Monday 18 August 2008

Lining pants with an invisible zip

I am still keeping away from fitting, so have temporarily abandoned my plans to make a pair of work pants from the July BWOF, and returned to my only TNT pants pattern, Vogue 2925, from which I made 3 pairs of pants for the Timmel SWAP. I have destroyed one pair of these, and the remaining 2 are looking rather worn after 4-6 months of hard wear and wash, so I will not be looking too repetitive, despite using the same fabric!
To give myself some interest in making these, I decided to use the elastic waistband application described in the September 2008 Threads magazine. For the first pair, I thought I would try method 2, where the elastic acts as a contour waistband. Unfortunately I did not understand step 1, which first instructs you to attach the lining to the invisible zipper by placing right sides together.
I could not figure out how this would work, and the photograph did not make it any more clear, so I have already diverted from the instructions. My method for applying lining to pants which fasten with an invisible zipper has been worked out by trial and error, undoubtedly re-inventing the wheel, but for what it is worth, here it is.
First I construct the pants with the zipper, then construct the lining up to making the legs, without joining at the crotch seam. Then I put the right side of the lining against the inside of the zipper tape. To me, this is the wrong side of the pants. I then sew down the zipper tape, and turn the lining so that the wrong side of the lining is next to the wrong side of the pants. I do the same thing to the other lining leg and zipper tape.
 

Next I join the crotch seam of the lining. I sew this as close as possible to where the lining joins the zipper tape, and finish the stitching with a bar tack.
 

When the lining is turned in, this gives a neat finish to the inside of the zip, or it would do if I had pressed it before taking a photo - sorry, but I was running out of light.
 

I will post about the success or otherwise of the contour elastic waist after I wear it.
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1 comment:

katherine h said...

Let me know how this turns out...I was a bit iffy about this article