More BWOF 05-2009-137

I am finishing off a few things before I start working on a June capsule for myself.
Here is my weeknight sewing this week.

 

The next two pairs of BWOF May 2009 pants 137 for my son have been very quick to sew, as there are only the normal number of pockets (still missing the coin pocket) and much less topstitching. I cut these out a fortnight ago, and having previously sewn the camo pants, the navy pairs went together without a hitch. I am becoming quite speedy at fly fronts and am busy patting myself on the back about it. Watch this space for a major sewing disaster......

 

The fabric is a left over navy cotton twill (gabardine) from last year's Michael's fabric bundle. I used the majority of this fabric for my super wide Marlene pants last September, and knew the largish scraps would make nice pants for my son. The fabric is beautifully soft. It was lovely to sew after the coarse canvas camo! I had to piece the remnants in order to squeeze in the full leg length of the trousers, but thought this made quite a pleasant topstitching feature on the lower leg of the trousers

 

I used different topstitching on each back pocket for fun. I am not thrilled with the back elastic treatment. This time I topstitched the upper border of the waistband after the elastic was applied, but think it could do with a few more rows of stitching. I will probably not do anything more to this pair, as my son mostly wears shirts and t shirts untucked, but am pondering a few ideas for a neater finish next time.

 

The lucky last scraps of the Michael's gabardine made a pair of shorts from the same pattern. I made these just below the knee in length, with no contrast topstitching, so that we can pretend they are school uniform shorts if necessary. He is modelling them with his uniform shirt this morning (this shirt is supposed to be worn tucked-in, with the official school shorts having a fully elastic band (ewww!)). As shorts, you can really see that these pants are too wide for my son, but he is not getting any smaller!

BWOF 05-2009-137 Children's trousers

I had grand plans to participate in RuthieK's Wardrobe in a Week challenge at Stitchers Guild. During the preparation phase, I cut out 2 pairs of trousers and one pair of shorts from BWOF 05-2009-137, planning to clothe my son for cooler weather.
Today, only 5 days after the finish line, I finished sewing the first of these trousers. The BWOF version has back patch pockets, front jean style pockets with a coin pocket, an elastic back waistband and a front fly zip. I would show you a technical drawing, but the May BWOF archive is not up yet.
I added extra pockets over the side seams, added a few carpenter loops, left off the coin pocket,embellished with a chain embroidery stitch from my Janome and made size 104 for width, 110 for height for my 114cm tall son. The pants were still a little too wide, but 104 is the smallest size, and I was feeling rather lazy about scaling down.

The fabric was a gift from a friend of my mother whom is no longer sewing. This lady sent me about 4 metres of cotton canvas camo print, 4 metres of cotton knit camo print and some khaki ribbing. I had no immediate plans to use this, camo not being my print of choice, but my son caught one glimpse of the fabric and begged me for "army pants" with "lots of pockets". I had no idea he wanted army pants, but apparently these are the height of fashion for 6 year old boys.
Naturally, given that I was making a sought after garment, I expected some great photos.
Here is a view of the back pockets with chain machine embroidery. You can sort of see the added bellows pockets and ruler pocket on the sides.



However, when the child in question was actually asked to face the camera, there were a lot of views like this.
I do not think he should consider a career as a model.

BWOF 2009-05-111 Pants

It is serendipitous of the BWOF to arrive on a Friday. I could jump right in and start sewing! I was very attracted by a few of the dresses, but the real need for clothes in this house is for winter clothes to cover my poor cold children. (I am quoting). There has been a little restlessness from these people due to my selfish SWAP sewing just for me. Personally, I think some daughters should learn to sew, but one has no interest, and the other is currently obsessed with knitting.
Being a very good mother just before Mother's day (is this like good behaviour for Santa on Christmas Eve?). I made my older daughter some pants from the May Burda, 111. These pants are practically invisible in the magazine, being covered up by a thigh length blouse, but they have some nice details.
Link to technical drawing

I used khaki cotton twill from Michael's Fabrics

 

 

I had not made single welt pockets previously, but found them quite straightforward after using Ann Rowley's double welt pocket Flickr tutorial. I increased the width of the welt to 2cm, as the pattern piece measurements were quite large (maybe a typo?)and I thought a bigger welt would look just fine.

 

 

My daughter is quite pleased with her pants. It is not really cold here yet, but all the children are travelling to Sydney in June/July for a visit to their grandparents, so I am starting early with their travel wardrobes.