New Pair of Pants

Well, I've made a new pair of pants but this pair is not for me. Mama R asked if I could take her to the mall and when we got there she asked to go to Sears because she wants to look for a pair of pants. 

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Yeah, I know! Isn't that the craziest thing you ever heard? The woman tricked me into taking her to Sears.  

"But, I can sew you a pair of pants," I said through the hurt feelings that were building up inside of me.  

"You're too busy," she replied.  

"No, I'm not," I protested, thinking that I could probably sew a pair of pants in less time that it would take her to find a pair of pants that fit. 

And then she sent me away while she looked, hoping that I would stop nagging her. 

"I didn't find anything good," she said later at our agreed meeting spot, cheering me up a little.  

"Let me try to make you a pair," I quickly offered.  

"You have lots to do for work," she said.

True, I still have to sew those samples for work but my wrist is killing me today and my heart is not into hand-stitching. My heart ached to sit at the sewing machine and sew a pair of pants for my Mom.   

"I'm just going to try," I interrupted, "if you don't like them you don't have to wear them."

I pulled out Simplicity 2372, Mama R's go-to dress pattern because it also has a pants pattern that has all the sizes intact. She let me take some measurements and I got to work.

The fabric that I used was a left-over piece that was just enough for a pair of pants. I can't remember where, when or why I bought it but there it was and I thought it would work for a trial run. I suspect that it is a polyester by the way it frayed.

I cut a size 10 crotch length and inseam and a size 18 on the outer leg seam. The waistline was too short and the length was too long. And since I didn't have any more fabric, I cut off four inches from an already shortened legs and pieced it together to make a waistband.

Hand-stitching made its way into this project just to prep for some stitch-in-the-ditch action.

And guess what? Mama R now has a new pair of pants. Now that the needed alterations are all figured out, I'll make a pair in grey British wool this week.


The Stats:

Fabric:     2 metres

Elastic:    1 metre 1" elastic

Pattern:    Simplicity 2372

Additional Tools & Supplies:  Sewing machine, serger, walking foot, regular foot, threads for the sewing machine, serger and hand-stitching, hand needle, scissors, cutting table, pins, iron, ironing board, and one patient Mom.

Happy Sewing!