together.
Like so...

The lines I drew on the pockets are where you want to sew a straight stitch.. only sew on
the two curved lines.

So here you have the two front pocket pieces, right sides facing each other and ready to be sewn.
Sew your straight stitch following the two curved lines I drew. Back stitching at the end of each to hold them securely in place.
Your next step, after sewing the pockets, is to turn them right side out and iron them flat.

Here is one right side facing out and one still inside out

If you plan to add little tags to the pockets, now is a good time to do that.
I have lots of cute little tags and I LoVe to add them to anything I can get my hands on.. I mentioned in my Part 1 tutorial on where I get my tags, I even provided a link so you can get some too!!!

I used a stitch similar to the Blanket edge stitch to sew my flat tag on (The Cassette tape tag) and then just stitched the Nerd tag under the pocket when I attached them to the front of the pants.
Here is what the Blanket Edge stitch looks like on your machine, no worries if you do not have it.. just a simple straight stitch will do fine :)

I used stitch number 14 on my machine

Here is the tag sewn on and what the stitch looks like complete

Ready to put the pockets onto the pants?
Lay both front pants panels with the right sides facing up and position the pockets so you have a little bit of the edge over lapping the edge of the panels. This is so you can be sure to catch both layers of fabric when you are sewing the front panels to the back panels.

You want the pockets to go over the edge on both the side and the top of the panel.
Pin them in place and don't forget to add your little hang tag in if you want it..

Now to sew on your front pockets you ONLY sew the outer most curved edge, no need to sew the top or sides just yet as they will be sewn in place when the front and back panels are attached.
You can use a decorative stitch or a plain straight stitch. I used a straight quilting stitch to add a little pop to the pants.

Above, pockets are sewn in place catching my cute little tag on the way through
Below you see that only one edge of the pocket has been sewn leaving the rest open

Now that we have pockets we can move onto those semi-circles at the bottom of the legs.
This is simple.
Just lay them in pace with the denim piece under the cotton piece. You still want the thickness of the denim in the jeans but want to add the funk of the cotton piece.
Lay them right sides together and sew into place starting at the top of the curve and working your way down to the bottom of the leg. If there is any extra just carefully snip it away. I had about 1/4" left at the bottom of the leg and just snipped it off, no big deal.

Above, before being sewn in place

After being sewn in place, no worries if you don't have a serger as a zig
zag stitch will do the job just fine

Iron the semi-circles flat and top stitch them in place using the same stitch that you used on the pockets.

Iron them flat

Top stitch along edge

Finished semi-circle

Are you still with me?? ;)
We are almost done with the front and the back is fast and simple!

Next step is to sew the front panels together.
Lay them right sides together and sew ONLY the crotch curve, my scissors are pointing to where you want to sew.

Last piece to add to the front is the waistband.
Take your front waist piece and fold in half , turning it from the top, and iron flat

Iron flat (ignore my awful June Taylor board... I have had it forever...)

Lay raw edge of waist piece to top edge of pants and stitch into place

Turn up and iron flat.

Top stitch the seam and if you want to add a button like I did, do so now.

There you go!!!
Front panel finished!!
Marvel at your work for a little bit and then read on to assemble to back.
<3

We will start the back of the pants by adding the back pocket.
Take the piece that you cut for the back and either finish the edge with a serger or a zig zag stitch.

The picture shows two pocket pieces but I only ended up using one

Turn pocket over and turn down the top 1/4" and iron flat

Turn down the top another 1/4" and iron flat again, hiding the finished edge

Stitch into place using a simple straight stitch or a decorative stitch.

Turn in the remaining edges 1/4" all the way around and iron flat

If you turn the pocket over and compare to my unfinished one.. it should look similar to this. You can clearly see the size difference

Pin securely in place and stitch using the same stitch used to sew down the top

Finished back pocket!!!

Next add the semi-circles using the same method used to attach the front ones.

Attached to the back panels.
Iron them flat and top stitch.. same as the front

Lay back panels down, right sides facing each other and sew the crotch seam only. My scissors are pointing to where you should sew

Take your back waistband piece and fold in half, turning the top down just like you did for the front.
Iron flat

Again, you are going to repeat the step used to sew on the front waist piece.
Lay raw edges together and stitch in place

Lay and iron the waistband piece flat. Top stitch same as you did with the front piece.

Now you want to add a piece of elastic to the back piece.
When you folded it over and attached it to the back panel you created a casing to hold the elastic.
Cut a piece of elastic that is approx 3" shorter that the back of your child waist. Mine was 13" but I will end up loosing another 3" once it is sewn.

Put a safety pin in one end of the elastic and start to feed the elastic through the casing.

Once you get to the end of the elastic (which will not reach all the way through yet) sew a stay stitch to hold it in place.

Continue to feed the elastic through the casing until it comes out the other end. Pull to create a scrunch in the back of the pants. I ended up with about 3" of elastic sticking out the other end
Sew across the elastic to hold it securely in place

Snip off any excess elastic and you have completed the back of the pants!

Completed back panel

Completed front panel

Lay the two panels together, right sides facing and sew down each side and up each leg through the crotch. Serge or zig zag stitch to add more stability to the jeans.
Turn them right sides out and turn up the bottom of the leg about 1/4" and stitch that into place as well