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Pattern: McCalls M6610

Yikes!  This project fell of a cliff fast.  Okay I’m being a bit dramatic – it’s not a total disaster.  These just didn’t end up being the fabulous everyday pants I imagined.  I tested these pants out using an inexpensive purple corduroy I bought in preparation for this nice green corduroy that I want to use for the real deal .  After making a few jeans with this pattern, I think I’ve decided I don’t like it too much. This is unfortunate because it means I will probably have to start all over again – more test fabric, more fitting adjustments.  Well maybe the practice will do me good.

Where the whole thing falls apart is the waistband.  Up until then, everything seemed to be going smoothly.  The pattern has a straight waistband and I thought if I cut it to fit the pants, I would avoid having to “gather” and ease stitch the pants to the waist.  But the gaps I ended up with showed me I should have also tried to taper the top of the band, so that it fit better around my actual shape.  And I ended up having to ease some of the yoke to get the waistband to fit which caused some undesirable puckering.  Jeans don’t have this, so I’m still confused on how to “ease” this without getting this look.  The other issue I had was the pattern not explaining how one side was supposed to fit over the other when installing the zipper.  The front looked normal, but when I tried it on after it was finished, it bulged and seemed to lay weird.

It’s clear now that one side should overlap the other more, which I think is why the fly looks crooked when the pants are on.  I’m sure I installed the fly incorrectly.

There was also a piece in the fly construction that ended up just sorted hanging in the breeze.  From looking at my own jeans, I think it’s supposed to tuck into the waistband.  I’m not sure why this didn’t happen, maybe I didn’t attach it high enough.

Another strange thing with this pattern was the construction on the pocket for view B.  Following the instructions led to this look:

Now why do you suppose that happened?  The pocket lining is showing because the instructions told me to cut certain sections out with my lining fabric.  I may have made a mistake on this one because I can’t see how this could be right, but after checking this a few times, I cannot figure out what the alternative could be.  View A constructs the pocket in the normal jeans way, so I just re-cut the pieces out and constructed it in this way.

If anything, I did get some great practice with top-stitching.  I bought top-stitching heavy duty thread which definitely stood out, but pretty tough to work with.  I made sure to buy the correct needle for it which worked well enough, but I still had issues with it bunching up and not stitching evenly.  Next time, I would do better to get a thread that is not so thick.  I also think I overdid it on the top-stitching for these pants – corduroys don’t usually have this much.  But I was trying to imitate that blue jean look.  Some of it came out kind of nice, so I’m not too upset by it.

Plus I got to use my new foot, which I bought for this exact purpose.  The edge joining foot has a “blade” in the center, which allows you to follow a seam, ditch or line of stitching and stitch straighter lines.  It definitely helps and I know I will be using this foot a lot more often.

Another win I had was the button.  I ended up buying jeans buttons with the post that you hammer into the fabric.  I’m glad I did because it looks pretty authentic and only took a little hammering.  Time will tell if this if it’s sturdy enough to last but it feels pretty secure.

Well it was nice try.  As discouraged as I am for all this work and still not really up with a pair of pants I can wear to the office, I don’t want to give up on this.  That green corduroy is still calling my name, begging me to transform it.  On one particularly optimistic day this month, I actually washed the fabric in preparation!  This is going to happen – although next time I think I will try to do this properly, with a proper muslin and a different pattern.