I've actually been working on the pants for Masamune since last Sunday but I'm going to post about it now that I'm finished instead of posting multiple short updates.
Okay, so on last Sunday (17th March) I decided on what pants pattern to use.. I had been very unsure about this for quite some time. I found an okay pattern at one of these sewing magazines mom occasionally buys. I just followed the instructions in the magazine and traced out the parts I needed from the pattern sheet.
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| So.. much.. patterns... |
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| But I managed to find, trace and cut out what I needed |
That Sunday I didn't do anything else. On last Tuesday (19th March) I wondered if I should do a prototype version.. you know, like a mock-up of cheap fabric to check that everything works before using the real fabric. But I didn't really feel like making a prototype so I just measured the patterns and compared them to myself and it seemed okay.
Yesterday I started the progress for real. First up was of course to put out the patterns and cut the fabric. I must say I had pretty much just enough fabric left for the pants.. the rest was used for the coat. Oh, and I saved all slightly bigger scrap pieces in case I can use them for Masamune's "wings" between his sword sheaths.. but more about that later.
Here's a few photos:
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| Patterns pinned in place.. |
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| ... and cut out. |
But while cutting I managed to prickle my hand on a pin and I didn't notice the blood until after I was done cutting.. at least I got nothing on the fabric, that would have been a bother..
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| Most common damage in this hobby I guess..? xD |
With the front and back pieces cut out I went to start the sewing. This time I would use the overlock machine, it makes life a lot easier.. and quicker.
First thing to do was to take both front pieces, put them right sides against each other and sew them together at the.. err, crotch. xD I did the same to the back pieces of course.
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| While sewing.. |
Next step was to sew the outer seams closed. Nothing special.. I put the front and back pieces against each other, right sides together and sewed on the wrong side of the fabric.
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| Outer seam sewed... turns out one side has a slightly longer leg by the way |
With the outer seams closed I could now go and try the pants on and see if I could even get them on because.. well, almost always when I sew something I worry I have underestimated my walrusness when measuring.
I must also mention that yesterday I wore
kimono all day and well.. I didn't feel like changing just to check for a few seconds if the pants would fit...
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Tsädää!
If they fit over a kimono at least they aren't too small! :DDD |
Knowing the pants weren't too small I went ahead and closed the... err, inner seams and crotch area or whatever to call it.
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| After I had passed the crotch seam.. |
When I had finished sewing that part I checked that everything was alright and that the stitching had caught on both sides of the pants... which it hadn't.
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| Before |
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| After |
Next thing I did was that I evened out and hemmed the pant legs. The overlocking machine makes things easy because it cuts the fabric too so I didn't have to cut the excess length off myself.
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| Fixing a pant leg... |
After that I had to add a strip of fabric to the top of the pants to keep them from falling off I moved around for a while. I had saved a bit of the fabric for this purpose back when I cut out the pants.
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This was the piece that was left
(yes, I like me some Pepsi) |
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| After I had trimmed it to a 13 cm width |
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| After i had cut it shorter |
With that done I went to sew the ends together so that I got a tube, like this:
Then I just folded it in half and put it on top of the pants upper edge, right sides together. I figured I wouldn't need to add an elastic into the "tube" because the fabric stretches a bit; instead I just cut it a bit shorter than the measure of the pant's circumference and stretched it to match with the pants while I sewed it on.
Oh well, when I was half-way with sewing the tube to the pants the overlocking machine decided to quit. Mom tried to check what was wrong with it but it just didn't want to cooperate anymore for Saturday, despite some tries to get it to sew normally.
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| Half finished waist-tube-thingy.. you can see to the left where it stopped sewing properly |
I didn't work anymore for Saturday and so today (Sunday) I did the last fixes. I started by trying to get the overlock machine to work but it just kept doing bad stitches or no stitches at all. Mom came to help and re-thread the thing a few times until it finally worked again. I must say when I tried to re-thread it (first time ever) I noticed how this thing certainly wasn't made for left-handed people. Dx Oh well.. we got it to work so I finished sewing the rest of the tube on.
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| Finished waist tube thing.. |
With only the pant legs to fold I went to try them on. I must say they are surprisingly okay to wear.. except that when I move they make this rubberish sound.. mom actually dubbed them "rubber pants". xD Oh well, here's a photo:
I just had one thing to do now.. fold and sew the pant legs. They were a bit too long so I folded them over twice to get them to a good length. Of course I used a normal sewing machine for this.. can't do a straight stitch with an overlock...
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| Folded and ready for sewing.. |
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| Finished! |
And with that my pants for Masamune are done. Next time I'll either do some small stuff like the gloves/tabi or start with the armor making. We'll see.
See ya!
