Ridiculous pants (and matching jacket!)

 Without further ado, here are the pants I made to go with my garden camo jacket.

They may never be seen in combination again, so enjoy!

Fly front - with snap!

This is yet another iteration of the Shop Pants from Open Studio Patterns. I mean, once you adjust a pattern to fit, why not make it to death?

There are lots of details, but they are totally invisible.

Topstitching!

Pockets!

Fly front!

As the linen fabric is a bit scratchy and underlining helps with wrinkling, I underlined the main body pieces with the cotton lining fabric from the original curtains. I also used the cotton for the pocket bags and to face the  waistband.

They look good with this extremely monochromatic top. Which was the entire plan. 

I continue to tweak the pattern. After assembling, I scooped the crotch a bit for more sitting room (maybe 1cm). I also added fusible stay tape on the upper edge of the waistband to shorten the upper edge (eased waistband as I was fusing) because it needed to be a bit more curved than it was. 

I didn't adjust the upper edge of the front and back pieces but I think I could handle a tiny bit more height in the centre back. Like maybe .5cm.

I didn't do any further adjustments to the paper pattern. (Hope I remember to check this before making again...)

At the waist, I installed a snap closure (because I could not make a buttonhole with the available machinery in the thickness of this waistband). 

I used a green plastic snap leftover from when my son (now mid-30s) was a toddler. They go in with the red tool as pictured in the following photos. (This is 100% written about so I will be able to refer back the next time I get a hankering to put one of these snaps onto a garment. My blog is my external memory.)

The first step is to punch a tiny hole in the overlap and underlap in the correct places. I marked a point on the outside of the waistband (overlap) with a marking pencil, then punched a hole in that layer. Holding the waistband closed as it would be when worn (zip up), I punched the underlap layer through the hole in the overlap layer. I have a Dritz snap plier tool, which didn't work directly with these snaps (different brand). However, it works fine for hole punching!

At left are the tools and instructions that came with the snaps. 

To apply these snaps you need to hammer the bits together on a firm surface. You don't want rebound and you want to use a decently heavy hammer. No messing about!

To apply the the visible part, place the plastic button face down in the little cup. Put the RIGHT SIDE of the overlap side of the garment against it so that the centre of the button, which pokes up a tiny bit, is visible through the little hole previously punched in the correct place.

Then place the socket (female part of snap) over it, so it is centred.

Place the pointy bit of the red tool into the socket. It will snap down into the hole.

Give the assembly a good few whacks with the hammer. 

For the underlap side, reverse the round disc so the flat part faces up and put the tall part down on it.

Put the WRONG SIDE of the underlap down so the tall part (post) pokes through the previously punched hole. 

Put the male bit of the snap (the stud - truly the technical term!) overtop the post and press down. It will sort of snap onto the post. 

Take the cup end of the red tool and place over the stud. 

Give it a good few whacks. 

Done!

 

Its curtains! (again)

Different ones though. This fabric came from an IKEA curtain panel (Syssan), 55% linen, 45% cotton. A thrift store purchase, naturally. When my husband texted me a photo with a question mark, I responded "buy!".

So the scale of the print is a bit larger and more random than I had gleaned from the photo, but what the heck? I wanted a jean jacket, and that is what I made.

This is the Atenas pattern from Itch to Stitch. It's a classic style, but I think the shape of it is better than the standard boxy jacket. It has a nice amount of waist shaping and comes with cup sizes! So it's quite feminine, considering the style's tough guy roots. 

When I laid the fabric out, I gave no thought at all to trying to match the print. I just placed the many smallish pieces where they seemed to go, and cut them out. So it's interesting that the large leaf shape ended up straddling a seam on my upper chest. Luckily, it's not too "bulls-eye!"

The pattern has all the jean jacket bells and whistles, including chest and welt pockets (both or either of which can be omitted), buttoned chest flaps, two piece sleeves, waistband with (optional) button tabs, potential for flat-felled seams, and miles of topstitching. I made working pockets but omitted the button tabs. The seams in my jacket are faux flat-felled, stitched down with 2 parallel lines of topstitching, which I think is more attractive than a single line.  

It calls for no-sew jeans buttons (10 without the waistband tabs, 14! if you include the tabs). I only installed 9, having omitted the top buttonhole, as there is no way I'd ever do this up all the way to the collar.

This pattern has nice drafting details, like a separate piece for the bias under collar so the upper collar is a smidge bigger and folds over perfectly. The upper front is nicely shaped (cup sizes!). Everything went together really well, and I even followed the instructions. 

The fit is good with a simple shortening of the sleeves (standard adjustment for me) and grading from size 2 (above waist) to 4 at the hip. 

Things I will try to remember if I make this again (a distinct possibility):

I could stand another cm or so in the hip - the waistband is slightly eased so I could just lengthen the pattern piece without any other adjustments. The pattern says to pick the smaller size if you are between sizes, which I did. It could be a bit too snug depending on what I wear under it. Maybe not much, this version (summer camo). But if I did a denim one, I might want to wear it with sweaters. 

The centre front is a folded edge, which feels a little bit insubstantial given all the other hefty seams. It's interfaced of course, but could use more support (maybe some fusible tape?). A seam at CF would add a lot of bulk unless I made a facing piece for the entire front (the yoke seam carries through to the foldover facing as drafted). 

I should really have made faux chest pockets  (there is no way I'll ever use these). However, enjoy this photo of my hand in the lower welt pocket.