Pants, Shirts, Sweaters, Wow!

A very busy day here at MPB Industries, readers!

You may recall that I'm trying to complete an outfit: black and white gingham shirt, mustard jeans, and a gray knit sweater vest.  I am glad to say I'm almost done. 

I can't remember if the last time I posted I had finished the shirt.  Anyway, I have and I'm happy with it.  I did not applique the flower to the shirt front, by the way.



The pants need hemming but they're basically done too.

One change I routinely make to the Kwik Sew jeans pattern I use is to widen and deepen the front pockets.  I won't put much in them other than my hands, but I do like them to fit my hands.









Since these pants are essentially jeans, they have two back patch pockets topstitched on.  I think you'll like these pants when you see them on me -- I never thought I was a mustard person; go figure!



The waistband is interfaced with the same sturdy cotton shirting I used for the pockets. 



The top left corner of the band (where a buttonhole will go) is nice and sharp.  Normally I achieve this with the help of a point turner; this time I used the edge of a hard plastic ruler.



Next up was the sweater.  You'll recall I'm using this light gray rib wool knit.





The armhole bands and neck band went on without too much hassle, but the waistband is wavier than I'd like.



I could cut the band off and attach a new one but I'm not sure if this is something I could address by adjusting the differential feed on my serger or not.  Basically I'm attaching a smaller band of the same knit to the wider torso of the sweater, so there's going to be some gathering of the wider section.  I suppose one remedy would be to attach a looser band that wouldn't be as stretched when I sew it on, but I like a waistband to fit snugly.  Any ideas?

(Or maybe I can just steam the seam lightly and that will be enough.)

Anyway, that's it for today.

A special congratulations to reader Marc for correctly answering the song challenge from my last post. "Too Much Mustard" was featured in The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle starring Fred Astaire and....who?  (Marc wasn't sure.)

Have a great day, everybody!