Peter's Pants REVEAL or "Hello Toile-y!"

Readers, the extraordinary thing about sewing is that in just one day, this can become...

THIS!





To say I love these pants would be an understatement.  I intend to be buried in them.  OK, cremated.

For this project, I used Kwik Sew 2123, which dates from 1991.  I lowered the rise a bit.



You may not realize it, but it takes no more work to make long pants than it does to make shorts.  In fact, depending on the style, it can be harder to make shorts.  These pants came together quickly primarily because I had only just made my corduroy shorts a few days earlier, so all that fly facing and zipper stuff was fresh in my mind.  Of course, the pockets and waistband are very different here.





My new favorite technique is to line all my pockets with cotton shirting.  For the back pockets especially, this means no more folding over edges and gluing them down (my old method) which can get messy.  With a lined pocket, created by sewing right sides together and turning, you get a pocket that's ready to be stitched on, albeit with the top edge turned down 1/2" or so and topstitched.



For the first time, I stitched and serged the edges of my front pockets on the inside, and then folded them right side out.  This makes for a very clean edge inside the pants.





Flat-felled seams were easy on this fabric, though I did a lot of pressing open seams before stitching.  Cotton canvas frays easily so my side seam edges were all serged.





I interfaced my waistband with hair canvas.  I ran out of big pieces of fabric so the inner and outer waistband are two separate pieces stitched together (which is preferable really, as it creates a stiffer upper edge on the finished pants).



Like on my shorts, I added a vintage brass shank button as a closure, which I prefer to a jeans button (much easier to move, if need be).



Do you like this preppy grosgrain ribbon belt, a Salvation Army find?  Michael thinks it looks clownish but I think it works.  Where's my mojito?



As always, thanks for all your great recommendations about toile de Jouy.  There's an ugly rumor circulating that when I ask for your advice, I've already made up my mind.  I won't even dignify that with a response, which is not exactly the same thing as a denial but I've always wanted to use the word dignify in a post.

You can see more pics from my toile de Jouy pants project here.

Have a great weekend, everybody!