Threads"Elastic as a contour waist finish"

As I described in my previous post, this is my trial of the 'No-Nonsense Flexible Waist Finishes" from Connie Long's article in the September 2008 issue of threads magazine.
I continued with method 2, after applying the lining in my prefered method, described in my previous post, as I did not understand step 1 in Ms Long's article. Step 2, which is basting, then overlocking the waist of the lining and the garment together to leave a 3/8 seam allowance was not a problem. Step 3 and 4, where the elastic is pinned then sewn to the seam allowance using zig zag was only tricky in that the amount of elastic stretch to allow is trial and error. Ms Long suggests obtaining the correct amount of ease by practicing on fabric scraps, but this seems a little impractical to me, ease over a full waistband will be different to ease in short scraps, so I chose to guess, and then to wear the garment for a day at work to see if the ease was suitable. I did find that this application required great precision of stitching. The zig zag needed to just catch the outer edge of the elastic, or the turn over became very messy.(This means that I ripped out my first attempt and did it again more carefully)
Below is the inner view of the Vogue 2925 pants showing the differing waist finishes. The view on the top is of my worn out pair, finished with a strip of woven selvage as an alternative to the petersham ribbon called for in the pattern instructions. I have not experienced any waist expansion difficulties with this pair, but as I do not tend to wear my tops tucked in for work, I probably would not notice minor expansion. The lower pair has 1 inch non roll braided elastic applied according to the method 2 instructions in the article. I have trimmed this elastic down from 1 and 1/2 inches to meet the instructions.

 

I wore the pants to work, where I bent, crouched, stretched, knelt, twisted and climbed in my normal activities (work is hard on clothes). The waistband was fairly comfortable, but not noticeably more so than the previous pair.I did not like the uncovered elastic against my skin. This method of waist finishing requires a tucked in camisole in my opinion, and it is too hot where I live to wear several layers of clothing.
I do not think this waistband finish could be worn as I have made it with a tucked in blouse. I may have too much stretch in the elastic, but to me these pants look gathered at the waist, even though there are no obvious gathers in the elastic application. To me they appear more bulky at the waist than my previous pair. My daughters told me they look like clown pants. Fortunately this is not apparent with a blouse over the top. They allowed me to leave the house wearing the pants.

 

 

The other thing I dislike about this waist finish is shown in the photo below.

 

This is not immediately apparent in the previous photographs, but the elastic does not lie flat against the body, it is turned out by the pants fabric, and I can see it when I look down. Yuck! I will be removing this elastic, and applying a woven selvage waistband finish. Next I will make another pair of these pants using method 1 "elastic as a stabilizer".