Monday 19 September 2011

Pants, pants and hats

I have had a busy couple of months with the sewing machine.

One of my colleagues asked if I would make his two lads some trousers to wear while they were holidaying in Europe. Both boys are skinny but hate the feel of buttonhole elastic and the button against their skin.  So I had to make trousers to fit their little waists and they were keen for some cargo pockets.

Ottobre came to the rescue.  There were 2 pairs of cargo pants that seemed to fit the bill and both were in the 1/2011 magazine.

These are the "No Kung Fu outerwear pants" (No. 29) made out of a cotton drill fabric.






These trousers had 3 pairs of pockets.  I particularly liked the design of the concealed back pockets just under the yoke.  I ironed a piece of freezer paper onto the material and sewed around it to ensure that the topstitching for both pockets matched. 

I attached domes to the pockets and a jeans button at the waist to make them look like a pair of ready-to-wear pants.

  The pattern had knee patches and zips on the bottom legs but I didn't add either of these to my pants.  Overall, I was really pleased with how they turned out.



Fortunately, they seemed to be well liked by the recipient!


The next pair of pants were for the younger boy.  I decided to try out a different pattern for these pants so used No. 26 "Bouncing Forward outerwear pants".



These also had cargo pockets and lots of topstitching details.





Once again the freezer paper proved to be a handy sewing room item: I used it as my outline to make the pocket flaps identical!



There was meant to be elastic cord at the bottom edge of the yoke but I thought that the elastic might be a little annoying (like the adjustable buttonhole elastic) and they were considered "uncool" by the man of this house....

Similarly they were well-received and hopefully both pairs of pants are getting lots of use in Europe at the moment!


With the Rugby World Cup upon us I thought I would make a few Supporters' theatre hats.... but I created a monster and so far I have made 40 theatre hats and there are daily requests for more.  Argghh

My embroidery module has definitely helped make some great looking hats!


So far I have made hats for 9 countries: New Zealand, Australia, England, Scotland, South Africa, Ireland, Wales, Canada, and Romania.  Obviously the All Black hats have been the most popular.  I made them out of some commemorative tea-towels I found on sale at Spotlight. However, I am looking forward to doing some different sewing and I think I will have to close down the sweatshop before I lose my mind!!